From ‘Zindagi Tamasha’ to ‘Aurat Raj’: Pakistani films that were banned in its country of origin

News of the award-winning film Joyland's release in Pakistan was almost too good to be true since the country has a record of banning films that fall outside the realm of its allowed genres for cinema – overdone romantic comedies and predictable action-thrillers. Historically speaking, the local cinema has largely been affected by censorship and political and social repression.

The minute any film decides to set its foot outside the set boundaries and explore more realistic themes that would make the audiences think, it either gets banned or is termed controversial for depicting a "false reality".

Yet, there are conversations on social media every now and then about how the content being produced is not up to par. But is all content produced even being released? The bans raise important questions about who is making these calls and whether they're even taking into account the masses’ views about which films they want to watch.

The bans also make one wonder if a certificate by the censor board even holds any substance, since Joyland was cleared to release in Pakistan on November 18 but a week before its release, the Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) revoked the censor certificate granted to the filmmaker months ago over written complaints received against it's "objectionable" content. 

Courtesy of a Twitter user Javeria Naseem, here are some Pakistani films that have suffered a similar fate in Pakistan to really understand the gravity of the situation.

Jago Hua Savera (1959)

Jibon Theke Neya (1970)

Insan Aur Gadha (1973)

Aurat Raj (1979)

Maula Jatt (1979)

The Blood of Hussain (1980)

Zar Gul (1997)

Khamosh Pani (2003)

Slackistan (2010)

Maalik (2016)

Among the Believers (2016)

Besieged in Quetta (2016)

Verna (2017)

Durj (2019)

Zindagi Tamasha (2019)

Javed Iqbal: The Untold Story Of A Serial Killer (2022)

I’ll Meet You There (2022)

Joyland (2022)