| Serious angst here at the lack of Islamic soft power |
Aishwarya Rai with her annoyingly plastic and butter-wouldnÂ’t-melt-in-my-mouth (although bigger and more solid things would) smile blowing at us. Abhishek Bachchan with a cat-who-just-licked-the-cream satisfied smile lying seductively in a big circle.
| If you just bagged Aishwarya you would smile too |
Please don’t get me wrong. I am not a hypocrite. Yes, I like India — the cinema, the music, the civil society, the literature, the people’s movements, the democracy and much more. I am deeply impressed by these aspects of Indian society. But I certainly don’t like these film stars morphing into our role models. That is not on. I will protest. I am all for creating our very own role models, or for that matter simply models. Indianisation of our advertising is a serious menace to Pakistani society on many levels.
| menance to islamism you mean |
On a deeper level, this trend affects the potential and development of our own creative industry which includes film-makers, models, technical crew and so many others. We are losing out to India, which has hordes of cheaper human resource. Corporate and advertising sectors are rushing to India for cheaper gains at the cost of bigger damage in the long run. To top it all off, false claims are made that these sectors are working for the development and enhancement of our own talent. IÂ’m not against collaboration. We should work with the Indians and learn from them in order to enhance our understanding and expertise of the craft and bring it back to our country. We must learn to use such knowledge to our advantage, instead of handing over the pie to them, eventually becoming losers.
Every year, Lux Style Awards are announced with a purpose to recognise our talent and bring sophistication to our respective fields. Interestingly, an Indian show director Ashim Sen is imported to plan and shoot the awards ceremony this year. The first two ceremonies were planned, conceptualised and shot by Pakistani directors and the second LSA show by Asim Raza still remains the best in terms of content and execution. A huge amount of local ads are being made in India with Indian models, directors and crew. Pakistani advertising company executives go there with concepts (most of the times that is also Indian) and come back with finished ads ready to be put on air. The reason given for this creative theft is that Pakistan does not offer quality human resource and infrastructure.
Fine, point taken. But then develop it. Whose responsibility is it? After all, these ads are used to extract money out of our pockets. Our money is spent on these campaigns because neither the corporate nor the advertising sector is bleeding-heart compassionate and charitable to spend their own money. It does work this way. Therefore, we have a right to demand to see our people in these campaigns. Why should anyone else benefit from our money? Interestingly, I have never seen a Pakistani talent being given countless column space, huge billboards or ample air time in India.
| perhaps if your army would stop sending jihadis to kill them, the Indians would be more receptive to Pakistani faces |
I mean, earstwhile Junoon was very popular in India in the late 1990s. Atif Aslam, Ali Zafar and Strings are humongous over there. Their work is used in films, they top the charts, their songs are played in clubs, you will hear them blaring out of car stereos, shops, flats. They are recognised by name, by their work and faces in India. But you will never spot their faces peering down from billboards, advertising spaces in publications or endorsing products in advertising campaigns. Have we ever stopped for a second and pondered over the reason?
Similar covert operations are happening in TV. The disease of soap operas has been imported from India. Now it’s a known fact that Indian TV steals ideas from the west and Indianise it, and we take it from there and put it on our TV — without even bothering to give it a local flavour. Indian TV professionals are working in Pakistani TV soaps. Their dialogue delivery and accent reeks of India with hideous pronunciations. And how can I not mention the rape of our language
| what language would that be? Urdu? One of the official traditional languages of India? |
I heard a senior TV executive at a leading channel screaming at his personnel, “I want Star Plus. I don’t care, give that to me. Give me Star Plus soaps!” As a result we see made-up vixens, namby pamby men, cut-to-cut shots, fast editing, empty scripts, deafening and senseless music and mindless glamour. I want to scream (because polite requests are drowned in the lusty calls for money) that this is not us. This is not our cultural and societal representation.
| Prior to 1947, Pakistan did not even exist. Its culture and society derive from Indian Muslim ones. There are more muslims in India than the entire population of Pakistan |
In Pakistan we have different clothes for different occasions and surely I have never seen any woman wearing a necklace and earrings set, made-up to the hilt, dressed to the nines washing clothes. Never! But we have become blinded by this Indian influence and are mindlessly, inanely copying what is show on Indian TV screens. Now the disease is invading Pakistani fashion as well, which so far has a distinct Pakistani identity craved with great dedication, affection and sincerity. And with immense pride I would like to announce that our fashion is far superior to Indias.
| The need for superiority over India is important to the Pak psyche. Otherwise why the need for partition. |
As if mounting Americanisation and globalisation were not threats big enough to destroy our social, financial and societal fibre, this latest monster of creeping Indianisation has also hit us to claim its share in changing our identity.
| Islam you see is supposed to be stronger than the kaffirs |
| did they all blow themselves up? |
WhatÂ’s next? Sonia Gandhi in Pakistan PeopleÂ’s Party campaigns? Bal Thakeray as MQMÂ’s mascot? Praveen Togarya of extremeist party Vishwa Hindu Parishad as Lashkar-i-Taiba or JUIÂ’s face? General Arora Singh starring in Jawad AhmedÂ’s ISPR-sponsored video?
| General Arora Singh accepted the surrender of Pakistan forces in 1971.. He took 80 thousand Pak POWs.. and half the country away |