With India and Pakistan constantly trying to match each other’s military prowess, the revival of cinema culture in Pakistan seems an unlikely possibility
I DEEM it necessary to beg of my readers their tolerance and forbearance to discuss a complicated academic issue in its historical perspective. Immediately after Pakistan came into being, our leaders kept an eye on the development, procurement, and production of military hardware in India. If India made tanks, we made tanks. If they made missiles, we made missiles. If they made lethal bombs, we made lethal bombs. If they made warplanes, we made warplanes. If they made warships, we, too, made warships.
While tracking India’s military might relentlessly for 57 years, we have resultantly grown into military giants in this part of the world. Except China and India no other neighbouring country can match our military prowess. It is good for safeguarding country’s geographical frontiers. But, what about other equally, and even more important, frontiers. Our leaders ignored India’s concerted development in the fields of education, science and technology, agriculture, healthcare, human development, communication, media, fine arts, performing arts, cinematography, tourism, trade, commerce, and industry.
No country can earn universal respect if it lags behind in education, and nurtures a massive illiterate, semi-literate, ignorant, and intolerant poverty-stricken population. Did our leaders keep an eye on the educational development in India? Do we exactly know how many hundreds of universities, and how many thousands of schools, colleges, and vocational institutions are imparting education through formal, non-formal, informal, and distance education systems in India? Why are computer engineers from India rated so highly in the world? Have Indian educationists frequently played havoc with curriculum? Do they recurrently change, or alter the textbooks?
Have our leaders watched the phenomenal progress India has made in trade, commerce, and industry? They export merchandize to the entire world. Foreign investors heavily invest in India without dictating terms and conditions. Suzuki and Santro cars are priced at less than half of the price the vehicles are sold in Pakistan. The Indians have taken good care of their archaeological sites, historical monuments, forts, objects of antiquity, oriental architecture, museums, libraries, traditional theatres, handicraft, gardens, hill stations, national parks, and flora and fauna. Obviously, India remains one of the favourite tourists’ destinations in the world. They throng the country throughout the year. At the time of the great divide (1947) we were far behind India in cinematography, and related performing arts. We hardly produced 20 films in a year. Our films together with the Indian and English films kept our cinema houses in business. During the competitive period Pakistan film industry produced most of the remarkable films in its history. Our cinema culture flourished till early 1960s. People invested in cinema business, and reaped the harvest. During Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s fourth year in power import of Indian films was forbidden in Pakistan. Soon thereafter, cinema houses began starving for films. Pakistan film industry’s annual output of 20 films miserably failed to meet the demand of 1,500 plus cinema houses in the country for new films. It was a bewildering dilemma. The dictator, obsessed with face-saving overtures with democratic norms, took no notice of crumbling cinema business and culture in the country. The deserted cinema houses almost vanished from Pakistan. In a brief discourse it is not possible for me to tell you the fate of graceful cinema houses all over the country. To document the demise of 70 plus cinema houses in Karachi alone I will have to compose a few more columns.
However, I would like my young readers born after 1960 to look at the fate of some of the most prestigious cinema houses in Saddar that exclusively ran English movies. Capital cinema was razed to the ground, and at its place flourishes a congested ready-made cloth market. Paradise cinema was pulled down, and at its place now stand Paradise hotel, and multiple shops. Rex cinema was converted into business complex. At Karachi’s first open-air cinema Mayfair operates an eatery, the Village restaurant. Palace cinema, adjacent to hotel Metropole, doesn’t exist. At its place sprawls a multipurpose plot. Thus, with the demise of cinema culture, showing of remarkable films came to an end in Pakistan.
In international relations social and cultural interaction between two countries remains subservient to political disposition. In the given situation I do not see any possibility of normalization of political relations between India and Pakistan. No doubt writers, scholars, artists, liberated thinkers, humanists, and the relatives of the separated families in the two countries maintain natural affinity with each other, but the politicians have their own axe to grind. After the Kashmir issue is resolved, a new contentious issue would crop up between the two countries. I have been witness to the unending dilemma for the last 57 years.
Our film industry is not at all capable of reviving cinema culture in Pakistan. However, there exists a limping possibility of rebirth of our cinema culture through liberal import policy for procuring Indian films. But, where are the cinema houses? After witnessing the fate of cinema houses in Pakistan, not even a stupid businessman would invest millions in erecting a cinema house. Temporarily eased political relations between the two countries evaporate at the spur of a moment. You never know when screening of Indian movies will be banned in Pakistan. In the given circumstances, there doesn’t exist any possibility of revival of cinema culture in Pakistan.
