This was measured less by box office returns and more by the fact that a substantial crowd showed up despite the very real horror shows played out at Picture House and Shama cinemas in Firdous Bazaar on February 2 and 11 respectively.

According to some cinema goers, ZKS was all sold out for its first show. ZKS is the second movie of 2014 and stars Lollywood icon Meera. It was initially due for release on February 7, smack in the middle of the two targeted attacks on cinemas in which over 20 people lost their lives.

ZKS is being screened at Arshad Cinema, a sister cinema of Sabrina theatre. The twin cinemas, situated in Khyber Bazaar, were once again adorned with massive hoardings. Posters plastered the walls and busy squares of the city, beckoning invitingly to movie goers to partake in the almost ritualistic pleasure of watching a movie on the big screen.

The movie is also on at cinemas in Quetta and Karachi; the producers are satisfied ZKS will do well in all three cities.

However, in Peshawar, cinema doors did not open before certain arrangements were put in place, namely security. This was a condition put in place by the provincial government after the February attacks.

A family business

“Making a movie is never easy, such a situation just makes it harder,” shared Shahid Khan who co-stars with Meera in ZKS and co-owns Arshad and Sabrina cinemas with his brother Arshad Khan. ZKS has been both produced and directed by Arshad.

“The security situation has completely destroyed our productions and people are not willing to produce movies.”

Shahid has worked in more than 150 Pashto, Urdu and Punjabi movies and is popularly known as the ‘Jangju hero’ due to the extreme violence featured in his flicks. Roughly translated, Jangju means ‘warrior’ in English.

According to Shahid, ZKS is the only movie to have been released in the last two months. “Most of the cinemas are either still closed or run live shows. If nothing else, they run old movies to keep the house going.”

The soundtrack for ZKS includes songs by Nazia Iqbal and Rahim Shah. Shahid maintains special emphasis was also placed on post-production.

User reviews

ZKS is the second Pashto movie starring Meera. Her earlier work was for Orbal, another movie by Arshad. The rest of the cast includes Jahangir Khan, Sidra Noor, Khushboo, Dilbar Munir.

“The film is not very different, just the usual Pashto movie but its late release created more hype and anticipation than it would have merited otherwise,” argued Junaid Khan after watching the flick. “People enjoy watching Jahangir Khan and Shahid Khan and look forward to their movies.”

The quality of the movie was not the only thing to detract from the experience; Junaid admitted most viewers were worried about whether going to the cinema is safe now. “Installing CCTVs will not prevent another attack.”

Ahmad Ali who also watched ZKS was a more generous reviewer. “They should be appreciated for producing this movie. Such work must continue if we want to grow our entertainment industry.”
There was no denying it – fear and relief were palpable after the crowd exited the cinema but ultimately the love for Pashto movies was enough to draw the entertainment starved audience.

Most cinema owners in the city have installed CCTV cameras and hired personal guards. They are hopeful such measures will increase the cinema goers’ confidence.

The fact that ZKS made it to the box office might make it easier for other producers to release their work. According to the industry grapevine, Nadir Khan’s Ilzam is set to be released soon as is Ashiq, a romantic flick from film producer Naveed Khan. Azadi, a telefilm by Qaiser Sanas, will be coming soon at cinemas in the city.

Express Tribune

Terrorists struck again on Sunday, lobbing two grenades into a Peshawar cinema house as people watched a Pushto movie. Four persons were killed and at least 31 others injured for enjoying a normal, legitimate entertainment. Published pictures of the incident presented a scene of utter devastation with blood splattered all over the floor and shoes left behind by panic-stricken survivors as they rushed out to save their lives. The usual suspect, the TTP, said it had nothing to do with the carnage. It may not have ordered this particular attack, but one of its affiliate groups certainly is responsible for it. The KPK government offered an unpalatable explanation as the provincial Information Minister Shah Farman said, “whenever there are prospects of peace talks either drone attacks take place or such acts of terrorism are engineered by elements averse to negotiations.” In other words, a ‘foreign hand’ was involved.

The Taliban in the past have been attacking and burning CD shops. A few years ago, they had bombed a cinema in the city, leaving nine people dead. Considering the behaviour pattern there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind as to who is responsible for the latest bloodletting. Notably, the police are reported to have claimed that they had already warned cinema owners of possible attacks, telling them to improve security arrangements. And that they made the same information available to the government. In pointing the finger at foreign hand the provincial authorities seem to be trying to cover up their own laxity in dealing with the threat. It is not right to shift the entire blame for lack of proper security to cinema owners and responsibility to “elements averse to negotiations.” Cinema managements are at fault for not putting in place proper security measures. It seems that there was no metal detector door or physical checking of people’s personal belongings at the entrance. These are standard measures in most other big cities. The government also needed to ensure compliance. Such checks could have prevented the terrorist (according to the police, the grenades were hurled by a single person from the theatre’s rear rows) from bringing in the grenades and cause so much harm.

As for the other issue, when the police say they had advance information about the threat, it is reasonable to expect they had information about the perpetrators’ identity too. The present investigations may take a while to be completed. Once the job is done, the identity of those behind this act of terrorism must be made public. The people need to know who the perpetrators are, and how they want to reorder this society according to their narrow bigoted worldview. That is all the more important considering that despite so much bloodshed at the hands of violent religious extremists, there still are Taliban apologists in the mainstream of our national life who argue that Muslims cannot shed Muslim blood.

Business Recorder