March 24, 2002

They all start with a cause and the cause is invariably good. In Sher-e-Lahore released last December, it was a daughter’s honour. In a subsequent release Goonda Tax, it was an unfair tax imposed by wicked hoodlums on hapless shopkeepers. In Dada Badmash currently showing to packed houses, it is a generations old property dispute.

When there is a cause then someone has to fight for it. Usually it falls upon the family elder, most often the father, to raise his voice. In doing so, he acquires martyrdom, very early in the movie. Leaving behind a robust widow, to be played by a heaving Sangeeta or a roaring Bahar. The defiant mother then challenges her son or sons to seek vengeance.

The macho son (usually Shaan) appears wielding a klashnikov, riding a stallion, sometimes alone or often accompanied by a doting brother in the form of Moammar Rana.

 

From Saadat Hasan Manto to Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi to Bapsi Sidhwa, there are several writers who have written classics emanating from the very soil of the Punjab. Aren’t there any takers in Lollywood?
 

The duo has to face a whole clan of foes. The clan led by a burly Humayun Quraishy or Tariq Shah, has the support of corrupt politicians and police accomplices. But one by one they are wiped out from the surface of the screen.

Both the sides flaunt frowning looks and threats, use batons and choppers and klashnikovs. Ride bikes and land cruisers and horses. Fruit carts are overthrown in crowded bazaars and able bodies are riddled with bullets in broad daylight. Prison gates are crashed open. Policemen get their uniformed posteriors kicked and thrashed. Sitting judges see law torn into shreds and thrown onto their faces. Blood flows, thinner than water here.

As the killing scores mount, their sweethearts exclaim — “Oye khush kitta yee!” and dance with triumphant joy. Coffin laden rows become longer and longer, skirts and blouses get shorter and shorter. Saima swings and Reema sways. While Shaan and Moammar Rana spill the enemy’s blood, Meera and Nirma shed their own clothes. Naseebo Lal shrieks over blaring tunes, composed by Wajahat Attrey and Tafu. Producers, directors and distributors roll in gold and body fat.

But then the shedding of clothes part is all a dream. Meera, Nirma or Nargis are otherwise nice college girls (preferably school going), who know well that society doesn’t approve of decent girls singing and dancing in public places, so they choose to sit and just daydream. It is no sin to see oneself singing and dancing in a dream. So what if one third of the body is uncovered. And it is no crime either to share one’s dream with a couple of thousand well wishers. In the dream around a dozen friends get together, wearing scanty clothes and holding pitchers filled with water, which they splash on each other. Once everybody is well drenched they dance with abandon, holding a Shaan or a Moammar Rana or a Saud in a trance. It usually lasts for about three minutes, with a well tuned song thrown in for a good measure.

Pakistan’s Punjabi cinema has always managed to sell such dreams. Sultan Rahi was murdered and they resurrected another with a younger and better looking Shaan. Anjuman retired and there came in Saima, similar in stature. Noor Jehan died and here we have Naseebolal singing on the same pitch. Madam crooned — “Sannu nehr waley pul tey bula key”, Naseebo complains “Kaddi tey hans bol wey, na jind saddi rol wey”.

Rangeela has been replaced by Azher Rangeela, Munawwar Zareef by Jan Rambo. But the lines and mannerisms remain the same. Yesterday’s side-heroine Sangeeta is today’s successful director. Dada Badmash is her latest flick.

A fun-starved populace has few choices on its plate. Taking advantage, producers and financiers insist upon easy-to-churn thrills. Writers like Jaffer Arsh and Nasir Adeeb pen down scripts drenched in Vengeance, quoted with Violence and dripping with Vulgarity. Directors Sangeeta and Perwaiz Rana follow the V-Line. The whole Punjabi cinema rides the ‘3-V-Express.’

From Saadat Hasan Manto to Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi to Bapsi Sidhwa, there are several writers who have written classics, emanating from the very soil of the Punjab. Aren’t there any takers in Lollywood?

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