Author: Abeeha Aamir Butt
Abstract
When the history of Pakistani cinema is discussed, studies largely focus on narrating and justifying its instability. Reasons cited for this instability often pertain to changes in political climate, availability of new technologies and a tabooed view of cinema by the bourgeois (Rizvi 2006). However, such studies often overlook the audience. To date, there have been no studies specific to Pakistan that present a longitudinal view of audience reception of cinema. This study looks at how audiences perceived the cinema in Pakistan, particularly in the 1960s to 1980s, and how socio-demographic factors, such as gender and class, shaped their film-viewing practices. The study also focuses on defining what “obscenity” and “family films” mean within the Pakistani context, and how these definitions have possibly changed over time. Field research at the famous Lakshmi Chowk, once a focal point of entertainment in Lahore, also brings to light how time and shifts in the social climate changed the crowds that inhabited these spaces. This study finds, for example, that watching films in a cinema has always been a communal experience for men. In the 1960s, 1970s and well into the 1980s, film acted as a form of escapism for many. At the same time, during the Bhutto and Zia eras, Punjabi film came to be associated with vulgarity, while a massive shift in film content during the 1980s, disengaged the existing audience and created new expectations of Urdu film. This study examines audiences from different eras and attempts to outline the reasons for these shifts in audience perception.
Keywords
Audience Reception of Cinema; Film-viewing Practices; Pakistani Cinema; Family Films; Cinema in Lahore; Lollywood
