My earliest memories of watching a Punjabi film is at the Fleet Club where we went to see Dillaan de saude. There was a woman doing an energetic dance in a laacha, a man with a very loud voice who yelled at people whenever he addressed them and looked so angry that I thought he would burst. Last but not least was another big woman whose tears looked huge on the giant screen.

All this excitement drained me and I was quite happy to finish two packets of salted peanuts and a cola and fall off to sleep.

When I was older, I went to the Jubilee Cinema to see Jadoo. This was a super hit where Mumtaz played the lead with so much vivacity she totally eclipsed the male lead. The songs and dances were a riot with Mumtaz gyrating on Noor Jehan numbers in colourful knee length saris. “Jadoogar aaaaa, oye jadoogar aaa”. I didn't sleep through this flick though I closed my eyes when they showed some vicious snakes in the sapera scenes.

For many years after that I didn't see a Punjabi film except for the TV trailer of Anwara where Naghma did her unforgettable 'sun way balori akh waaleya' sporting black goggles, as round as they come, slacks and a turtleneck, and a thin belt round her slender waist. More TV trailers of Aat Khuda da Wair for 'Jaddon hauli jeyi lenda mera naam' Chan Waryam for 'Way sonay deya kangna' and Benarsi thug for 'akh lari bado baddi' with Mumtaz dressed in shocking pink skirt and top with strands of pearls around her midriff remain etched in my mind.

Some years later, thanks to some exuberant Punjabi neighbours, I got exposed to a lot of Punjabi film music and films. This was the golden age of Anjuman and her block buster Sher Khan. The film had super hit music with luddi hay jamalo, jhaanjhariya chhankaado, tu mere hamesha kol raway and Anjuman became the new face of the Punjabi mutiar, a mega hit with the Punjabi film financers and film viewers.

A glance at a Punjabi film signboard, laboriously hand painted, shows a major portion taken up by the generous anatomy of the female lead. She is always generously endowed, her head usually covered with a dupatta trailing behind her, her face has a euphoric expression and a pout while a laacha clad leg is draped across her hero -- the gujjar, jat or Punjabi munda; accentuating the wicked curve of her ample backside. The entire layout of the signboard always remains the same but you can switch the faces from Firdaus or Naghma to Aasia, Aaliya, Khushboo, Anjuman, Noor, Reema, Resham or Nargis.

The Punjabi heroine is traditionally a woman of strong moral values, innocent, coquettish usually pulling pranks on other village belles and village urchins until she falls in love with the hero, either because he saves her from the amorous advances of the villain or for no particular reason at all.

She swoons and sings in love, dancing around her man, celebrating her womanhood with plenty of thumkaas in the fields. Post interval, this role of the sweetly singing jatti may transform into a blood thirsty, vicious, gun toting killer, with blood stained clothes, a band round her head like tennis players wear, yelling on top of her voice, threatening to shake the earth and sky twice over! She will be known as the hunter wali, qatil haseena, daku haseena, sultana daakan, nangi talwar, super girl or golden girl and she will ride horses, race motor bikes with gun in hand and fight with not just one but all the bad guys simultaneously.

This amazing metamorphosis will be in order to save the honour of a younger sister or herself or to take revenge from the bad guy for what he did to her family, brother or any damage to the gaon di izzat.

It is not just by public demand; film financers too monopolise the casting of the female lead in a Punjabi film. Anjuman was one of the most successful Punjabi film heroines of Pakistan during the '80s and played major roles in Sher Khan and Chan Varyam and a side-role in Sala Sahib. All three films were released on the same day and all went on to achieve the coveted diamond jubilee.

Her dance was as per the Punjabi cinema-goers taste jumping, leaping and skipping through mustard fields, cavorting around trees and the stoic figure of the glaring hero. She had the figure of a traditional Punjabi mutyaar, tall and handsome, the energy of a bull yet frisky as a deer despite the loads of flesh!

By 1990 Anjuman was so overbooked that producers gradually became fed up with running after her for dates and Saima came into the picture. She was even more successful as she was a perfect fit with her 'dance-ability' and voluptuous figure. Trailing not far behind is Nargis who has a couple of box office hits to her credit. Sooha Jora and Ghundi Run were two of Nargis' latest releases who also co-produces with her husband.

In the recently produced film Mohabbattan Sachiyaan, Veena Malik's portrayal of an educated, modern village girl who speaks Punjabi, but knows what she wants and is willing to take society head on and marry the man she loves could have sent the gandasa hurling, booty shaking, traditional Punjabi heroine home to be replaced by a progressive female lead but the film flopped, as Punjabi filmgoers want nothing altered in their much adored image of the Punjab di kurri!