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Introduction
Before the partition that followed India’s independence from the British Raj in 1947, filmmaking in the regions of the country that were to become Pakistan was negligible. While some filmmakers migrated from India, establishing Lahore as a production centre, Pakistan has always been overshadowed by India in terms of film production: despite sporadic protectionist moves, Indian imports have usually dominated local cinema screens. The Urdu-language Teri Yaad/Memories (Daud Chand, 1948) is credited as the first film made in post-independence Pakistan. This and the early Bengali-language feature Mukh-o-Mukhosh/The Face and the Mask (Abdul Jabbar Khan, 1956) were hits with their respective audiences. Until the mid 1960s, few Pakistan-made films met with success at the box office, a rare exception being a 1962 film made in Urdu, Chanda (Ehteshamul Haq). Pakistani cinema did begin to find a voice in the 1960s with ‘folk cinema’—adaptations of popular folktales which attracted villagers to cinemas for the first time. Among the most popular of these were the Bengali-language Roopbaan (Salahuddin, 1965), based upon a popular ‘village operetta’, and Behula (Zahir Raihan, 1966). By the late 1960s, the popularity of the folk trend had waned, giving way to increased interest in ‘social’ films. While the film industry of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was overwhelmed by Bengali-language films from India, West Pakistan was able to implement tighter control on the inflow of imports, boosting film production in Lahore (now sometimes dubbed ‘Lollywood’) and Karachi. By 1970, some 130 films a year were being made in Pakistan. ...
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Pakistan, film in. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 17 Mar. 2021
In the library's collections/Searching the online catalog
- motion pictures pakistanCall number range PN 1993.5 .P3 on Baker Level 4.
Introductory reading(s)
Evacuee cinema: Bombay and Lahore in partition transit (1940-1960) by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781009151207This new history of partition and South Asian cinema is narrated through the careers of émigré film personnel, as well as through the distinctive genres and ancillary ventures that accompanied the aftershocks of partition. Moving beyond arguments about social contingency and political intent, the book suggests that the creative energies, production and subsequent circulation of popular cinema can offer fresh insights into partition. ...
Love, war, and other longings: essays on cinema in Pakistan by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .P3 L68 2020ISBN: 9780190701857Has there been a "revival" of Pakistani cinema? Or can the very question be put to scrutiny? Can we think beyond a national cinema, and instead simply think with films to explore the fraught politics and aspirations of our times? Love, War and Other Longings brings together historians,anthropologists, artists, and film-makers to offer new lines of inquiry that probe the tensions between cinema's past and present, absences and the archive, seduction and respectability, class and consumption, as well as genre and censorship. ...
Pakistan cinema, 1947-1997 by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .P3 G382 2019ISBN: 9780199408528Publication Date: 2nd ed.First published in 1997 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of Pakistan, the book features a review of films before Partition, plots of great cinema classics, trivia, and cinema lore. It contains anecdotes and reminiscences about the people who shaped the entertainment industry, as well as interviews with directors and producers. But alongside the trivia is a clever synthesis juxtaposing the artistic development of the cinematic world with the overall social development in the country. ...
Selected book title(s)
Cinema and society: film and social change in Pakistan by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5. P3 C56 2016ISBN: 9780199402229The book presents a rich collection of critical essays, ethnographic writings, memoirs, and reflections, portraying a well-rounded picture of cinema culture and historical change in Pakistan. The multiplicity of voices and approaches enhances the appeal of this collection, which is the first ever to delineate the diversity in the cinematic and extra-cinematic traditions of Pakistan, as well as in the histories of production, exhibition, and reception. ...
The performance of nationalism: India, Pakistan, and the memory of Partition by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781107000100Imagine the patriotic camaraderie of national day parades. How crucial is performance for the sustenance of the nation? The Performance of Nationalism considers the formation of the Indian and Pakistani nation, in the wake of the most violent chapter of its history: the partition of the subcontinent. In the process, Jisha Menon offers a fresh analysis of nationalism from the perspective of performance. ...
Place and postcolonial ecofeminism: Pakistani women's literary and cinematic fictions by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781496213419While news reports about Pakistan tend to cover Taliban attacks and bombings, and academics focus on security issues, the environment often takes a backseat in media reportage and scholarship. In particular, Pakistani women's attachment to their environment and their environmental concerns are almost always ignored. Shazia Rahman traces the ways in which Pakistani women explore alternative, environmental modes of belonging, examines the vitality of place-based identities within Pakistani culture, and thereby contributes to evolving understandings of Pakistani women--in relation to both their environment and to various discourses of nation and patriarchy. ...
Other library resource(s)
Transnational and diasporic cinema from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286Although from the earliest years film production, marketing, and reception involved extensive national border crossing, the rubric “transnational cinema” has emerged only comparatively recently. Taken up from other disciplines such as anthropology and migration and postcolonial studies, the concept of “transnational” in this still-emerging area of cinema studies remains highly varied, pointing to sometimes contested working definitions and analytic approaches.
Finding scholarly articles and journals
BioScope: South Asian screen studies by Call Number: Electronic journalThis is a special issue on Pakistani cinema from BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies. [v.5, no. 2]
Film & television literature index by Call Number: Electronic resourceUse this index to find articles about this national cinema.
Screen studies collection by Call Number: Electronic resourceA comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed filmographies. This collection includes the FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database and the detailed and complementary filmographies created by the American Film Institute (AFI) and the British Film Institute.
The web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Selected movie titles
Find more Pakistani films in the library's collections.
Bajrangi bhaijaan by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19152A five year old girl from Pakistan gets separated from her mother at an Indian railway station. Lost and hungry she finds shelter at the home of Pavan, an ardent devotee of Hanuman, who sets out on a quest to unite the child with her parents against all odds.
A girl in the river: the price of forgiveness by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #22213Told through the lens of a love story, this Oscar-nominated documentary examines the tensions between modernism and tradition in Pakistan. The film follows Saba, a young Pakistani woman, who has survived her attempted honor killing by her own family in Gujranwala.
Had-anhad = Bounded-boundless: journeys with Ram & Kabir by Call Number: PK 2095 .K3 Z693 2008Kabir defied the boundaries between Hindu and Muslim, refusing to be labeled himself and sharply criticizing sectarianism. His name and upbringing were Muslim but his poetry often uses Hindu concepts and Hindu names for God, especially Ram. This film journeys in search of the "Ram" invoked in Kabir's poetry, delving into the heart of divisive Hindu-Muslim politics of religion and nationalism, encountering singers and lay people in India and Pakistan, probing the forces of history and politics that have created disputatiously diverse Rams, while also spawning many Kabirs.
Khamosh pani = Silent waters by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #4776It is 1979 and Pakistan is embracing nationalism through its Islamic identity. Widowed Ayesha lives in Charkhi, Punjab with her son Saleem, who joins a group of fundamentalists. When a group of Sikh pilgrims come to town, the family's faith comes into question.
Little terrorist by Call Number: Streaming videoA film about A 10-year-old Pakistani boy that mistakenly crosses the border with no way of getting back. Little Terrorist is based on a true story: In early 2003 - a twelve year old Pakistani boy crossed the Indo-Pak border by mistake. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bhihari Vajpaee, amidst PR fanfare, restored the boy to his family in Pakistan, kicking off the thaw in tensions between these two nuclear countries who came so close to war less than a year earlier.
These birds walk by Call Number: Streaming videoIn this beautifully filmed, inspirational documentary, a high-spirited runaway boy in Pakistan tries to find his way back home from the orphanage in which he lives, aided by a sympathetic ambulance driver who was once a street kid himself.
Internet resource(s)
- FILUMS
FILUMS is a creative outlet of expression. It aims to achieve the status of a global festival through its audience, the diverse content and esteemed set of panelists and discussions led by experts from around the world. ... - Pakistan's Movie Industry is Being Remade from The DiplomatThe Pakistani film and drama industry has seen a massive change in the twenty-first century, despite being overshadowed by Bollywood, lousy scriptwriting, censorship, a lack of technology, and screen failures. Despite these shortcomings, young Pakistani actors have not only transformed the movie industry via their on-screen performances; in turn, the industry has also shaped how Pakistani society views the ills of the nation. [11/26/2020]
