PESHAWAR: The cine-goers continued thronging cinema houses during Eid days amid Independence Day celebrations and political rallies for showing solidarity with Kashmiris. The movie lovers from parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including the tribal districts, made it to Peshawar where great rush was witnessed at the gates of the cinema houses. Tickets for new Pashto films sold for Rs500 and Rs150 for the old runs.

The cinema owners and film makers were not expecting a good business this time around because of the Independence Day celebrations and Kashmir rallies but the youngsters showed their presence with full spirit both at the cine-theatres and outside in the parks, and on the roads of the city.

A private art organisation also ran live theatre shows after more than a decade in Nishtar Hall.

Zardad Bulbul, chief of Pakhtunkhwa Arts Council (PAC), when asked about his experience at arranging a musical variety show at Nishtar Hall, said that he and his colleagues took great risk but came out successful beyond their expectations as people from all walks of life attended the show and appreciated their efforts.

Tickets for new Pashto films sold for Rs500 and old flicks for Rs150

“Nishtar Hall has a capacity of 630 seats and not a single seat went empty on the first day rather we had to accommodate the visitors on the stairs between the rows. On the second day, enormous rush of people was witnessed and the organisers had to refuse tickets because of lack of space in the hall. On the third day, people were ready to get a ticket from Rs500 to Rs1,500. The experience proved an instant success,” he stated.

Sajjad Khalil, an artist and member of PAC, told this scribe that he was so encouraged that he and his team decided that they would arrange a live theatre play on 22, 23 and 24 August in Nishtar Hall because the huge presence of audience showed that Peshawarites loved live performances.

Mosam Khan, 56, a cinema employee, stated that a great rush was seen outside the city theatres, especially to enjoy the new Pashto flicks while the old runs too made a good business. He said despite tight security arrangements, youngsters thronged to watch movies of their choice with great interest. He said the Eid holidays coinciding with the Independence Day celebrations added to the great rush of people.

Hamza Riaz, a student of the University of Peshawar, who is doing work on thematic presentations, pointed out that most movies and tele-films used to repeat the same subject again and again without even changing presentation, which was missing in the new flicks. He said only music couldn’t carry the story ahead as there were several other things which required improvement and drastic changes.

“People, especially youngsters, have no option but to suffer a three- hour long imprisonment sitting in cinema houses. We require facilities to make significant improvement in overall movie presentation to help it become a medium of social change,” he remarked.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2019