BY : Abdul Rafay,Karachi.
Karachi : I am afraid that if the Pakistani film industry continues to make such films, our cinema will be dead. This industry has never seen quite a downfall like this, the one it has faced in recent times. It feels unreal to believe that there used to be a time when Bollywood film stars wanted to star in Pakistani films, back in the Golden Age of Pakistani cinema. But now, even Pakistani film stars aren’t fond of working in such films.
The problem with our cinema is that it is heavily targeted towards the masses. About 58% of the people in Pakistan are literate while the rest remain illiterate. If our cinema is for people who do not understand the art of visual storytelling and stories which explore mature themes and discuss social issues, then unfortunately our cinema would only keep declining to an extent where the film industry would diminish. Every film that is being produced nowadays is comedic, the usual rom-com, family drama. The cheap dialogues that seem as if they were written in a day, the glamorization of the characters, the weak roles that are offered to women, are becoming the trademark of Pakistani cinema.
Women aren’t portrayed in a way which would make men respect them, instead they are shown as “eye-candy” in these films. Being a part of an Islamic Republic, I don’t think item songs represent our culture in any way. The only reason these films do well at the box office is because those item songs are sort of an invitation for men to come and have a look.
The narratives lack in creating depth and impact, and the direction and cinematography seems flawed. As a film student, I would say that I have seen way better work than all of the films that were produced for Pakistani cinema. There were some films which were marvelous such as Chambeli, Bol, Dukhtar, Laal Qabootar etc. I wish that more such films are created because these really created a difference and spread a lot of social awareness. These films had no vulgarity and represented our culture beautifully.
If film producers choose to create films with no such depth and always choose to cash their films with vulgarity and poorly written dialogues, then our cinema would never be appreciated by film critiques or the educated masses. It would die the most painful death, any Pakistani filmmaker would ever see.
