The Pakistani Entertainment Industry has been trying hard to get up from its fall since last few years. Looking at the art’s footprint in the
history of Pakistan, you will see that there were two forums for such activities. One was street performance and other one was formal style mostly practiced in the educational institutes. In 1980’s era in Zia’s reign, the NGO’s were given permission to create awareness through theatre performances.
Lahore and Karachi were two main hubs for such art performances. Lahore’s performances were more of hilarious since the residents had command over Urdu as well Punjabi language. Being a bilingual city, the city enjoyed a lot more! On the other hand, Karachi owns communities of Parsi and Christian residents that enjoyed English plays as well Gujrati. The overall flavor of theatre industry in Karachi was western.
With a lot of potential, Pakistani Theatre Industry has created decent projects in the past and got appreciation from all across the world. With great performers like Umer Shareef and Moin Akhtar, the stage dramas were being directed to the vulgar side. With no story portrayed on stage, women added vulgar dance elements and became a source of an entertainment.
With a lot of change, the stage dramas became an entertainment to a certain class and the concept of family entertainment totally vanished. This door of entertainment closed its door for most of the people of Pakistan and lead to indecent activities later.
Last year, the well known writers of Pakistan Imrana Maqsood and Amra Alam played their roles to bring back the audience into the theatres again with their drama “Dhani”. Produced by Shan, 2 famous actresses Sanam Saeed and Sarwat Gillani led the story of Dhani. The show lasted for almost 15 days in Arts Council Karachi with jam packed audience. The revival of our theatre industry is only possible through acting, costume, story, props and how the stage space is used for the performance.
Author:
Zahra is a passion fueled writer with a degree in Media and a DIY lover and book lover as well .Loud and opinionated traits are aspired by her passion for reading and writing with a belief that every word counts.