पुराना पाकिस्तान

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The Pakistan film industry began growing expediently in the 1960s and reached a peak in the 1970s, before pattering out in the 1980s and ultimately collapsing from the 1990s onwards.

However, the industry entered the 1970s with vigour and confidence, wanting to ‘internationalise’ Pakistani films by getting into joint projects with Turkish, Iranian, Greek and film industries of various other countries.
One of the first projects in this regard was the 1971 film, ‘Operation Karachi’ (see poster) – a steamy thriller with a pop soundtrack punctuated by bouncy numbers by famous Pakistani singers Ahmad Rushdi and Runa Laila.

The film was a massive hit, especially on the screens of Karachi and Lahore’s open drive-in cinemas.

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A 1973 shot of a mass of film enthusiasts gathered outside the famous Nishat Cinema in Karachi to watch ‘7 Voyages of Sindbad’. Just behind the main hoarding is a smaller board advertising the ‘coming soon’ flick, ‘Game of Death’ staring Martial Arts expert and movie star, Bruce Lee.

Just like they did around the world, Bruce Lee films also became hugely popular with Pakistani audiences. They played to packed houses, especially at Nishat, a movie theatre that was inaugurated by the sister of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, but burned down by a mob of religious fanatics in September 2012.

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Urdu newspaper photo of the wife of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Nusrat Bhutto (third from right) with a group of Pakistani ‘supermodels’ at a launch party of a film in 1973.

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A 1974 anti-Ahmadi wall-chalking in the Pakistani city of Sargodah. Religious parties went on a rampage against Ahmadis and their property, demanding that the community be declared as non-Muslim. Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, though heading a supposedly ‘socialist’ and ‘progressive’ government, capitulated and agreed to the demand of the religious parties. Ahmadis were declared non-Muslim and a minority group. The community has continued to face violence and harassment from conservative and radical religious outfits.

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American Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, escorting Pakistan’s First Lady, Nusrat Bhutto, to a banquet at the White House. Begum Nusrat was accompanying her husband, Z A. Bhutto, on his visit to the United States.

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Folk music and art and fashion aesthetics of Pakistan’s various ethnicities were aggressively promoted by the government in the 1970s. Eventually some designers fused these aesthetics with the flamboyant, modern fashion sense of the era and created a fashion called ‘Folkwear.’ The above picture shows the cover of a 1975 brochure promoting Pakistani designed and produced ‘Folkwear’ for women.

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… From 1970 till about 1985, T-shirts of most famous Western rock and pop groups were almost all made and exported from Pakistan. T-Shirt makers in Pakistan got orders from the management and marketers representing major rock musicians such as Rolling Stone, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, Aerosmith, etc, and thousands of these T-Shirts were exported to the US and the UK and ended up being sold outside concert halls and arenas in various Western countries.

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A 1972 T-Shirt of famous British progressive-rock group, Jethro Tull that was made in Pakistan

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Ibn-e-Safi was Pakistan’s most prolific and popular suspense novelists. He wrote over 200 such novels and amazingly, almost each one became a best-seller. Since his novels were immensely popular among the youth and full of action, exotic locations and characters, it was only natural that a Pakistani film-maker would turn at least one of them into a film.

Director Qamar Zaidi combined stories from various Safi novels and came up with the 1974 film, ‘Dhamaka.’ (See poster).

Though a relative success at the box-office, the film was a bizarre mix of action sequences ripped off from steamy American ‘blacxploitation’ farces, raunchy hippie imagery and proto-disco tunes.

Apart from starring the Pakistani film industry’s well-known names, Shabnam and Rehman, the film also saw debuts by Javed Sheikh (who would go on to become a famous TV and film actor and director) and singer, Alamgir.

In 1977, PTV also shot a series based on Safi novels (starring TV and film actor, Qavi), but after the Bhutto regime was toppled in July 1977, the military government of Ziaul Haq disallowed the running of the series because it thought it was ‘vulgar.’

In 1980, Safi, after suffering a nervous breakdown (he had also suffered a breakdown in 1960), depression and family problems, died at the age of 52. But his books continued to be reprinted and sell big.

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Prime Minister, Z A. Bhutto, relaxing with his daughters, Sanam (left) and Benazir (back), at their residence in Clifton, Karachi (1973).