Recently the Government has permitted the release of some specific Indian films in Pakistan. Though the income to be realised through the screening of these movies will be spent on the uplift of the earthquake victims, nevertheless a section of the society has vehemently opposed such a decision.
Those who oppose it are of the opinion that their exhibition would adversely affect the country's already fragile cinema industries, as it would not be able to sustain the onslaught of Indian culture.
Another section of people oppose such an exhibition on the grounds that the Indian government does not reciprocate the act by allowing the exhibition of Pakistan films in India.
One fails to understand how the exhibition of the Indian films in cinema halls will cause a cultural invasion when satellite channels and availability of cheap videos has already reached each corner of the country. In my opinion the very idea of a cultural invasion is now insignificant, as it would obliquely imply that our culture is too fragile and vulnerable to Indian culture.
Secondly, Pakistan, though a sovereign entity for the last 60 years, has been historically a part of the sub-continent, divided only on a religious basis. At the time of partition a sizeable number of Muslims, who migrated to Pakistan, spoke the language that is now the lingua franca of the four provinces, including Azad Kashmir.
In Pakistan, Urdu enjoys the status of a national language. It was the main language of the Indian migrant Muslims. Does that mean that we are under the influence of Indian culture? Of course not; as it was adopted as a medium of communication as it is easily understood by all the sub-nationalities of Pakistan.
Besides a language belongs to a specific area not to a religion in the same manner as Muslim Arabs cannot claim Arabic as their exclusive language, as Jews and Christian Arabs can also assert it as their language too.
The fact is that Indian and Pakistani movies are in the same language irrespective of the fact that the Pakistani's call them Urdu films and the Indians claim their films as Hindi pictures (with a difference of script). In fact, it is the local film producers' lobby that produces cheap and lackluster movies which now feels threatened if Indian movies are allowed in cinema halls.
Their approach is myopic as the lack of exhibition of Indian films was the chief cause of Pakistani film industries' doom. Till 1965, when Indian pictures were not banned, local film makers had to compete with imported films and their production during that era can no way be considered less superior than Indian movies.
In the larger interest of the Pakistani film industries and the interest of the left-over cinemas government should immediately withdraw the restriction and allow the screening of Indian movies. As regards reciprocity from India if local producers come out with good quality movies, I believe that no body on earth can stop the exhibition of our films on Indian screens.
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