It seems that only our
grandparents will now remember why Karachi was christened the City of Lights.
The beautifully adorned billboards on main Bandar Road and Keamari were once
decorated with larger than life posters of film stars; the fairy lights around
the borders were part of the panorama that earned Karachi its quintessential
name.
It has been a long time
since the old cinemas of the city were that radiant. After the hustle and
bustle at Karachi’s old movie theatres died down gradually over the years, last
Friday they were torched to ashes by unruly crowds.
While Nishat Cinema was
the first, cinemas Prince, Capri and Bambino soon became household names. Widely
popular films including the Urdu rendition of Guns of Navarone as Noorudin ki
Bandooq were screened in these theatres. Golden jubilee successes like Aina
also kept audiences enchanted. The young and old of the ‘60s and ‘70s have an
emotional attachment to these cinema
houses; Bambino may have been an attraction due to its charming dancing lady or
the first 70mm screen in Pakistan, but Nishat makes movie goers equally
nostalgic.
It may surprise you,
but the amount of money that Nishat generated up until last week was more than
any other circuit cinema all over Punjab and Sindh. “Nishat still generates the
most revenue in Pakistan and is in a league of its own in circuit cinemas,”
Nadeem Mandviwalla, the visionary behind Atrium Cinemas who also has a stake in
Nishat told The Express Tribune in an earlier interview.
Nishat was the only
cinema that survived the chain reaction in which many major cinema houses like
Rex Cinema (now Rex Centre) were converted and demolished after the Pakistani
film industry rapidly went downhill. In the early ‘00s, Mandwivalla decided to
renovate Nishat at a time when there was no hope of any Indian film coming to
the country.
“I saw the best
Pakistani and Hollywood films at Nishat,” recalls seasoned film and TV actor,
Behroze Sabzwari. “It was by far the best cinema in Pakistan until black
Friday,” he adds regretfully.
In the recent past,
when Cineplex opened at Sea View and began to create a class divide by allowing
couples and families only, Nishat remained the only ray of hope for the awaam
of Karachi.
“Nishat was one of the
oldest cinema in Pakistan, but it was its class and peoples’ emotional
attachment to it which helped it survive when other cinemas were demolished,”
says Rashid Khawaja, the President of the United Producers Association in
Pakistan.
“With Nishat and its
neighbouring cinemas being torched to death, no cinema survives to cater to the
needs of the common man, no more films will be made and cinema will now become
an elitist medium,” adds Khawaja.
From families to groups
of young boys, crowds flocked to Nishat for entertainment. Whether it was for
Shahrukh Khan starrer Billo Barber, Shoaib Mansoor’s Khuda Kay Liye or a film
such as The Son of Pakistan, there would always be a bustle at the ticket office.
Film-maker Shehzad
Rafique wrote about his emotional attachment to Nishat Cinema on Facebook.
“This place gave me recognition and respect as my films like Nikkah, Rukhsati,
Mohabbatan Sachiyan and Salakhain were released here and turned out to be big
hits.”
Javed Sheikh, a well
known name in the Pakistani film industry, used to live near Nishat Cinema. He
says that last Friday’s destruction was a massive loss. “Even before I had
entered the film industry, Nishat was an integral part of my childhood. I was
fortunate enough to live in the plaza right opposite to it,” he recalls.
“Chief Saab did record
business and reigned for 30 consecutive weeks in Pakistan, with the most
revenue coming out of Nishat. The government has earned so much from cinemas
like Nishat, that now they will have to pay back for its losses,” says Sheikh.
Film-makers and cinema
owners may mourn the loss of a piece of Pakistan’s history, but only time will
tell whether a vacuum this big can be filled.
Published in The
Express Tribune, September 26th, 2012.
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