Sarmad Khoosat talks to Instep about his first feature film being produced under Khoosat Films.
Sarmad Khoosat has been speaking about working on two new projects and several pictures that he posted on social media yesterday – the first one titled ‘Bismillah’ – indicated that he has started working on his first. The highly acclaimed actor/director has several TV plays and the critically appreciated film Manto to his credit; his work extends to theatre with the brilliant Jhanjar Di Pawan Jhankar and most recently, No Time To Sleep, a brilliant live performance. It would be impossible to pinpoint any one project as Sarmad’s ‘breakthrough’ because each and every one has been groundbreaking in its own right. This upcoming feature film, the first being produced under the newly established Khoosat Films, therefore comes with a lot of expectations.
“It’s just a very heartfelt story,” Sarmad said, humble as always, as if anything he does isn’t from the heart. “It’s a story very close to my heart; about our little universe called Pakistan.”
This artsy film – and I’m calling it artsy because I don’t expect anything coming from Sarmad Khoosat being anything short of artistic – is being shot in Lahore, in which the director is trying to portray Lahore “as a character”. While most films stereotype Lahore in terms of humour and colour, Sarmad’s film will portray the city through winter, when misty mornings and foggy evenings cast the city in a completely new light.
The film is being shot in Punjabi, simply because he feels Punjabi is the most authentic medium of representation in Lahore.
“Lahore is my city and I’m trying not to be a tourist in my own city,” he spoke to Instep over the phone, on way to shooting. “It’s in Punjabi but I think it will be able to transcend Punjab. People think of Punjab as humourous and colourful but I’m a native of Lahore and I see it as something accessible and real. I understand it. I wouldn’t do a Pushto film for the same reason,” he added.
Sarmad has engaged a relatively new cast for the film; there’s Samiya Mumtaz and Eman Suleiman, who we’ve seen before. Samiya of course is a veteran actor, having experience and association with several poignant serials. Eman is primarily a fashion model who appeared in an episode of Akhri Station, also directed by Sarmad Khoosat. Also on the main cast are newcomers Arif Hasan and Ali Kureishi in the lead. Sarmad has written the story, which he’ll also be directing, while Nirmal Bano, an NCA graduate, is doing the screenplay. Sarmad has brought on board Khizer Idrees, who worked with him on Manto as D.O.P. and Sakin – a relatively new band from Islamabad, known for their single, ‘Saqi-e-Bewafa’ - on board for the Original Sound Track.
“These boys are two tracks old but they were brilliant in the rendition of ‘Saqi-e-Bawafa’, a qalam of Shams al-Din Mohammad (Shams Tabrizi),” Sarmad said. You can check out their single on YouTube and True Brew TV.
Sarmad’s film will be the second Punjabi film to release in 2019. The first is Bilal Lashari’s Maula Jatt, scheduled to release on Eid ul Fitr. It’s interesting to see Pakistani cinema diversify beyond the rom-com genre, which has proven to be a phenomenal success as far as box office numbers are concerned but doesn’t do much in terms of delivering brilliant, revolutionary cinema. If Pakistani cinema is reviving, as we keep saying it is, then it has to grow with fame and fortune, soul and spirit intact. And when it comes to Sarmad Khoosat, everything he does has a knack of turning to gold. It’s called the Midas Touch.
