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LAHORE, April 23: Mughal-i-Azam, an Indian classic, failed to attract ‘a large number’ of cinegoers on the first day of its release at the Gulistan cinema here on Sunday.
“About 400 people watched the maiden show,” the cinema management said, expecting the number to increase in the days to come after proper publicity.
“We received several phone calls with people wondering if the film had really been released in the country.”
Critics say only people with a taste would come to watch the movie on silver screen as most of the ordinary film-lovers have watched it on their TV sets through video and various Indian channels.
There had been a ban on the release of Indian films for the last around 40 years which was lifted briefly twice when Nur Jehan was released in 1981 and Kashish in 1982.
Mughal-i-Azam, a serious attempt to revive the local cinema industry, will be released in rest of the Pakistani circuit on June 2.
Gulistan has been decorated like a Mughal era building, thanks to the efforts of set-designer Tanveer Fatima Rehan.
Premier of the film was held on Saturday and a large number of people from all walks of life attended it. Dilip Kumar, the hero of the film, had also been invited to attend the premier but could not come because of deteriorating health.
Taj Mahal, another Indian movie, will be released on April 28 followed by Legend of Love and Bride and Prejudice.
According to Reuters, The forbidden love of Pakistanis for Indian movies was allowed into the open on Sunday with the public screening of a 1960 classic.
The movie, a historical romance with a tragic ending, may have been shot in Bombay, as Mumbai was known until a few years ago, but was set in Lahore at a time when Muslims ruled India.
“I’ve seen it a dozen times on video, but watching it on the big screen was special,” said Abdul Waheed, a long-haired, bearded pensioner of 75, after buying his ticket for the first screening.
While Mughal-i-Azam’s showing in Pakistan was the result of a request by the son of the film’s director, the late K. Asif, Taj Mahal’s backers earned goodwill by donating millions of rupees to a relief fund for the victims of last October’s earthquake in Pakistan.
“It is good that the government has allowed the screening of this historic movie. It will not only help revive Pakistani cinema, but it will also strengthen the peace process between Pakistan and India,” Nadeem Mandviwala, Mughal-i-Azam’s distributor, told Reuters at Gulistan.
COMMON CULTURAL HERITAGE: While sporting links have flourished thanks to a mutual love of cricket, Pakistan and India have conspicuously failed to make the most of a common cultural heritage, despite more than two years of peace talks between the nuclear rivals.
India’s most popular art form — the movie — is lapped up in Pakistan, though it is only available illicitly, through pirated videotapes and discs, and some independent cable television channels have begun showing them late at night.
The story of a doomed love affair between Prince Salim, the wayward son of Emperor Akbar, and a slave girl called Arnakali, Mughal-i-Azam is often characterised by critics as India’s answer to the American Civil War epic “Gone With The Wind”.
It took nine years to make, but the project would have been started sooner had the Muslim family who first put up money for the film not decided to opt for Pakistan in the partition of India that accompanied independence from Britain in 1947.
Despite the mass exodus of Muslims 59 years ago, there are around 145 million in India today, almost as many as in Pakistan, and they remain prominent in Bollywood.
Mughal-i-Azam’s romantic leads were both played by stars whose Hindu-sounding screen names belied their Muslim origins.
Dilip Kumar was born Yusuf Khan, in Peshawar, while Madhubala, whose face was as iconic to Indian audiences as Greta Garbo’s had been in the West, was born Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi.
“I just wanted to see Dilip Kumar and Madhubala on the big screen,” one middle-aged housewife beamed as she took her seat along with her family and some 400 other fans as the lights dimmed and the curtains rose.
