Furqan, a Karachi-teenager and a student of A-levels is smitten by the charms Bollywood has to offer. He is an ardent fan of Aishwarya Rai, Shahrukh Khan and Sushmita Sen. He keeps track of all the forthcoming movies through TV promos and the Internet.
“I love watching most of the Bollywood flicks but the ones starring Ash or Sush are a must watch for me and I really don’t mind going through them bit by bit again and again”.
Furqan’s views are commonly shared by a number of his peers. A teenage girl says that she just cannot afford to miss any Hrithik Roshan or Shahrukh Khan’s movie.
However, the most fascinating thing about the Bollywood fever, that Pakistan has been in grip of since so long, is that it isn’t restricted to bubbling teenies only. Mrs Ali, a mother of two, has a collection of Indian movie magazines that she keeps at home. And when she goes to Dubai to meet her parents, she makes it a point to watch the maximum number of Indian movies on a big screen during her trip.
The afore mentioned people aren’t’ a rarity. In fact they represent the millions of Pakistanis, who despite harbouring a political grudge or two, seem to be under spell of Indian cinema. And this is by no means restricted to the younger generation. If we like Ash, Sush or Hrithik, our parents, in their youth, adored Amitabh Bachan, Dilip Kumar, Rekha and Hema Malini.
Mrs Zahrah is one of those countless housewives who don’t usually get time to watch every Indian movie that is released. So, she browses through the Bollywood web sites to compensate for the lost fun that she would have derived by watching movies. Najma, a housemaid, derives equal pleasure from these movies. This proves another point that the Indian cinema is not a domain of the elite, something that an activity like eating out can be attributed to.
To this end, shops in the country have been amply catering to the demands of an entertainment hungry public. From audio CDs to movies on VHS, VCD and DVD, almost all the formats of all Indian movies and songs are available in shops. Though some space is allocated to flicks from Hollywood, and even lesser space to Pakistani music CDs, but it’s the entertainment from across the border that enjoys 80 per sent of the shelf space.
Whether it’s the low income areas of Karachi or the elitist Clifton and Defence, huge and colourful Indian movie posters adorn video shops. The day a movie is released in India, the same day we receive its pirated copy here in Pakistan. But if one were to have a little patience, then you wouldn’t even have to rent it. Because soon enough, the same movie is aired by the cable operator.
Since 1947, Indian cinema has enjoyed a virtual monopoly over its neighbours. However, in the following thirty years, Pakistani cinema competed neck and neck with its Indian counterpart. Both the industries provided content that appealed to audiences all over the subcontinent. And anyway, cordial relations meant that Indian movies were a regular feature at the Pakistani cinema houses, and vice versa. However, that all ended in the late-50s when public screening of Indian films in Pakistan was banned altogether.
But that didn’t stop the Pakistanis from watching Indian films, as many of us, ventured into Afghanistan where the cinema houses were still treating audiences to the Indian charms. But that is also the period when Pakistani cinema’s creativity was compromised forever. For filmmakers too started making the short journey across the border and brought back with them, carbon copy of the story of the latest Indian movie. This resulted in Pakistani movies that had almost identical Indian storylines!
Nevertheless, following the golden 70s, that saw a number of hit Pakistani movies with original screenplays, home video technology came and completely altered the fortunes of the Pakistani cinema. Piracy thrived as people preferred to rent a video cassette rather than go to a cinema. The rest, as they say, is history.
Coming back to the Indian cinema’s influence, given the cultural and lingual similarities the comparison between Pakistan and Indian movies is inevitable. Pakistani cinema maybe very similar to that of India’s but the quality of majority of Pakistani flicks is highly sub-standard as compared to their Indian counterparts. Story and scripts are being given a back seat while the producers try to attract people by cheap dance sequences and gory violence all that is far from the reality. Current Pakistani movies, even on a theatrical release, have very insignificant collections.
Movie critics believe that the ban on Indian movies to be screened in Pakistan should be lifted. This will not only create new sources of employment for those people who work for the cinemas, but it will also spread the new chill winds of Indian competition among the local film industry. The quality of the Pakistani movies would surely increase otherwise they will loose the market battle to their Indian contemporaries.
If Indians bring their movies to the Pakistani cinemas, their already established market here would multiply their profits. Urmila Matondkar who came to Lahore said that she did every possible effort to have her latest movie, Pinjar being screened in the Pakistani cinemas but was not successful. However, Pooja Bhatt was able to pull off the worldwide premiere of her Paap, during the KaraFilm Festival. No wonder the show opened to a complete houseful board and the tickets were completely sold out two weeks ahead of the premiere!
Similarly Pakistani Punjabi movies can find a huge market in East Punjab province of India.
Internationally acclaimed Pakistani rock-act, Junoon’s Ali Azmat composed a song for Pooja Bhatt’s Paap and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, the inheritor of legacy of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, also composed another song for the same movie. Pakistan surely has a lot of talent and potential in music, script writing etc. What it lacks is the suitable equipment and a decent budget, which is very essential if a movie of international standard is to be made. Rather than hiring equipment from abroad we can get the same equipment from India at a fraction of cost and can shoot our films in Indian places. At the same time, Indians can discover the exotic northern areas of Pakistan. The collaboration between the Indian and Pakistani showbiz industry is the key need of the hour.
The gist is that despite the extremely volatile and sensitive political condition, Pakistanis want to remain under the spell of Indian cinema. Whether they will be able to do it openly or continue to do so in the shadows, this is to decided by those in power.
