Herald exclusive: The decade in culture
Ten years, ten times the culture. In art, literature, film, music and theatre the Herald looks back at the decade that was. 2000 to 2010 is a long time, but a couple of overall trends clearly defined these years. Military dictatorship, corruption, inflation, flawed democracy — these are issues that Pakistan’s creative community has addressed before and continues to reflect. But it was the country’s exposure to global geopolitics in the 2000s – whether its difficult relationship with the United States or its internal struggle with Islamist violence – that became the main inspiration for creative activity this decade. It was also obvious that what growth there was resulted from the patronage of a world suddenly fascinated by all things Pakistan, the individual efforts of ambitious and entrepreneurial artists and writers, and the support of domestic private sponsors and non-governmental organisations. The Pakistani state continued to be largely absent as a source of support.
Within this bigger picture the story varied for each field. In art and literature Pakistanis went global, winning international critical acclaim and awards and experimenting with exciting new styles influenced by global movements. In music it was a decade of experimentation and entrepreneurship, whether Sufi music going mainstream, the emergence of an underground music scene or Pakistani musicians crossing the border into India in droves. In film and theatre, sadly, the picture was much less upbeat. While Bollywood achieved some high points amidst the thousands of movies it churned out and foreign films used formal expertise to address the world’s most pressing issues, Lollywood’s demise continued unabated apart from occasional independent efforts. As for theatre, the institutionalisation of training resulted in an increase in the number of productions in the last few years of the decade, but overall the field remains severely underdeveloped. Most notable plays in the last decade were put together by activist theatre groups that are in the process of transforming themselves from issue-focused political performers into cultural revivalists.
And much of whatever creative activity there was occurred in the first seven years of the decade, economic boom time at home and abroad when it was raining sponsorship and donor money. Post recession there is still healthy activity in some fields, but not at the heady levels that persisted until early 2008. What remains to be seen is how things will change now that the world is no longer swimming in cash. - by Madiha Sattar
International FictionBy Aysha RajaThe 2000s witnessed the demystification of fiction, with horny vampires, psychotic priests and Swedish hackers crowding the best-seller lists.Continue reading...
Urdu literatureBy Mohammed HanifI have obviously read only a fraction of Urdu books published over the last decade, but these are some of my favourites.Continue reading...
Films: BollywoodBy Mira HashmiOn top of the list of Bollywood trends this past decade would surely have to be the ubiquitous item number.Continue reading...
Foreign filmsBy Bilal TanweerThis past decade has been extraordinary for cinema, not in a groundbreaking sense but in that so many of the formal experiments of the past 30 or 40 years showed themselves in the telling of urgent and pressing stories from around the world.Continue reading...
The art criticBy Niilofur FarrukhTwo distinct trends dominated contemporary Pakistani art in the last decade.Continue reading…
Pakistani theatre overviewBy Shahid NadeemThe arrival of the new millennium was a decidedly mixed bag for Pakistan’s miniscule and struggling theatre industry.Continue reading…
International Fiction
By Aysha Raja
The 2000s witnessed the demystification of fiction, with horny vampires, psychotic priests and Swedish hackers crowding the best-seller lists. We could decry the rise of the stupid, but it is apparent from the sales of lowbrow literature that these titles gave the publishing industry a much needed shot in the arm this decade. Literature will give way to popular fiction if the former fails to connect with wider audiences. Literary stalwarts Ian McEwan, Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie underperformed this decade and could have sounded the death knell for British literary fiction were it not for the brilliance of David Mitchell, who opened the 2000s with the astounding number9dream, and diaspora writers like Zadie Smith, Monica Ali and Hari Kunzru. The stuffy island did also manage to produce cult writers Neil Gaiman and China Meiville, who did more to arrest the decline in readership than the pensioner trio despite their fantastical subject matter. Across the Atlantic Britain’s former colony fared better, and a new generation of American writers was repeatedly credited with having written the Great American Novel. Jonathan Franzen marked the dawn of the millennium with The Corrections, only to follow it a decade later with “the novel of the century” Freedom, in which he does for the family what Michel de Montaigne did for the human condition. Boy genius Dave Eggers also entered the millennium held aloft on the shoulders of critics for his slightly fictionalised memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. He went on to write, among other things, Zeitoun, about an Arab Muslim in Katrina-hit New Orleans, and set up independent publishing house McSweeney’s and a journal by the same name. Michael Chabon’s 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay acknowledged the influence of comics on literature and in our lives, which was further emphasised when Junot Diaz scooped up the 2007 Pulitzer for his pop-culture laden The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. As the decade progressed the literary worth of the graphic novel was cemented when Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth become the first graphic novel to win the Guardian’s first book award and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Craig Thompson’s Blankets and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home garnered immense critical acclaim. Older, more established American authors also shone this decade. Cormac McCarthy, a latter-day Hemingway, left readers breathless with The Road and No Country for Old Men. Thomas Pynchon continued to beguile readers with Inherent Vice and, after the staggering The Human Stain, Philip Roth remained on an upward trajectory with a series of short novels. Literature in translation has also helped resuscitate reading. Haruki Murakami’s dreamlike novels won legions of fans outside of Japan and Orhan Pamuk burst onto the international literary landscape with My Name is Red, his Borgesian murder mystery set in sixteenth century Istanbul. It has been a dynamic decade for literature, but there are legitimate fears for its future. Writers and publishers are sceptical of the benefits of e-books and an onslaught by conglomerates like Amazon and Google have increased an appetite for free media. If authored works go the way of music, authors will find it next to impossible to survive. n Aysha Raja’s personal favourites from the decade, in no particular order The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon (2008) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2007) The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst (2004) The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (2009) Snow by Orhan Pamuk (2004) No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (2005) 2666 by Roberto Bolaño (2008) Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (2002) Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (2008) We Need to Talk by About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (2003) — Aysha Raja is the owner of the bookshop The Last Word and publisher of The Life’s Too Short Literary Review: The Magazine of New Writing from Pakistan I have obviously read only a fraction of Urdu books published over the last decade, but these are some of my favourites: Rait Par Lakirain, Mohammad Khalid Akhtar This is a collection of reviews, essays and parodies written by the late Muhammad Khalid Akhtar over a period of four decades. He was the sharpest, most honest critic in Urdu literature. This book made me re-evaluate everything I had ever read in Urdu. A very funny, very wise book. Matti Ki Kaan, Afzal Ahmed Syed (2009) Collected works of Pakistan’s best modern poet. If you are tired of the mushaira brigade and all the Faiz-Faraz clones, do try this. Tehzibi Nargasiat, Mubarak Haider (2009) This razor-sharp analysis of what the Taliban and their sympathisers want from us is the boldest critique of the religious right in Pakistan. This should be a compulsory text in Pakistan’s high schools and mandatory reading for our television talking heads. Sifar Se Aik Tak: Cyber Space Ke Munshi Ki Sarguzasht, Mirza Athar Baig (2009) Those who thought Baig’s first novel Ghulam Bagh was an epic should try this. He has surpassed himself. Jo Kahanian Likhin, Asad Mohammad Khan (2006) Our best short story writer since Manto is still going strong. Most of his short fiction was collected in this book a few years ago. Since then he has come out with two more collections. Urdu Dictionary Board’s 22-volume Urdu dictionary (2010) Under the dynamic leadership of Fehmida Riaz, the Board has finally delivered on its promise. After more than two decades of work, the 22-volume dictionary is out. I just hope people who like to colour-coordinate their bookshelves will buy this. Sawaar Aur Doosray Afsanay, Shamsur Rehman Farooqi (2001) Farooqi’s first novel Kai Chand Thay Sar-e-Asman has been hailed as a masterpiece in India and Pakistan. I think this collection of long-short stories is as good as anything in contemporary Urdu literature. Aaj, ed. Ajmal Kamal Those who moan about a paucity of new voices in Urdu literature should immediately subscribe to this quarterly literary journal. Where else can you find a brilliant translation of Doris Lessing and Urdu short fiction’s new sensational voice Ali Akbar Natiq in the same journal? Also try the relatively new journal Duniyazad edited by Asif Farrukhi. Houk (Memoirs of a Film Man), Sikkay Daar A very well-known scriptwriter from the Punjabi film industry’s golden era has penned this gripping yet unpretentious memoir about the industry in the 50s. Pal Bhar Ka Bahisht, Sarmad Sehbai (2008) Urdu and Punjabi literature’s enfant terrible’s new collection of poems and ghazals is lyrical, sensuous and completely unconventional. As one critic rightly pointed out, his poems should be read out from mosque loudspeakers. — Mohammed Hanif is the former head of the BBC’s Urdu service and the author of A Case of Exploding Mangoes On top of the list of Bollywood trends this past decade would surely have to be the ubiquitous item number. While cabaret vamps went the way of the dodo once heroines themselves took over sexy undulation duties in the 1980s, another avatar emerged in the 2000s: the one-off item girl who boogies down and turns a hit number into a classic. Think Bipasha Basu’s “Beedi” and Aishwarya Rai’s “Kajra Re” right down to today’s Munni (Malaika Arora) and Sheila (Katrina Kaif), and let’s not forget the blink-and-you’ll-miss-them item boys: Shahrukh Khan in “Dard-e-Disco” and Hrithik Roshan in any number in which he’s got his shirt off — which would be all of them. Another notable trend is the development of a niche genre with leanings towards a more indie sensibility that includes films like Life In a Metro, Dev. D, No Smoking, Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, Firaaq and Road, Movie, films that buck considerations like box-office returns to tell interesting stories effectively (and relatively cheaply). Within this you’ll also find the sub-genre of the Mumbai underworld movie, which continues to be a favourite with newbie directors and old guns alike. With the rise of the indies mainstream Bollywood fought back with a new genre all its own: the NRI extravaganza. You know, the type that Yash-Johar endorses: flashy foreign locales, dilemmas of the heart faced by impossibly well-coiffed and beautiful expats, yards of chiffon and mounds of Ralph Lauren, and much bellyaching over the sanskars of the motherland in an alien culture. We’re looking at you, Kal Ho Na Ho, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna et al. Mira Hashmi’s list of must-see Bollywood flicks for the last decade Luck By Chance - Zoya Akhtar (2009) Dil Chahta Hai - Farhan Akhtar (2001) Munna Bhai MBBS - Rajkumar Hirani (2003) Dev. D - Anurag Kashyap (2009) Omkara - Vishal Bhardwaj (2006) Company - Ram Gopal Varma (2002) Kaminey - Vishal Bhardwaj (2009) Bunty Aur Babli; Jab We Met; Hum Tum - Shaad Ali (2005); Imtiaz Ali (2007); Kunal Kohli (2004) Om Shanti Om - Farah Khan (2007) Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year - Shimit Amin (2009) — Mira Hashmi has been a film critic for the past 20 years and teaches film studies at the Lahore School of Economics This past decade has been extraordinary for cinema, not in a groundbreaking sense but in that so many of the formal experiments of the past 30 or 40 years showed themselves in the telling of urgent and pressing stories from around the world. A brilliant new generation of film-makers made their mark by combining impressive stories with formal innovation. The emergence of some exceptional young directors from the hitherto periphery of world cinema led the trend. Two directors who deserve an instant mention are Alejandro González Iñárritu, the Mexican film-maker who directed Ammores Perros (a tense, gritty romp through Mexico City) and later went on to direct 21 grams and Babel, and Cristian Mungiu, the Romanian director of the extraordinary 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days. Among countries the new brow-raising entrant was Israel, with a slew of exceptional films and one that deserves to be on a list of this decade’s 10 best. Waltz with Bashir was not only the most significant animation but also among the most important cinematic works of the last 10 years. The turf that had been hogged by Disney to tell formulaic, feel-good stories in various manifestations (yes, you, Wall-E) has come of age with Bashir, and animation is about to be redefined. There is little doubt it is just the first of a series of movies that are going to crack open a new wave in cinema in the next few years. No surprises though on the love story front: the best one of the decade came from our man in Spain, Pedro Almdovar. He wrote and produced two other movies (Volver and Broken Embraces) but neither could match the wrenching pathos he drew out in Talk to Her. The other exquisite work that deserves an honorable mention is Before Sunset. Here is every emotion you have felt in love presented in one continuous 80-minute conversation between two people who meet after nine years (they originally met in Before Sunrise). Of course the setting being Paris helps tremendously, as does the fact that Julie Delpy is irresistible (reportedly the same goes for Ethan Hawke). My vote for the best cinematic experience of the past decade goes thumpingly to The White Ribbon, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2009, followed by 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days. Bilal Tanweer’s roll-call of honour for the last decade The White Ribbon - Michael Haneke (Austria/Germany, 2009) 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days - Cristian Mungiu (Romania, 2007) Amorres Perros - Alejandro González Iñárritu (Mexico, 2000) Talk to Her - Pedro Almodovar (Spain, 2002) Everlasting Moments - Jan Troell (Sweden, 2008) Waltz with Bashir - Ari Folman (Israel, 2008) No Country for Old Men - Ethan and Joel Coen (USA, 2007) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Julian Schnabel (France/USA, 2007) City of God - Fernando Meirelles (Brazil, 2002) Turtles Can Fly - Bahman Ghobadi (Iran, 2004) — Bilal Tanweer is a writer and translator. He teaches creative writing at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. Two distinct trends dominated contemporary Pakistani art in the last decade. The most prominent was its globalisation and the other was the assimilation of non-art material into art, which has changed the way art-making is perceived. The growing influence of international players on the Pakistani art scene transformed it in different ways. Art galleries in world capitals began to make their resources available to Pakistani artists, propelling them to international prominence and giving the market a central role in canon-making. The significance of discursive space and critical texts diminished considerably with legitimacy now created by the global art market backed by hedge funds investing in art. Pakistani artists’ success was increasingly defined by the number of art fairs, biennales, and international residencies they participated in and their price and prestige increased as their works were included in sales catalogues of international auction houses. Taking their cue from contemporary marketing trends, they offered multiple editions and photographs of original works to optimise on their creative enterprises. The diaspora connection was an important link in this globalisation process, as galleries and organisations run by Pakistanis aboard acted as springboards for artists’ careers and became critical in introducing them to audiences and buyers on the international circuit. Many artists now live between two countries and bear the hyphenated identities of globalised citizens. At the same time the emancipating power of postmodernism lowered many barriers. The widespread use of non-conventional art materials and techniques reinforced the content of the work and artists began to look at materials as being encoded with social and personal memory. Non-art visual vocabularies from disciplines like cartography and science were adopted. Urban folk techniques and materials were used to give representation to new voices. Huma Mulji used taxidermy and Ruby Chishti transformed her late mother’s old sheets into poignant soft sculptures loaded with personal memory. Khadim Ali first used the qaida as a symbol of unlearning the fundamentals. Textiles from army uniforms found their way into Aisha Khalid’s installations, and Adeela Suleman raided hardware stores to construct the familiar into evocative forms. Niilofur Farrukh’s list of outstanding works from the last decade: “Recycled Man” - Wood, 2000-2004, Shahid Sajjad Gulistan Hamara series - Graphite drawings, 2010, Mehr Afroz “God Grows on Trees” - Installation, 2008, Hamra Abbas “All Eyes Skywards”- Digital print, 2004, Rashid Rana “SpiNN” - Animation, 2003-2006, Shazia Sikander “Chain Stitch” - Thread on printed fabric, 2001, Aisha Khalid Enlightened Moderation series - Gouche on vasli, 2007, Imran Qureshi “Shan Pipe Band” - Video, 2004, Bani Abidi “Immortal Fabric” - Textile and straw, 2001, Ruby Chishtie Jashn-e-Gul-e-Surkh series - Gouche on vasli, 2005, Khadim Ali —Niilofur Farrukh is an art critic and historian and is editor of the magazine NuktaArt One positive development was that tensions on the eastern borders eased, enabling cultural groups from India and Pakistan to interact. Ajoka’s renowned Bulha was allowed to be performed at the Lahore Arts Council, later touring through Indian Punjab. The Indo-Pak Panjpaani theatre festival was a breakthrough when Pakistani audiences watched Indian theatre for the first time, and Indian participation in the Rafi Peer Workshop’s World Performing and Visual Arts festival, which grew into the biggest annual cultural event in the country, also increased. Indian and Bangladeshi theatre experts came and worked with groups like Ajoka (Border-Border, Dukhini) and Tehrik-e-Niswan (Aik Hazar Aur Aik Thee Ratain). Groups like Ajoka, Tehrik and Katha continued their commitment to socially meaningful theatre – major themes adopted this decade were peace, women’s rights, exploitation and social justice – while Rafi Peer and the National Academy of Performing Arts preferred doing politically neutral plays. Some activists branched off to form interactive theatre (such as the Interactive Theatre Resource Centre or IRC) and language-based theatre (such as Lok Rehas). Commercial theatre continued to prosper, especially in Lahore and other Punjabi cities. It was subsidised by the arts councils in some cases and was divided into the over-the-top comedy (juggat) group and the dance (read: mujra) lobby. State censorship was minimal during the decade but with the rise of extremism and terrorism, censorship by non-state actors became an issue. The ineffectual ban of Ajoka’s Burqavaganza, first by Musharraf’s Culture Minister in 2007 and then by the Pakistan People Party’s Cultural Ministry in 2010, showed, however, that an intolerant mindset still lingers within the establishment with the ability to strike at any time. The outdated Dramatic Performance Control Act and exorbitant excise taxation continued to hamper the growth of viable and free theatre. But while insecurity caused by never-ending suicide bombings and ‘entertainment’ provided by political wrestling has reduced the number of theatregoers, dedicated theatre groups continued to produce meaningful plays and equally committed audiences continued to show up. n — Shahid Nadeem is a playwright, PTV’s Deputy Managing Director and Executive Director of the Ajoka Theatre group Urdu literature
By Mohammed HanifFilms: Bollywood
By Mira HashmiForeign films
By Bilal TanweerThe art critic
By Niilofur FarrukhPakistani theatre overview
By Shahid Nadeem