KARACHI, Oct 2: A Pakistani film that did not find a commercial release in the country after being censored by the Central Board of Film Censors was screened at the South Asian Academy of Performing Arts and Television (SAAMPT) for its students and guests on Saturday evening.

Filmed in 2005, Botal Gali — written and directed by Shahzad Nawaz — did make rounds of various film festivals around the world after being censored for Pakistani cinemas for what is described as its independent content.

The story is set against the backdrop of a conflict between bootleggers and bonded warehouses resulting in a dearth of alcohol in Karachi.

Botal Gali has 32 fully developed characters, which range from a person playing the role of Zameer (conscience) who opens the film by providing information on the state of alcohol availability and consumption versus the population breakdown in terms of religion in Pakistan in 2005 to the character of Babu, previously an alcoholic, who has spent the last seven to eight years obsessively collecting bottles and displaying them at his home.

Babu engages in intimate conversation with the bottles, explaining the nature of man and his tendency to blame his actions and downfall on a bottle of alcohol.

Out of the 32 characters the ones that play a dominant role include that of Shahid (acted by Shahzad Nawaz himself), a bootlegger who doesn’t consume alcohol himself, who discovers that a certain brand of vodka, Dante’s (based on Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy and it’s depiction of the nine circles of hell) is in high demand.

Shahid is shown as a shrewd, calculating individual who weights the monetary pros and cons of every deal and every relationship he has ever kept. He is seen delivering units of the drink via his colleague, Zahid, who considers Shahid to be his friend. Unbeknown to Zahid, Shahid has been seeing Zahid’s girlfriend (a model, actress and professional dancer by the name of Roop) behind his back.

Another character that makes frequent appearances and provides an outsider’s perspective to the happenings in the film is that of an American photojournalist, Amy. She is staying at Zeb’s (played by the late Sheikh Amer Hasan) apartment during her sojourn in Karachi where she is determined to find a meaningful story in the coastal city. She is eventually introduced to the character of Babu and is immediately drawn to him.

The film has several subplots showing how various consumers of alcohol in society are interlinked and the various facets of their lives. They range from aspiring models, advertising gurus, television producers and financiers, to upstart businessmen, social climbers and so on.

The film is likely to be available in DVD format by early next year.

In reply to questions by film students following the screening, Shahzad Nawaz said that the entire film was shot on MiniDV with a budget of around Rs3.2 million. Most actors in the film did not charge a fee for their work, he added.

His previous work in film includes Daira (2003), based on Mohsin Hamid’s novel Mothsmoke, in which he starred opposite Ayesha Alam in the lead role.

His upcoming film, Chambeli, is based on the recent protests at Tahrir Square and the jasmine revolution in Egypt. It will be based in a fictitious country. The filming is slated to commence in February next year and is scheduled to end around March.

The director hopes to release the film in the latter half of 2012.