In true honesty, petty
politics mingled with creative literature made a disastrous soup! The martial
law of Zia-ul-Haq smuggled in culture of Kalashnikov, heroin and violent
religiosity which struck a crushing blow to the film industry. A new genre of
cinema grew where glamorization of violence and brutality in extracting
vengeance were common subjects of film making. Film-making
dropped from a total output of 98 films in 1979, of which 42 were in Urdu, to
only 58 films (26 in Urdu) in 1980. Wahshee Gujjar, Maula Jat and Jat da
kharaak are some of the films from that period which effectively captured the
subject.In
1979 General Zia-ul-Haq banned all Pakistani films produced in the preceding 3
years which caused a huge void badly affecting the progress of film making and
encouraged small time film makers to invest in cheap film making. With
ridiculous bans put by him on through censorship and policies, display of
affection was reduced in the movies and an increase in violence was ignored!
Violence added films were the art of that day which was promoted by huge
banners and billboards which the officials put a blind eye to. The cult of Sultan
Rahi and Mustafa Qureshi of Maula Jatt and Noori Nath was promoted over real
literary scripts by quality writers in Urdu language for the Urdu Cinema. This
added complete disaster for the cinema starved audience and its legal
caretakers. Backed by powerful politicians,
Pashto filmmakers were ahead in this rat race to get around the censor policies
and filled their films with soft-core pornography to increase viewership. The influx of millions of refugees from across the Afghani
border, who were denied the entertainment in their country, kept the industry
strongly active.It is interesting to note that while Zia was publicly flogging people,
Maula Jut later was banned by him for being too violent!! The producer however
got a stay from the High Court. Similarly while Zia-ul-Haq ordained the
toughest moral codes for local cinema, his own family remained an ardent viewer
of pirated Indian films. Shatrughan Sinha from Bollywood was patronized by the
late General Zia and his family. Incidentally, he was the only guest from that
filmdom who attended the marriage Function ceremony
of (late) General Zia’s daughter!
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| Shabnam & Nadeem pose in "Aina" |
Cinema of Pakistan was slowly strangulated by a group which had other ulterior motives. This almost non-existent, funds with below average script writers and the effects of overall violent laws of Zia slowly diminished the creative guru’s from this Industry. They saw refuge in other countries where their talent could be utilized in a better way or they completely gave up making quality cinema after being dejected many times. With the Maestro’s gone, this industry was orphaned to the likes of Syed Noor, Madam Sangeeta, and Saeed Rizvi.
This slow poisoning of such a creative medium was systematic which has brought us now to the new era of importing movies of all kinds from across the border. The Bollywood Cinema has many facets which need to be addressed if we want to rely on “foreign fed” movies only. One such movie lately imported and released on Pakistani soil is the vulgar “Cocktail.” The lead cast being; Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, and Diana Penty. Supporting cast has Boman Irani and Dimple Kapadia. It’s a mixture of soft porn with an ultimate desire to become European living in India! The plot of this movie revolves around three people; one man and two women. The females become friends and start living together in a flat somewhere in London. In doing so they meet up with Gautam (Saif) who befriends one woman (Deepika) first, has physical relationship with her while suddenly falls in love with the other woman (Diana). With scenes which I am sure no Pakistani would have been comfortable in watching with family, children, elders; and dialogues with smutty vocabulary is being proudly shown and advertised throughout the country. Where free sex is shown acceptable and where norms of the society and culture are totally ignored! After watching this movie with children I had no option left but to sit down, pen my thoughts as a concerned parent of growing up children.
Four Pakistani singers contributed songs for this movie namely; Arif Lohar, Imran Aziz Mia, Javed Bashir and Masooma Anwar for which they couldn’t even get visas by the Indian High Commission for music launch. I am not against cross border joint ventures, I fully endorse creative jugal-bandi but I ask : Why is quality not being maintained by our so-called people in charge?
Sadly, not one creative block/organization in Pakistan has objected to this absurdity! What are we importing in the name of creativity/family entertainment? Where is our Censor Board? Does it exist? If it does, was it drugged while this movie was brought and is being audaciously show cased in the borders of Pakistan? Why are we ruining what is left of our society? Do we have to become puppets in this rat-race of losing our heritage?
The above article was published on the following links::
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=166638
http://www.islamabadtimesonline.com/a-corrupted-cocktail/
http://www.dailyausaf.com/epaper/wp-content/uploads/2012/July/25/p1507.jpg
I havle written a comment, but the same was not published. I will try again. It causes lot of pain to see the film industry in disarray, and destroyed. A cruel military dictator dealt a severe blow to the Cinema in Pakistan. He was misguided person.
ReplyDeleteHe did not honor art and artist. He played in the hands of the Mullahs and banned cultural activities with heavy hands.
He promoted his own version of Islamic culture. He was a hypocrite and prospered at the cost of others' suffering. He bereft the industry by introducing black and draconian laws. No other person in our history has brought destruction in every field.
I havle written a comment, but the same was not published. I will try again. It causes lot of pain to see the film industry in disarray, and destroyed. A cruel military dictator dealt a severe blow to the Cinema in Pakistan. He was misguided person.
ReplyDeleteHe did not honor art and artist. He played in the hands of the Mullahs and banned cultural activities with heavy hands.
He promoted his own version of Islamic culture. He was a hypocrite and prospered at the cost of others' suffering. He bereft the industry by introducing black and draconian laws. No other person in our history has brought destruction in every field.