There is a deliberate attempt to destroy the very definition of Art in Pakistan by certain Filmmakers who are mainly concerned with commercial interest and what is more absurd is that they call it a revival of Pakistani Cinema.

No disrespect is intended towards the new generation of Pakistani filmmakers who are sincerely giving their best to pull our industry out from the crisis. They are the future and their passion is commendable, however it is very unfair to them when certain Filmmakers are indulged in the tried and tested formula, “item song”.

This is setting up a new trend in Pakistan where success of any film is not assessed by the quality of its substance but rather profanity & obscenity of its content, where the success is judged by using woman as an item or a sexual object that dances around a number of armed spectators and it keeps getting absurd because it is later termed as “Masala Film” and one may wonder what does it really mean other than the senseless justification to promote vulgarism?

I have often seen some artists justifying this formula by saying that large number of people turned to the cinemas just to watch the obscenity thus according to them it has given some sort of social acceptance by the society and I am sure lot of people do agree with these artists but then the counter question is raised that why not legalize pornography for Cinemas since it also draws a sizable viewership from our country?

Yes explicit content is also part of global art and each region has set its own degree to judge what is vulgar to them and for how much it can be used for commercial purposes via keeping their socio-cultural taboos under considerations that is why it’s absolutely injurious to blindly copying Bollywood/Hollywood in Pakistan.

The art that we sell in Pakistan has to be Pakistani centric, I find no issue if a Pakistani director produce a content for a foreign country according to its standard but same standards are not applied in Pakistan.

Good business doesn’t mean success, senseless obscenity merely to sell woman as an item to earn extra cash is not called Filmmaking rather it could very well be termed as virtual-prostitution, we may not like this terminology but this is what it technically becomes.

Do these filmmakers realize that there is a public outcry in India about such item numbers that they comfortably steal from? Do they realize that many progressive elements of Indian society are blaming such kind of profanity and vulgarity as one of the reasons for the increasing rape culture in their country?

Shall we wait till next 15 years to cry over the deteriorating situation like Indian society or should we learn a lesson and draw the line? I think it’s about time that we trust our audience, let’s be confident in our skills to pull the crowd solely based on our ability to tell the story and not to sell woman as an item.

Let’s respect our new generation of filmmakers who are working hard day and night to make this Industry as one of the finest in the region with distinctive Pakistani genre and don’t force them to get into this sloppy, thoughtless, untidy competition of selling disgust.

Simply making movies is not called the revival of cinema, if Pakistan has to truly experience a cinematic revival they need quality film-makers, people with vision who can tell interesting, engaging and original stories.

People like Jami, a man whom I can proudly draw the distinction as a “Pakistani” Filmmaker who has a strong grip over culture and subcultures, who uses music to create a meaning and focus more in telling the story than shoving it inside people’s throats via item numbers.

Production Studios must look into giving more attention to the indie filmmakers that will give you a raw talent, an authentic story-telling techniques rather than testing these insecure and commercially driven Directors that focus on more style than substance.

Our previous generation could not save the downfall of this Industry through bring stage culture as routine part of story-telling but now we must save it from the newly invented Item-culture specially ever since the new life given by films such as 021, Khuda K leye, WAAR and Ram Chand Pakistani.

Industry is not revived by selling Billis or Munnis but by originality of storytelling.