Pakistani film-makers continue to revel in mediocrity. Rumours about a revival of the Urdu cinema are greatly exaggerated.
If Indians travelling abroad repeatedly find themselves in situations where they are expected to know what brand of toothpaste Madhuri Dixit is currently using, Pakistanis face a similar hounding. The difference is that Indians are quizzed about their movie stars, while Pakistanis are grilled about their TV actors.
So it may come as a mild shock to the uninformed that Pakistan chums out over a hundred feature films a year. The logical question that follows is: "Then why hasn´t anyone seen them?", to which the answer is, "Because they are so bad that even the Pakistanis don´t see them." Ask any Pakistani you meet at a seminar or meeting hall about the national cinema, and more likely than not, he will respond with an apology.
For almost half a century, cinema in Pakistan has been climbing a slippery slope. Just when it seems to have gotten a grip, something comes along to send it tumbling down again. The problems are manifold. The riots during Partition took their toll on the film industry. The Upper India and Shoori studios of Lahore were ransacked and gutted. Three were left unscathed, of which Pancholi was the first one to be revived in the new-born country.