Establishment of Pakistan
has completed 57 years and so has its film industry come
to its seasoned years bearing behind youth years. It is
time that it should achieve mental and success parity
level with the film industry of India, Bangladesh, China,
Iran and Turkey. Very unfortunately it is not so by any
standard, in fact, it has been turbulent ever since time
immemorial. Only one or two movies did good business at
the box office out of several hundred movies. How can
such a situation lead to develop interest to watch films,
which are based on copied, obsolete and useless stories?
Added to it is the lack of natural acting by the artists.
Likewise in the year 2004, only one film entitled "Salakhain"
was successful out of several hundred films made by countless
directors. If a critical review of Pakistan's films is
taken, it is a pity that every director has made 'Shan'
his only choice and in case he is not available, 'Moammar
Rana' was considered a worthy substitute. As far as female
artists are concerned Sana, Noor or Saima are inducted
just to fill the sweetheart gap for Shan & Moammar
Rana. The worst part was the choice of film titles as
exemplified by Mulla Zafar, Jabroo, Pappu Lahoria, Budha
Gujjar. Sensible cine goers will never digest such titles.
Also casting of several so-called top artists in one movie
is a foolish step and can never fulfill the demand of
the story. The wisdom behind this is that top cast will
attract cine goers.
It is not less than a tragedy that only "Salakhain"
did good business out of countless productions and that
the lead role in "Salakhain" was performed by
a debutante Ahmed Butt. Fact is that cine goers can no
more endure the appearance of Shan, Moammar Rana, Babar
Ali, Saud and likes and they yearn to see new faces.
Declaring every new venture as their top venture shows
that the capacity and talent of all Pakistani film directors
have frozen and they are unable to make artists work hard
and so are the artists who just want easy money. They
have no talent of their own and they are using nudity
as a prime source for their success. Nobody is ready to
believe that good script and artistic talent is the basis
of a film's success. Sangeeta, Shamim Ara and others in
the race lack creative talent.
"Salakhain" was created by Amjad Islam Amjad
and directed by Shahzad Rafiq. Its cast included Ahmad
Butt, Zara Sheikh, Meera, Saud, Sajid Hasan, Shafi Mohammad
and Sani Khan. Its music was prepared in India due to
which its songs received high acclaim. The film was printed
in Thailand on international standard. All these factors
were combined in the success story of "Salakahain".
This film was shown in the Cinema House having Digital
Sound facility and "Salakhain" is still successfully
screened in most Pakistani cinemas.
In 2004, "Ham Aik Hain" by Syed Noor was patiently
awaited. Initially, it was titled "786". This
film having Shan, Saima and Moammar Rana in its caste
bitterly disappointed cine goers, who were totally disgusted
with its outdated script.
The closed door relationship between Pakistani film makers
with Indian music directors and singers and other departments
has resulted in easy access to neighbouring country's
facilities and country's own talent is being wasted and
rendered jobless. Ajab Gul and Reema are also completing
their under production film in India with respect to its
musical scores.
Writer Dabeer-ul-Hasan and his wife Shamim Ara's venture
"Budha Bigra Jai" seemed to be a comedy by virtue
of its title but the loose story, lack of continuity and
bad editing ruined it. Only when Shamim Ara herself admitted
that she directed it otherwise cine goers could not believe
that such a venture was directed by her.
Moammar Rana went to India to work in Indian film "Dobara".
Having great expectations with the film, Moammar found
it quite shocking when on the release he found that his
role was shortened in the film. Besides, he did not get
any other offer in any film, which simply grieved him
much. By virtue of appearing in every second Pakistani
film, this year can be considered important for Shan.
However, for his talent there is no second opinion in
saying that his acting was stale and monotonous. Shan
made Fariha Altaf his manager, which brought him several
modeling jobs in ads including the pricey song of Fusion.
Flopped films during 2004 included "Dehshat",
which was withdrawn from cinemas just after a few days
of its showing after its release. Directed by Sangeeta,
the film's cast included Shan, Saima, Moammar Rana, Nirma,
Saud, Johan Rambo and Nayar Ejaz. Hasan Askari's "Saasi
Punnoo", which is based on folklore met similar fate
although Sana and Moammar Rana did their best to do justice
with their roles. Another film based on folklore "Sohni
Mahiwal" also proved to be a failure on box office.
The failure of such love stories show that people want
to see something different. Another film starring new
faces "Rabba Ishq Na Howey" also flopped.
Similarly Jagger, Data Di Nagri, Buddha Gujjar, Jabroo,
Pappu Lahoria and Munna Bhai LLB (a parody name of Indian
film Munna Bhai MBBS), all flopped on box office.
This year a new trend of making parodies of Indian and
Pakistani films was introduced. Surprisingly, such parodies
did nice business despite being made by unknown companies
with small budgets. The success of these ventures can
be attributed to their cast which included actors like
Saud and John Rambo.
An estimated 35 to 50
cores of rupees was on Pakistani films during the year
2004 and the rate of profitability can easily be calculated
considering only one successful film. The question arises
that for whom Pakistani filmmakers are making these films
which are based on outdated scripts and monotonous characters
and which culture they wish to portray through these films?
