Entertainment deficit

For a country where the highest viewership is for talk shows and the only external entertainment source is restaurants, a lack of diversity of thought and action become natural. Why do a majority of people seem to be on the edge and negative? Primarily because all they see around them are failing systems, might ruling the right and no outlet for getting mental and physical relief for the stresses that seem to be accumulating as days go by. For a life and society to be balanced the nourishment of body, mind, heart and soul is mandatory.
In many researches it has been proven that when this balance gets disturbed and people living in such countries are not given the chance to nourish their mental and emotional faculties, such societies lose their balance and resort to behaviour like terrorism and violence either on others or on themselves.
Thus entertainment is a huge part of releasing the energy and easing out the pent up stress of the people of a nation. Most countries of the world have designed planned investment in providing this facility to its constituents. The provision of public parks, sporting facilities, tourism attractions, theatre and cinema are part of this attempt of the government to make life more colourful for its citizens. With this encouragement from the government the private sector steps in and participates in building up theme parks, resorts etc to fulfill this essential need of the market.
The world has made amazing progress in this regard and provides artificial beaches and man made infrastructure to compensate for geographies not endowed with these natural resources. However, Pakistan is a prime example where many such naturally blessed endowments have been destroyed due to a lack of development effort.
The valleys and northern areas of the country used to be resorts, where for generations, June and July were times for the families to pack up and enjoy healthy walks and scenic beauty of Murree hills, Swat and Kalam. Similarly, the cinema industry was robust enough to provide weekend entertainment with movie houses being packed and competitive. However, over a period of time, the hills have become a resort for the rowdy, the dirty and the desperate and cinemas almost disappeared till the Indian movies were allowed in the country.
The natural blame is laid on the insecurity prevailing in the country and resulting avoidance of these places; but there is more to blame than just terrorism. The lack of care in preserving the cleanliness and beauty of these areas is a big factor in turning these resorts as a resort of last sort. Similarly, cinema industry has gone down due to the inability of players in this industry to provide value for time and money for the viewer.
The packed house for Indian movies is a case in point. One source of satisfaction is the revival of the television soap operas in Pakistan. A few years back the Indian dramas of Star Plus had dominated Pakistani TV lounges but as the standards of our own plays increased the Indian melodrama just faded out.
TV and VCR were initially blamed for wiping out cinema industry. However nothing can match the experience of going out to see drama on big screens. A lot of people had decried the DVD culture by saying that when people can watch movies at home why would they take the trouble to go out. Calling it trouble is the mistake, as it is this total experience of you dressing up, picking family and friends and buying popcorn and sour slushes to watch larger than life figures doing and saying things which you have thought about but never faced, that will always draw people into cinema houses.
Thus as the Indians say, give us cricket and bollywood and we do not want anything else, such entertainment takes the attention off from a screaming media bent upon making us feel more hopeless.
With a local cinema almost entirely fed on Indian movies the emergence of BOL as a Pakistani movie addressing all those subjects which we would rather keep in our closet is an absolute inspirational attempt for other production houses to produce quality cinema. Touching on the hypocrisies of our society with taboo subjects like male chauvinism, homosexuality and prostitution, the beauty of this movie is not the subject, but the way it has been seamlessly woven by excellent cinematography and gripping connectivity.
The actors may not be big names and many times perhaps not awe-inspiring but so well entrenched is the message of the story that you tend to ignore many technical slips. The success of this movie disproves the assumption that the audience in Pakistan is only addicted to bollywood, that we do not have the talent and the technique to match our big neighbours and that this industry is gone forever.
If ever there was ever an opportunity for providing entertainment in the world, it is in Pakistan, as literally there is no competition. However like any risky venture, understanding the need of the audience, presenting a different offering and continuously maintaining and enhancing standards remain the pre requisite of success in the entertainment industry.

The writer is a consultant and CEO of FranklinCovey Pakistan and can be reached at [email protected]