The collapse of cinema culture in Pakistan has rendered thousands of persons jobless
It is a moral obligation for each one of us who have witnessed rudiments of change that formulate social, cultural, and political history of Pakistan, to come forward and impede wrong or distorted information from forming an elusive impression on the susceptible mind of our younger generation.
East Pakistan did not transform into Bangladesh overnight. The seed for separation was sowed way back in 1948, one year after coming into being of Pakistan. It is not recent that Pakistan has gone into the hands of feudal lords, Chaudries, Waderas, Khans, and Sardars who run the country like their jageer and treat people like their bonded slaves and indebted farmers.
The Pakistan Movement was spearheaded by Muslim League, a political party formulated by the wealthy zamindars, jagirdars, and feudal lords of India. Quaid-e-Azam joined the Muslim League more than a decade after it was formed. He, like Sir Abdullah Haroon was not a zamindar, landlord. Thus, right from its coming into being Pakistan went into the hands of feudal lords who have continuously mismanaged and mishandled the economic and political affairs of the country.
It is a long inventory of gigantic blunders and misdeeds of feudal lords, and civil and military bureaucrats who have kept Pakistan on the brink of disaster throughout its existence. It has always been nazuk daur (precarious period) for Pakistan — a popular cliche of the politicians.
All along in the history of mankind the rulers have tended to mislead the masses. In today’s discourse we would take stock of the lamentable collapse of rich cinema culture in Pakistan.
It is absolutely incorrect to think that television is responsible for the collapse of cinema culture in Pakistan. I do not want to drag you into the technicalities. Simply look at India, Japan, America, and European countries where films and television have flourished together.
While Europe was engulfed in Second World War between 1939-1945, the film industry in India firmly established itself with the production of films like Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Devdas (Saigol fame), Sikandar-e-Azam, Chiteralekha, Phool, Pahli Nazar, Shakuntala, Jawarbhata, Ratan, Barathary, Milan, Mela, Zeenat, Jogin, Ekta, Jugnu, and Qismat, and many more superb films. The films caught the attention of the people of India. The increasing demand for films resulted in rapid growth of cinema houses in the country.
By the time the Second World War ended in 1945, and creation of Pakistan three years later, filmmaking in India had turned into a formidable industry.
Prior to the partition of India, the main filmmaking centres were in Calcutta now called Kolkata, Bombay (Mumbai), Lahore and Madras (Chenai). The ever-increasing demand for films spread a network of elegant cinema houses throughout India. Pulsating cities like Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Hyderabad Deccan, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Banglore, Karachi, Lahore and Dhaka apart, even smaller towns boasted of cinema houses that catered to the rural masses. By the time Pakistan was created a couple of years later, the number of cinema houses in India ran into thousands.
After the breakup of India, Pakistan did not lack in the number of cinema houses in the country. Considerable cinema houses flourished in Karachi, Lahore and Dhaka, and in almost all the towns throughout the length and breadth of the country. They showed films produced at Bombay, Madras, Calcutta and Lahore.
Breakup of a country takes its own toll. We distanced ourselves from India. During Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s Martial Law the film producers from Lahore in their unwise quest for creating monopoly tricked the Government. They prevailed upon the Government in getting the Indian films banned from showing in the cinema houses on the plea that they badly required recess from competition with India film industry. The self-appointed custodians of our morals joined the bandwagon. They claimed that the exhibition of Indian films in Pakistan was detrimental to our sacred cultural values.
The Government of Pakistan banned the import of Indian films. It was a totally horrendous decision of the rulers. They did not realize the kind of adverse effect it would have on the cinema houses in Pakistan. From Karachi to Dhaka there were around one thousand cinema houses in the country. The Pakistani filmmakers ventured to produce films at Lahore, Karachi and Dhaka. Their concerted efforts miserably failed to meet the demand of the cinema houses for the films. For the consumption of one thousand cinema houses our filmmakers hardly made thirty or forty films in a year. The cinema houses began starving for films. With the passage of time the production decreased. Then came an inauspicious time when just fifteen to twenty films were made in a year. In one of the worst slumps, our industry failed to come out with ten films annually. The starving cinema houses collapsed.
Managing a cinema house is not a trivial affair. Millions of rupees are involved in its construction, equipment and maintenance. A cinema house directly and indirectly provides employment to at least one hundred people. The collapse of cinema culture in Pakistan rendered thousands of persons jobless. Their families plunged into abysmal miseries. And it all happened on account of one unwise decision of Government of Pakistan. In about three decades of unending film drought, the owners converted cinema houses into multi-storied mega markets, shopping malls, trade centres, hotels, high-rise office and residential complexes.
You just can’t think of a ‘modern, forward looking and progressive country’ without a cinema culture. But, Pakistan is. In cinema culture we are at par with Afghanistan.
