Pakistan Cinema 1947-1997: A Review

the article was a good one, but you dont give any details about the book, please do that

You have written a very interesting review. What is the cost of the book and where is it available?

What are the other articles you have written?

hinas
That statement is not entirely true. There are a lot of history books written about India (stretching from Afghanistan in the West to Bangladesh in the east and all over the South into Sri Lanka) Starting from around 3200BC to present day. These books have been written by Indian Hindus, Indian Muslims, Indian others, Europeans, etc. In fact, a lot of these books draw sources from all kinds of travel logs of other people thus corroborating each other. I guess the point I am trying to make is you can read ALL sides of the story and draw your own conclusions. There are chronological histories, essays, social commentaries available.
In fact, history taught in schools in India is not necessarily tainted by theology. Adopting secularism and separation of Church and State has helped in this regard.
regards
RanaRansher

Rehan...your article besides providing an in-depth analysis of Pakistani Cinema raises awareness of the fact that a serious Gap exists in Indo-Pakistani History.

How can any of us (by us I mean from the Indo-Pak Sub-Continent) understand the complexity surrounding the Indo-Pak identity; when we have an inadequate list of published history books and a shortage (due to the economics) of established historians, film makers, writers etc...

Your article leaves me restless, thinking of how can we (as expatriates of Indo-Pak Sub Continent in foreign land) think and work collectively on a Strategy/Vision to Challenge the State?....``which monumentally organizes itself around the we-are-anything-but-Indian mantra through its media, foreign policy and military budget``

a very intreasting way of reviewing history...

is this availaible in english, in north america?

-jollymullah

i would dearly love to read this book and try to find my identity.

i am one of those who has broken away from the qudrat ullah shahab version of history and am a firm believer of the fact that though nationality wise am a pakistani ethnically am an indian.

i think amny of the problems that we face arise from our identity crisis that has been forced upon us by the politicians who have always ansd i say always failed to deliver even jinnah!

please dont take me wrong.he was the one who said of his team that he had dud coins in his pocket!

he also said that pakistan was made by him,his sister and secretary.the rest would only follow suit.

films are an important messanger forum reflections of our time and i hope that they are the ones which can show us the way as all the others have failed miserably!

Rehan,

Thanks for reviewing the book. Sounds fantastic. I`d love to have a read of it...where can it be purchased? How much?

The only Pakistani film I`ve seen is Ek hi Rasta with Babra Sharif and Javid Sheikh...a late 80s forgettable. Love the poster work though and it would be fascinating to see the contribution Pakistani artists made to Bollywood.

Thanks very much.

Is there any mention of exiled or overseas (basically in UK) Pakistani directors such as Hanif Qureshi, Jamil Dahlvi, etc?
And the movies such as ``Towers of Silence``, ``Buddha of Suburbia``, ``Brothes in Trouble``, ``My Beautiful Launderette``Immaculate Conception``, etc?

Re BG:

Balochistan was not a province before creation of Pakistan and was made one i believe in 50s or 60s. Historically, it composed of independent states such as Kalat state, Lasbella state, Kharan state and Makran state. Out of these Kalat was the biggest and strongest and were forced to be part of Pakistan. Sindh, historically was an independent state before the british annexed it in to India after 1857 and made Bombay its capitol. It was also independent during the Mughal rule.

an extremely interesting article that has inspired me to get a hold of the book.

regarding the notion of identity (we were india, but became pakistan only after 1947) i wonder how true that is of the smaller `provinces` like sarhad and balochistan?

Rehan,

Thanks for sharing this with us. Do you know if Gazdar is currently working on any documentary?

I hope to read the book soon. A question for some information before-hand; Is there any mention of Pushtoo cinema? Badr Munir’s meteoric rise in `Pukhtoon Pa Vilayat Kay` is considered to be one of the biggest upsets for Urdu film stars. Ironically, `Chaklatey` Wahid Murad had dropped from this same role challenging the director to any success without him.

And what about that Jera Blade??

Regards,

Faisal

I don`t think any Pakistani denies that those who lived through the partition, were Indian British subjects before the partition. As for now, Pakistanis born after the partition were never Indian.

Maybe its because I was born much after partition that I don`t feel this identity crisis and maybe it will be non-existent by the next generation. Notwithstanding the identity dilemma of some Pakistanis, Pakistan has a rich and varied history which is as old as the land and older than its first inhabitants (whoever they were).

Peace.