okay, here’s a topic that might bring about some sort of a good discussion :
Lahore’s Commercial Theatre Raided!
Well it was bound to happen what with the way all kinds of unchecked salacious things had been going on Lahore’s commercial theatre in the name of art and culture. In addition, the imminent finally happened when a bevy of policemen raided a theatre and rounded up all the artistes on the charges of spreading vulgarity in society.
They were produced before a judge who let them go after a strong warning to mend their ways. The females that were caught included Nargis, presently ruling the roost on theatre and one of the main maidens who are adding to touch of tacky titillation to the scene, who complained of bad treatment, disgraceful treatment by the police. This had stage-cum-telly artiste Sohail Ahmad glowering: why are they complaining now - “un ko sharam nahin aati jab stage par ganday dance karti hain.” But if you ask us it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. For doesn’t Mr Sohail also work in leading roles in the same plays?
What do you guys think? Is this blocking this sort of entertainment going to stop the vulgarity that our film actresses indulge in? How do you think about Mr. sohail’s comments on how the actresses were treated by the police? Is this a problem at all to begin with? After all, every society has its prostitutes. Ours just happen to act in films…
Most of them come directly from the 'kotha', what else do you expect?? I don't know if it'll stop them from indulging in such behavior, but its worth a try. Mr. Sohail though a somewhat respectable actor shouldn't be saying whatever he did, becuase most of the stage dramas produced in lahore contain jokes that imply a lot of other things. I've stopped watching punjabi stage dramas mostly due to their bad/dirty jokes. About the police handling the females, i honestly don't know who to believe...both sides are dubious.
with PTV tightening its rules, and loosening the clothes that actors wear, i guess the hard worknig and frustrated public needs a place to go and vent off. not at all implying its ethically correct. but then again isnt lahore so popular for its not so sabzi mandi.
Dont stereotype! There might be people from such place in the film industry but there are also many respectable people there too!
As for Sohail's comment. I think it was totally wrong. Whatever happened there is no justification of humiliating a female ever.
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Originally posted by ~Sehar~:
*Most of them come directly from the 'kotha', what else do you expect?? I don't know if it'll stop them from indulging in such behavior, but its worth a try. Mr. Sohail though a somewhat respectable actor shouldn't be saying whatever he did, becuase most of the stage dramas produced in lahore contain jokes that imply a lot of other things. I've stopped watching punjabi stage dramas mostly due to their bad/dirty jokes. About the police handling the females, i honestly don't know who to believe...both sides are dubious. *
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Read my post again. I said 'most' and that 'most' was pretaining particularly to the uchal kood wali females on stage dramas. We weren't discussing the film industry.
I think these are two separate issues and should be treated as such.
The first one is non-courteous treatment by the police force. There is no excuse for that. Even if they are rounding up some prostitutes; the police is not supposed to maltreat them. There are standard procedures that must be followed regardless of the alleged crime. End of discussion.
The other discussion is much more complex. I have seen many stage dramas in Alhamra, back in mid 80's and early 90's, when Alhamra was not so bad. Sure, there were some tacky jokes here and there, but mostly the stuff which was dished out was the sort which you can see with the whole family. The tickets were approx 30 rupees and the halls were relatively sold out. Even folks from out of Lahore, would come to watch stage plays.
Sadly, it seems with the passage of time, the producers of the stage dramas, realized that the core-audience of these plays is no longer the educated middle-class, but rather the blue-collared working class, whose idea of entertainment is a slap-stick comedy much like the jugatt-baazi offered in the weddings. So gradually the stage productions went in the direction of one-liner slapstick and the quality started to decline. When, that was not enough to stem the declining audiences, the producers resorted to the ultimate weapon: sex. They had willing accomplices in the actresses from heera-mandi. While on one end this completely turned off the educated class from patronizing the plays, on the other hand, these low quality plays were left with nothing but worker-class audience. I guess, with the passage of time, the trend worsened to have brought it to this stage.
I think this is a classic case of chicken and egg. The producers say they produce such vulgarity because the audiences demand it. The audiences say these enjoy them because they are all there is available in the form of cheap entertainment. These are stark parallels between what is dished out in most of our Punjabi and Pushto flicks. Most working class audience go watch that stuff because they think its similar to watching a 'mujra' for 20 bucks. You can't get it cheaper than that.
Solution: There should be some peer-review and quality control body within the artist community. Government intervention is bad for two reasons: (1) Govt. invariably comes down hard on this stuff, and (2) Govt. usually has no clue as to what are the artistic issues involved. While the aim should be to provide entertainment to our masses at relatively cheaper cost, this should not be at an expense of spreading vulgarity in the community. That will be a bad trade-off. There are talented artists in Pakistan, and on the stage who can easily produce wonderful entertaining plays without resorting to vulgarity. The peer-review organization of the show-business community should investigate all complaints and penalize violators. The government and law-enforcement should only be involved as a last resort.
interesting suggestions pristine -- but who's listening other than guppies? I dont mean to be rude at all by that comment, but what I mean is that we can talk all these issues to death and no one is going to change until someone forces them to , well in the case of Pakistanis in Pakistan that is pretty much true sadly.
But if I may get some honest and frank answers here -- it would help greatly if we knew what is meant by sex in the theatre. I dont expect that the girls strip, but just do mujras -- but then again, I dont know how far the dancer girls go in mujras other than just dancing. Umm...can someone clue me in, cuz whenever I ask this to my parents, they change the subject!
Sex in the theatre, does not mean the girls do strip dancing or perform sex acts. In Pakistan's context, it simply means they titillate the senses of their audience by making suggestive movements through their bodies and using double-meaning dialogues. Lately, it seems, they had started performing dances on the stage too.
Although it is off-topic, but since it is asked, so I’ll just give a brief perspective. I have no personal experience of heera mandi or mujras (maybe if you can lure in NYAhmadi into this thread, he can give a much better account of all things cultural in Lahore), however, based on my discussion with some of those who do, in Lahore’s heera mandi, a typical mujra is just that: a dance. It’s always a dark dinghy room, where a fat, unattractive woman, in tight clothes, dances to the music of tabla and harmonium or a stereo. There are only a few customers at a time, who pay a few bucks to watch her. The dance sessions start from 11pm and go on till 2-3 am. If they decide, then after the dance, they talk to her pimp (commonly known as “dalla”) to agree on a price and then they retreat to a semi-private room for whatever they agreed on. In heera mandi culture, sex on the side is considered as much an acceptable trade as dancing or singing. In many cases, the husbands are the pimps themselves.
The setting of a typical mujra in heera mandi is completely different from what is commonly portrayed in Indian or Pakistani movie scenes. The movie glamorize these as a huge room, with beautiful chandelier, artistically decorated room, where the patrons are on the sides, resting on comfortable cushions, and the dancer is a very beautiful girl singing melodious songs along with wonderful music.
In real life, any girl who is half-way decent looking or has a good voice already moves out of the world of mujras and heera mandi and into the world of films and gets a house in another locality. In many cases, they come up with outrageous stories to come up with an alternative background to explain their childhood. Once they get a teeny winee bit-part in a movie, then their “rates” hike up several times.
Well, see that's why i feel bad for the state of the art of dancing in pakistan. Its not respected for precisely this reason. I personally think its okay to dance as long as youre treating it as an art form and youre not oggling over the woman's body as she dances and the woman is not trying to be suggestive with her bodily movements. Anyhoo, I have seen Nargis, Khusboo, Reema, and a few other actresses dance when they come to concert out here and frankly, I dont know who the hell teaches them their dance moves, but they need to first learn how to be graceful, less vulgar, and they need new dance steps than the same punjabi thumkas!