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May 17, 2008 Saturday Jamadi-ul-Awwal 11, 1429 Films as a tool of propaganda rarely succeed Films as a tool of propaganda rarely succeed IT was high time someone delved into the world of propaganda though the scope of discourse at a seminar held in Rawalpindi last week was restricted to Films as a tool of propaganda. The participants included media personalities, faculty members of art institutions of Islamabad and Rawalpindi as well as students. Film critic Aijaz Gul took a ringside view of the art of propaganda on reel and how the medium has been used down the ages to justify war actions, notably by Hollywood filmmakers and those in Europe and beyond. He noted that sometimes subtle methods have been used and at other times, a direct recourse taken to touch the patriotic nerve as if to justify war trophies, which always entail human suffering. Closer home, the subject veered around to movies made by Bollywood and Lollywood — although given the vast gulf in their resources and marketing ability, it would be naive to bracket them as equal. Gul recalled a time when the governments of India and Pakistan produced official films, which were jingoistic and pandered to the base sentiment in castigating the enemy. These, he said, were forced down upon cinegoers, who had come for a slightly different kind of entertainment. The history of Indo-Pak war (read propaganda) movies never rode on the kind of subtlety that would induce an objective interest amongst serious viewers. But that did not stop them from blowing up the trumpet in the line of patriotism. Despite a concerted effort to seek how Pakistani filmmakers have fared in the propaganda stakes, one could come across only a few names: Maujaza (Urdu) and Parohna (Punjabi). Neither made waves but the latter is known for hit numbers by Melody Queen Noor Jehan, some of which like Meriah dhol sipahiyah and Mera mahi chail chabeela assumed legendary status. These patriotic songs during the 1965 War with India struck an emotional chord among the masses. Like Pakistan, filmmakers in India, too, haven’t quite been able to set the box office alight even though some of them have spared the kind of budgets simply beyond the imagination of their counterparts this side of the Indus. The 1973 Raj Kumar starrer Hindustan Ki Kassam had a funny plot for a propaganda movie. The movie revolved around the IAF’s mission of destroying a PAF radar, which blocked IAF pilots’ radios in combat. The Indian intelligence plants Tahira (played by Priya Rajvansh), who is the fiancee of a PAF pilot (Amjad Khan). Tahira goes to Pakistan and starts working as a singer in a PTV studio (where the radar which jams the radio frequency of IAF jets is also kept)! Tahira informs the IAF about the jammer. IAF asks her to leave the building in the night after her programme is done so that they can raid the building. PAF’s counter intelligence finds out about her and so zero in on her that very night. As soon her programme is finished the IAF air raids the studio while she is still inside. In the dogfight with Pak Sabers, Raj Kumar’s jet is destroyed and he crashes. He radios for help and the IAF fighters destroy the pursuing Pakistan soldiers and their vehicles. Lo and behold! the pilot and Tahira are evacuated. However, the 1997 hit Border proved to be an exception to the propaganda flops. The plot revolved around the Battle of Longewala in Rajasthan and is inspired by Director J.P. Dutta’s own feelings for a brother he lost in 1987 when his Mig crashed. The movie shows many soldiers being killed. However, in real life, the defenders at Longewala lost only two soldiers! The movie was not without its share of mishaps: 60 cinegoers died during a show when a fire broke out in a New Delhi cinema. To give the devil its due, one song in the movie Ghar wapis kab aao gay (when will you return home?) — continues to melt audiences on either side of the border, perhaps, thanks to its universal appeal. Kargil provided enough fodder for wanna-be propagandists and in 2003 LoC Kargil, directed by J.P. Dutta again, followed. It focused on the impact a war has on soldiers and their families. A year later, the Hrithik Roshan-starrer Lakshya was premised in a fictional account of events of the Kargil conflict. Since then, mushy stories about cross-border romance have effectively replaced propaganda wars on the reel. There is a general consensus that this is down to growing Indo-Pak amity. The mood change was epitomised by the great Naseeruddin Shah, who revealed to me in an interview that he had refused to play the villain in the blockbuster Main Hoon Na because the role required him to badmouth Pakistan! Indo-Pak filmmakers may no longer pursue propaganda, but it is still a tool with which governments in these two countries deceive the people. We, in Islamabad, are more used to this kind of craft given the mysterious ways things happen almost overnight. For instance, the recent Rehman Malik-inspired attempt to have the by-election postponed based on a poorly scripted yarn about law and order in NWFP, which mercifully failed at the box- office. The writer is News Editor at Dawn News. He may be contacted at kaamyabi@gmail.com

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