You Owe me a Job

[JonAsad]

Pakistani audience should get what they want- local dramas are full of sh!t-
We want dramas where every character has an illegal or extra marital affair with his uncle- aunt- bhabhi- sister in law or bro in law etc- we dont want a women and her husbands best friend doing shaytanian behind close doors- and mother in law eves dropping- make out in open- we are 21st century audience we deserve better than that-

 

[muse]

Pakistani audience should get what they want- local dramas are full of sh!t-
We want dramas where every character has an illegal or extra marital affair with his uncle- aunt- bhabhi- sister in law or bro in law etc- we dont want a women and her husbands best friend doing shaytanian behind close doors- and mother in law eves dropping- make out in open- we are 21st century audience we deserve better than that-

But here is what is on offer:

The repetitious hackneyed plots more often than not are idiotic, unrealistic and implausible and do a great harm to the society by presenting archaic stereotypes and awful, conservative portrayals of women as weak, hapless, totally at the mercy of their husbands and in-laws, with no possibility of escape from their horrible life situations, who can be summarily thrown out by the husband merely repeating talaak three times.

The dearth of good playwrights leads to formula plots of a cruel mother-in-law, a spineless, obedient son and a jellyfish of a husband, a subservient daughter-in-law for whom working outside the home, demanding a divorce, returning to her parents or even going to an Edhi center is unthinkable. A distorted version of religious injunctions is presented play after play which stipulates that a woman can be summarily divorced or has a religious duty to stick with her abusive husband. Such awful depiction of women reinforces their second class citizen role that the religious right advocates and by presenting women in such a light the channels are complicit in further marginalising the already pitiful status of women in Pakistan.

When one looks at the trend of the dramas playing at any one time, one is struck by the similarity in plots, as if they were all written by the same playwright e.g. a brother or a sister lusting after his or her sibling’s paramour or spouse, the husband who divorces his wife in a manner most favored by the playwrights in a fit of insane rage now attempting to resort to ‘Halala’ another favorite of theirs.

 

[MST]

I personally feel there should be options available so the people can chose what they want to see. The Vulgar Turkish and the Saas Bahu Indians should be seen in this light and not as an invasion. I am sure if the Pakistani Television wants they can create a niche for themselves.

I remember back in the early 2000s when television had opened up in India there were many foreign soaps that were shown and were quite popular. I have a distinct memory of an Italian serial about a Servent Girl dubbed in Hindi (don't remember the name) which was quite popular. So back then Indian TV scene was not very different from what Pakistan has today. i don't remember anyone complaining about it then in India.

The difference happened when Zee and Star pioneered Indian content even though some of them were copies (e.g. who wants to be millionaire). It was only only then that the quality and quantity of Indian content increased to finally what we have now and hasn't looked back. This revolution was done by Individuals and companies like Balaji (no matter the amount of shyte they produce now - "Hum Panch" was really good) and channels like Star and Zee. There was never Indian Government in picture.

I really feel that Pakistani Television Industry should look at Indian Television industry as a case study. Though I know some Pakistanis will take exception to this comment, I believe there is lot to learn from Indian TV Industry. Simply because what you are going through right now - we have been there and done that.

 

[muse]

MST

Think Ideology - that's what it is really about -- The exposure to foreign shows, with those actors speaking Urdu, is judged to be super dangerous, it allows Pakistanis to identify with persons who are the models of the official ideology, who are not models of the kinds of ideas, ok, look, "Heavily made Sari clad Indian, Vulgar Turks, National Identity, National honor, National Security", these are not notions of entertainment, these are elements of ideology

 

[MST]

MST

Think Ideology - that's what it is really about -- The exposure to foreign shows, with those actors speaking Urdu, is judged to be super dangerous, it allows Pakistanis to identify with persons who are the models of the official ideology, who are not models of the kinds of ideas, ok, look, "Heavily made Sari clad Indian, Vulgar Turks, National Identity, National honor, National Security", these are not notions of entertainment, these are elements of ideology

Well this is true for India as well. There was always the potential of right wingers in India objecting to Skirt wearing Blondes speaking Hindia trying to ruin the Indian culture. I won't be surprised if there were protests but they were not big enough that I remember any.

Today instead of television we have protests against Pub culture, colleges issuing fatwa on women's dressing and in some cases right wingers trying to take law in their hands. I think this kind of insecurity is common to both India and Pakistan and stems from the fact that both are young nation trying to find a firm footing in world. Everyone is fighting for their ideology the conservatives as well as the liberals. The only difference between the two countries I would say is that - thanks to better economic conditions India/Indians are slightly more confident about themselves than Pakistan/Pakistanis.

Not sure if this reply is relevant to the point you made. Just giving my two cents.

 

[muse]

Art and the elite
Rafia Zakaria

THE date was Jan 26 and the venue was Jaipur’s Diggi Palace. The occasion was the Jaipur Literature Festival, which since its inception a few years ago has become India’s homage to the written word, to the glitterati of the literary world, to the cosmopolitanism of emerging India.

At a panel discussion entitled ‘The republic of ideas’, noted Indian intellectual and sociologist Ashis Nandy made a statement that was to land him and the festival in a quagmire of allegations and indictments. His controversial words came in the context of discussing corruption in India, and he asserted that politicians from the backward castes in India are not as adept as the wealthy in masking their corruption. When challenged by a fellow discussant Nandy went on to emphasise: “It is a fact that most of the corrupt come from the OBCs [Other Backward Classes] and the Scheduled Castes and now increasingly the Scheduled Tribes.”

Under Indian law, members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are granted affirmative action to amend the historical discrimination they have faced and continue to confront. In numerical terms, they make up about 24 per cent of the Indian population (per 2001 census numbers) and over the years various sets of legislation have been put into place ensuring their representation in politics, government institutions and other state functions. As is the case with most historically discriminated against groups, however, their representation in these cadres still remains low and their struggles for uplift arduous.

At a venue such as the Jaipur Literature Festival, few such members were present at all. However, the ubiquitous television cameras of contemporary South Asia were in attendance and it was not long before several politicians from the Scheduled Castes/Tribes learned of Nandy’s comments. Within a few hours, denunciations and demands for apologies flew and Nandy had to be scuttled away from Jaipur to New Delhi. Overnight, complaints against him were lodged with the police and the festival organisers. A few days later, the Indian Supreme Court took up the case in response to a petition filed by Nandy asking for the court’s protection. After a hearing, a stay was issued on the order for his arrest until further investigation.

The dynamics of discrimination in India’s caste system and the success of legal measures is one lens with which to view controversy over Professor Nandy’s remarks. In its aftermath, Indian free speech advocates have found themselves in the cumbersome position of either trying to contextualise Nandy’s statements by reminding people that his life’s work has always championed the rights of the discriminated or denouncing his remarks while also upholding the freedom of allowing them to be made. Their agenda is both necessary and urgent; in a diverse country such as India, the argument for free speech must be robust enough to withstand the state onslaught that would wield the pragmatics of security, safety and peace to grab increasingly more power and impose more and more silence.

There is, however, another dimension to the Nandy controversy that goes beyond free speech and the particularities of caste, and bears relevance to Pakistan. This dynamic relates to the class of intellectual elite Nandy represents and that India had put on show for the world at the Jaipur Literature Festival. Like its much smaller Pakistani parallel across the border, this class bears a genuine fear of the populism of the masses — of the hordes at the gates of festivals whose easily offended feelings result in riots and end up muzzling artistic expression.

If this is kept in mind, Nandy’s comments were perhaps not a slip in substance, but a slip of situation, where an intellectual who felt surrounded by a cosy cohort of ‘people like us’ spoke what many of his class and stature may believe in private but would be smart enough to not admit in public.

This is then not a question of tolerance but of which class claims cultural production and whether it can publicly sport a disdain for those who are believed to be beyond its discourse, relegated to being subjects of artistic or intellectual discourse, but rarely — if ever — its producers.

This is not a new conundrum as for a long time, and perhaps forever, art has been the arena of the elite, fuelled by the leisure afforded via affluence and untouched by the mundane, creativity-crushing vagaries of meals, rents and bills.

Changing this dynamic requires not simply enforcing public peace, ensuring freedom against censorship and providing equal protection to all those living in a diverse polity but also opening up the limits of who produces art, literary or visual, to those whose voices are muzzled by their lack of means. In India, as the Nandy controversy reveals, some of these battles are under way, with constituencies aware of the need for protecting both speech and minority rights. This suggests that the road to artistic inclusion, where literary festivals are no longer the arena of the elite, may begin to be forged.

In Pakistan, the battle has not yet begun. In a country where artistic production carries the weight of a constricting public sphere marred by violence and where self-censorship often equates survival, the stray play or fashion show or literary festival does not yet dare to aim for any sort of class egalitarianism. The strictures of this straitjacket are tightened still further when one response to that elitism — to a creative class dominated by those blessed by wealth and privilege — has been a virulent mass religiosity that denounces all cultural production as lacking in value and worthy of excoriation if not complete destruction.

In India, the Nandy saga has initiated a public debate about the limits of tolerance, freedom of speech and the prejudices of caste. In Pakistan, with bans here and there and blasphemy cases at every corner, the debate cannot yet even begin.

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

 

[muse]

Ms Zakaria is one of my favorite people to read - but I am having trouble digesting the core of her idea, witness:

This is then not a question of tolerance but of which class claims cultural production and whether it can publicly sport a disdain for those who are believed to be beyond its discourse, relegated to being subjects of artistic or intellectual discourse, but rarely — if ever — its producers.

This is not a new conundrum as for a long time, and perhaps forever, art has been the arena of the elite, fuelled by the leisure afforded via affluence and untouched by the mundane, creativity-crushing vagaries of meals, rents and bills.

Changing this dynamic requires not simply enforcing public peace, ensuring freedom against censorship and providing equal protection to all those living in a diverse polity but also opening up the limits of who produces art, literary or visual, to those whose voices are muzzled by their lack of means.

hain ji? What? WHY? Ms. Zakariya elaborates:

In India, as the Nandy controversy reveals, some of these battles are under way, with constituencies aware of the need for protecting both speech and minority rights. This suggests that the road to artistic inclusion, where literary festivals are no longer the arena of the elite, may begin to be forged.

In Pakistan, the battle has not yet begun

Hhmm, no seriously, hhmmm - Someone help me with this - protect speech, minority rights freedom of expression, ok, got it but then :

The strictures of this straitjacket are tightened still further when one response to that elitism — to a creative class dominated by those blessed by wealth and privilege — has been a virulent mass religiosity that denounces all cultural production as lacking in value and worthy of excoriation if not complete destruction

Hmmm, do we owe it to these to enable them to destroy us, destroy our production? Notice the "Our" as in "our kind of people" -- Heelpp!

 

[Zarvan]

Friends:

What's all this then?? Heavily made Indian women in Sari and vulgar Turks are threatening the Culture, values, Nationalism and the Pakistani way of life


Foreign dramas threaten Pakistani cultural values

ISLAMABAD: Artistes of the Pakistani showbiz industry said that a sequence of events hastened the collapse of the Pakistani movie industry but the two setbacks that stand out in this unwanted process are the decision to allow the exhibition of Indian films in Pakistani cinemas and the airing of foreign, especially Turkish and Indian, drama serials on local TV channels.

The artistes more or less agreed that this “external cultural invasion” was snatching away the remaining outlets available for Pakistani artistes to show their skills in the field of performing arts.

Pakistani dramas, now losing out prime time space to foreign-produced drama, not only regaled the audience at home with their excellent content and quality but also gained popularity abroad with their superb depiction of Pakistani cultural values.

In the 90s, when Pakistan’s film industry crashed, TV dramas accommodated the artistes of silver screen in an attempt to keep alive the identity of the actors.

Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) Director General Tauqeer Nasir said, “Unfortunately, we did not take timely action to save our film industry but the recent cultural invasion by Turkish and Indian dramas on Pakistani channels is unacceptable for TV artistes and if the issue is not handled properly, history will repeat itself and it will adversely affect our cultural values and heritage.”

“Enhancing viewership and making money sometimes creates gaps and the downfall of Lollywood was the result of not filling these gaps in time. The drama sector will suffer if the Pakistani nation stays silent,” he added.

Tauqeer Nasir also said, “Pakistan has immense talent, but unfortunately we do not honour our heroes and value our heritage which is creating lack of nationalism in the young generation.”

He added that it was the duty of parents and teachers to create a sense of nationalism among the youth and media should also play a constructive role in this regard by realising the national interest and promoting the cultural heritage of the country.

“The trend of airing Turkish and Indian dramas on top channels poses a question mark on our local production standards which were not low. The dramas being produced and directed here follow true ethical and cultural values, viewership restrictions and issues purely connected to our society. First, we brought the culture of Indian sarees and heavily made-up women in our homes, and now Turkish dramas are invading our culture and promoting vulgarity to a great extent,” the PNCA DG remarked.

Tauqeer Nasir said that the media should launch a comprehensive awareness campaign on the slogan of ‘Be Pakistani, See Pakistani’ to benefit the local drama industry, artistes, talent and more importantly to keep the local culture and traditions alive.

“Our dramas are all about raising issues of human interest and bringing correction to the society with soft expressions of performing art,” Tauqeer added.

Renowned Film Director and Producer, Syed Noor said that these foreign dramas should not be showcased on Pakistani TV channels, as it will create confusion among the youth in adopting between local and foreign cultural values.

“The dramas being produced in Pakistan were purely family content while the foreign dramas have their own culture, which include bold dressing and way of living, which is not acceptable for most of the Pakistani families,” he added.

Syed Noor hoped that the trend would prove to be a temporary one and said, “Our artistes have talent and they will take this challenge with an open heart to reverse the trend.”

A top management official of a private TV channel said that the channels promoted foreign dramas because they received better feedback. app

This foreign **** is not going to last for long Pakistanis are getting pissed on vulgarity in Pakistani dramas they are not not going to tolerate this crap of foreign content

 

[indushek]

Ms Zakaria is one of my favorite people to read - but I am having trouble digesting the core of her idea, witness:



hain ji? What? WHY? Ms. Zakariya elaborates:



Hhmm, no seriously, hhmmm - Someone help me with this - protect speech, minority rights freedom of expression, ok, got it but then :


Hmmm, do we owe it to these to enable them to destroy us, destroy our production? Notice the "Our" as in "our kind of people" -- Heelpp!

That was but one response only, and surely not everybody out there would be holding it against the creative class ?? another oddity is that not all of the creative class are elites are they??

 

[muse]

Indushek

one response to that elitism — to a creative class dominated by those blessed by wealth and privilege — has been a virulent mass religiosity that denounces all cultural production as lacking in value and worthy of excoriation if not complete destruction

Do we owe such as these to be enabled? After all, they have a Tabla rasa approach to the very notion of culture as "we" understand it. (note the responses of the "usual suspects")