Lahore Lahore Cinema: Between Realism and Fable

Commercial cinema in Lahore, Pakistan, between 1956 and 1969, drew from Bengali performance traditions, Hindu mythology, Parsi theater, Sufi conceptions of the self, Urdu lyric poetry, and Hollywood musicals, offering insights into a period of rapid modernization and cultural affiliation. It challenged the assumption of popular cinema as apolitical and explored how films allowed audiences to navigate an accelerating modernity and tense politics by anchoring social change across the terrain of deeper cultural imaginaries.

Format: Hardback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 25 October 2022
Publisher: University of Washington Press

In South Asia, commercial cinema has played a significant role in driving social and aesthetic modernization. This is argued by Iftikhar Dadi in his examination of films produced between 1956 and 1969, known as the "long sixties," in Lahore, Pakistan, following the 1947 Partition of South Asia. These films drew freely from various cultural traditions, including Bengali performance, Hindu mythology, Parsi theater, Sufi conceptions of the self, Urdu lyric poetry, and Hollywood musicals. By bringing these traditions into dialogue with melodrama and neorealism, the films created a unique blend of cultural influences.

Examining the layered context of these films offers insights into a period of rapid modernization and cultural affiliation in South Asia today. As frameworks of multiplicity and plurality face challenges, understanding the role of cinema in shaping cultural identities becomes crucial.

Lahore Cinema delves into the role of language, rhetoric, lyric, and form in the making of cinematic meaning. It also explores the relevance of the Urdu cultural universe to midcentury Bombay filmmaking. Dadi challenges the assumption of popular cinema as apolitical and examines how films allowed their audiences to navigate an accelerating modernity and tense politics by anchoring social change across the terrain of deeper cultural imaginaries.

Commercial cinema played an influential progressive role during the mid- and later twentieth century in South Asia by constituting publics beyond social divides of regional, ethnic, and sectarian affiliations. Lahore Cinema is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the generous support of Cornell University. The DOI for this publication is 10.6069/9780295750804.

Weight: 562g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780295750798