In this era of fragile cultural freedoms, modern Pakistani popular culturists will need to do something a bit more meaningful before the pendulum swings back and they are yet again asked to pack their bags and run home…

Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes …

Religious parties and lobbies have been lambasting the so-called “infiltration of Hindu culture” in Pakistan for a very long time. More so in the last decade or so.

They remain to be a strong and vocal lobby that has always been in the forefront of influencing the censor and cultural policies of various governments.

But if on one end, one can quite safely accuse the governments and the state of Pakistan of continuing to allow these lobbies to flex their muscles and exhibit their clearly flawed moral moorings, then the so-called liberals too are to be equally blamed.

The liberals have always failed to understand exactly what makes the political and social milieu of Pakistan tick (or burst!). Much of the work in this respect is done on outdated assumptions and with a highly knee-jerk attitude.

Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air …

On a cultural level, this country has either been in the grip of cultural activity studded with religious propaganda and restrictive moral idiosyncrasies, or brimming-over with meaningless liberal mumbo-jumbo.

Assumptions regarding the “masses” in this regard are flawed. The liberals are always underestimating and undermining popular sentiment, while the conservatives are constantly overriding popular beliefs by influencing them through
the distortion of the concepts of morality and patriotism.

It is a rapidly swinging pendulum without a stable, middle position. A middle-ground. And It is this middle ground on which lies the so-called masses’ political, social and cultural aspirations and reality.

So, while the myopic forces have always been active in making deep inroads in the ways of the people with their political parties, tableeghi-jamaats and related activity, why can’t our creative liberals do the same?

They cannot afford to keep calling themselves “entertainers” only. Many of them will have to stand up and do something with a bit more meaning, before the pendulum swings back and they are yet again asked to pack their bags and run home.

Fearlessly the idiot faces the crowd …

It is surprising how so many people misunderstand the whole idea of cultural activities that aspire to address social and political issues. They imagine a play, a film or a song that runs like a cold, cynical propaganda speech. Not true.

There are numerous examples in the realms of Western cinema, popular music, television and the fine arts, in which the finished work is not only aesthetically impressive and entertaining, but is a meaningful statement on the human condition as well.

Highly entertaining and professionally made keeping in mind monetary profits, these films, plays and songs do not repress the moral duty of a public artist to also consider the political and social condition of their audience.

And no matter how much daunting the advent of cold-cut commercialism in matters of popular culture, the above remains to be modern popular art’s true social calling.

Little by little the night turns around …

Let’s now look at some work exemplifying the work in Pakistani television and modern popular music which was unafraid to comment (within the context of entertainment), on the human condition of country’s political, social and economic milieu …

Television

• Khuda ki Basti (1969-70).
Based on Shaukat Siddiqui’s novel of the same name, this Bukhtiar Ahmed directed PTV serial still stands tall as a sensitive and realistic peek in the lives of dwellers living in Karachi’s sprawling urban slums (called Katchi Abadis), and whose lives are constantly wrought with economic and social calamities brought on by lop-sided economics, a flawed system of justice and social hypocrisy.

• Nijaat (1974)
A one-of-a-kind PTV offering, this Mohammad Nisar Hussain directed play concentrated squarely on a village preacher’s (molvi’s) life and how he starts to disintegrate while coming to terms with his sexual urges. This play has never been repeated after its original airing. It is however available on DVD.

• Sonay ki Chirya (1975)
A brilliantly enacted play about the lives of street children (in Lahore) and the relationships they strike with other dispossessed characters, with poverty and desperation being the only constants in their lives.

• Jhok Syial (1975-76)
This long-running serial written by Munu Bhai and directed by Yawar Hayatt, addressed feudal oppression and religious superstition in rural Punjab. This serial can also bee seen as a way to study the gradual shift in Punjab (in the late ‘70s] from liberal Barelvi-ism to conservative Deobandi-ism and a more puritanical strain of Sufi-ism (Ashfaq Ahmed plays in the ‘80s).

• Fifty-Fifty (1978-84)
Populist satire skit show ironically inspired by the more pompous Such Gup (1972-75).
Managed to address various social issues with great wit and tact during the height of Zia’s conservative regime. Early on scripted by Anwar Maqsood and directed by Shoaib Mansoor.

• Waris (1979-1981)
This Yawar Hayatt/Ghazanfar Ali directed and Amjad Islam Amjad scripted serial courted controversy when in an attempt to highlight the cruelty of Southern Punjab’s feudal lords, ended up actually glorifying feudalism. However, it did portray well the raise of urban Punjab’s petty-bourgeoisie at the expense of rural feudalism in the province.

• Tapish (1989)
Written by Noor-ul-Huda Shah and directed by Saira Kazmi, this serial bemoaned the many young lives that were lost and families broken during Zia’s 11-year-dictatorship. Jamal Shah’s angry-young-man role turned him into a star while Tapish went on to influence a series of similar plays between 1989 and 1991 (such as, Amjad Nadeem Syed’s Neelay Haath).

• Loose Talk (2002)
Hosted and scripted by the always-in-season, Anwar Maqsood, and mostly enacted by the stunningly versatile Moin Akhtar, Loose Talk confronts various thorny issues with great wit, parody and hilarity, sometimes sounding a lot more sensible than the many so-called “serious” political talk shows!

• Daira (2003)
A botched attempt to dramatize Mohsin Hamid’s highly overrated novelized opera of yuppies gone wild. Nonetheless, this remains to be local television’s most recent attempt to face-up to issues like non-marital sex, drugs and decadency.


Music

• Meray Saath: Final Cut (1989)
Though now defunct, Final Cut was one of the first Pakistani pop/rock bands to air a “socially-conscious” song. Meray Saath (performed twice on PTV in 1989), heavily alluded to the effects of the time’s campus violence between student groups in which dozens of students were killed between 1989 and 1991.

• Meyra Dil Nahi Available: Vital Signs (1991)
Very few know that this popular teen-beat pop tune about a heart-less flirt is actually a symbolic take on America’s fickle ways with country’s like Pakistan. The idea was conceived by former Signs’ vocalist Junaid Jamshed and lyricist Shoaib Mansoor.

• Aiysa Na Ho: (1991)
Perhaps the Signs’ most abrasive song, which, like an ardent alarmist, rues the loss of hope and euphoria first discovered at the fall of the Zia regime in 1988; a euphoria that stood squandered with a fresh round of corruption, political intrigue and ethnic and sectarian violence.

• Talaash: Junoon (1993)
An angry, guitar-slinging attack on Pakistani establishment’s “slave mentality,” but done with some potent sense of humor ( a sound-byte imitating the not-so-coherent-sounding former President Ishaq Khan announcing General Zia’s death hilariously punctuates the raving lyrics and driven composition).

• Jaago: Jazba (1993)
Based on the “freedom struggle” in Kashmir, this militant rap song bounced into prominence with a simple but mighty effective video. Even though mouthing about a struggle hijacked by the religious right, Jazba as a band ironically came in from the neo-Marxist prespective.

• En Sey Nain Mila Kay Dekho: Najam Shiraz
Long before falling prey to self-righteous evangelism, Najam, like Junoon, began on the left sides of ideology. This song is an early example, passionately commenting upon the pragmatism and deceiving ways of modern capitalist system.

• Sona Cahata Hoon: Najam Shiraz (1994)
A twisted, raving document on the insomnia-inducing paranoia plaguing urban living.

• Chief Saab: Sajjad Ali (1995)
A bouncy tongue-in-cheek look at the time’s infamous and politicalized hooligan culture in Karachi.

• Main Kon Hoon: Junoon (1996)
Written with a Marxist journalist, (Shahzad Amjad), this song furthered Junoon’s journey from being angry left-field rockers towards becoming “spiritual revolutionaries.” Attaches social change with self-discovery in the tradition of Iranian scholar, Ali Shariati.

• Rooh Ki Pyaas: Junoon (1996)
An atmospheric Sufi-ist plunge longing for spiritual companionship in the material world.

• No Love: Dr. Aur Billa (1996)
Ace pop-pranksters, Dr. Aur Billa, jolt various complacent video/pop/film formulas in this madcap take on social conformity in the show-biz industry.

• Billo Dey Ghar: Abrar-ul-Haq (1996)
A playful bhangra pop opera involving a street-smart Romeo falling for a prostitute and facing the consequences (i.e. crooked cops in league with petty-bourgeoisie moral hypocrisy).

• Ehtesaab: Junoon (1997)
After overenthusiastically attaching itself with the time’s right-wing Imran Khan-Hamid Gul nexus against the Benazir Bhutto government, this song is no-more than a naïve anthem for Khan’s soon-to-be inaugurated political party. Junoon’s shift from the angry left to a hotchpotch right was now complete.

• Mr. Fraudiay: Awaz (1998)
Though a frivolous boy-band making disposable bopper pop, Awaz surprised everyone with this witty comment on the double-dealing ways of political king-makers.

• Irtiqa-III: Entity-Paradigm (2003)
Even though a mixed bunch of show-biz multitaskers (musicians/fashion models/actors/directors), EP delivered one of the most powerful statements on the modern human condition with this highly dramatized chestnut. However, it is likely very few of them really ever believed what they were passionately chanting about.

• King of Self: Sajid & Zeeshan (2004)
Though masquerading as an anti-smoking avowal, King of Self is a concentrated attack on the social and creative pitfalls of the plague of unabashed corporate sponsorship in the Pakistani music scene.

• Patli Gali aur Raja Jaani ki Gol Dunya: Noori (2005)
Heavily criticized for opting to let themselves be turn into a harmless pop-punk act by a music channel and corporate sponsorship, former underground darlings Noori returned with this delightful piece which though subtle in its social comment was heavy in self-parody.