Pakistan's Socialist Cinema of 60s and 70s

Late filmmaker Mushtaq Gazdar in his  book, "Pakistan Cinema", writes the Pakistan cinema industry had a spike in the mid-1960s. It reached its commercial and creative pinnacle in the 1970s.

Although most films in India and Pakistan (in the 1960s and 1970s) were mostly invested in generating one-dimensional romantic farces, there were also films with plots and subplots that addressed more social themes.' However, the love tale formula continued to be the dominant theme.

 Pakistan didn't adopt socialism' till the 1970s. Between its inception in 1947 and the establishment of a socialist rule in 1971, Pakistan was mostly a capitalist country, with the state viewing socialism as a threat. Socialism resurfaced as a challenge after 1977, eventually dying out on a global scale in the 1990s. However, the Pakistani film industry did manage to produce a few socialist films before collapsing. Jago Hua Savera (1959).

The film was released just one year after Ayub Khan declared the country's first Martial Law. Ayub was not just a severe critic of religious groups, but also a staunch anti-socialist. 

The script for Jago Hua Savera was written by the famous Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz as well as the songs. The film is an adaptation of a Bengali novel. The film set in a small fishing village in East Pakistan, revolves around poor fishing families as they battle poverty, loans, and greedy capitalist

Faiz was in jail when the film was released. It underwent multiple recuts 'recommended' by the censors before disappearing totally from cinemas. However, it received an Oscar nomination, making it Pakistan's first picture to be nominated in the Best Foreign Language Picture category.

Gazdar points out that Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s initial military leader, is notably criticized for utilizing documentary films to shape his public image. Gazdar even compares Nayi Kiran (A Ray of Light), a movie funded by Ayub Khan’s office to Triumph of the Will, a well-known propaganda film featuring Adolf Hitler. 

In comparison to other arts, particularly literature, filmmakers on both sides of the border have comparatively rarely addressed the subject of Partition. This is especially true in the first few years following independence. Lahore (1949), starring Nargis and Karan Dewan, was the first Indian film to feature Partition, while Masud Parvaiz's Beli (1950), written by Sadat Hasan Manto and starring Sabiha and Santosh, was the first Pakistani film to do so.

Filmmaker Raza Shahid was greatly inspired by Jalib's revolutionary poetry.  

Shahid was a screenwriter back then and was involved in socialist and progressive events paces in Lahore. It was the era of the progressive writer movement. Jalib of course stood out among them because of his symbolic writing. 

Shahid was into symbolism as a genre and his dialogues had the same flourish as Jalib’s poetry. Impressed by Jalib’s poetry, he recommended Jalib to Jaffar Bukhari for his movie Bharosa, for which Shahid was writing the screenplay. 

It quickly blossomed into a long-lasting professional association. Jalib and Shahid worked together in most Khalil Qaiser films and all Riaz Shahid movies including Khamosh Raho, Zarqa, Yeh Aman, and Bahisht. 

To avoid censorship, filmmakers sought out subtle messages in their films. A great example is "Behen Bhai," directed by Hasan Tariq, which was a commercial success. The film's plot revolves around partition and migration. 

The story starts with the Partition and follows a family of a woman and her five children who become separated during a storm while crossing borders as refugees. The children are eventually taken in by different people in the new country, while the mother loses her mind searching for them.   As years go by, the mother finds herself doctor's ward who gives her refuge in his home where he lives with his daughter, Husna, and his son.

  The film can be interpreted as a subtle critique of partition and a representation of the anxiety and turmoil. the five children who end up leading different lives are said to be representing five provinces of Pakistan.  the modern widower physician who has an adult daughter shelters those who were lost due to the turmoil of history (he also acquires a sister in the process), may symbolise a father figure of the nation perhaps  Jinnah who was a widow at that time and lived with his daughter and sister.

Some of the socialist films directed by daring filmmakers in the '60s and '70s were: Shaheed (1962), Zarqa (1969), Matti Kay Putley (1974) and Aurat Raj (1979)