Over the years, we have seen the rise of right-wing elements and growing intolerance in both India and Pakistan. An immediate casualty of this has been the already fragile cultural equation between the two countries.
Recently, there have been calls for Pakistani artists to be ejected from India; even Karan Johar, a giant in a cinema industry that is amongst the biggest in the world, was forced to ‘apologise’ for the hiring of Pakistani star Fawad Khan.
Meanwhile, in Pakistan, much was made of the unfairness of such pressure, and of how this greatly undermined India’s projection of itself as a progressive nation. Its commitment to the betterment of the region, went the argument, meant little if this was the extent to which the ‘other’ was targeted.
Yet soon after, the Pakistan cinema owners’ association decided to cease the screening of all Indian films here, followed by a ban placed on Indian content by Pemra, the electronic media regulatory body.
If that was ironic, the current situation can only be considered doubly so: while Indian films have started being screened again, one film — Raees, featuring Indian star Shahrukh Khan and Pakistani icon Mahira Khan — has been singled out by the censors.
It had already been granted the go-ahead by the Sindh and Punjab provincial censor boards, but it emerged on Tuesday that the Central Board of Film Censors in Islamabad would have none of it. The reason, reportedly, is those shady handmaidens of censorship and state control over narrative, anti-religion and ‘anti-Pakistan’ content.
It is difficult to imagine this, given the film’s fairly usual Bollywood-esque plot and the onerous commercial demands on it to succeed with mainstream audiences. But it would appear that the authorities’ ego is brittle.
While cinema-owners have little choice but to quietly acquiesce — given the risks attached to attracting the wrath of the state — where is there in Pakistan any discourse on hypocrisy and double standards now? Or is our ability to vociferously criticise limited to the ‘other’?
Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2017
