Poor title. Vague speeches. Boring content. Nice weather though

While part of the literature festival, the talk had little to do with literature and was hardly a festival for anyone

KARACHI: “Jalib, Jalib” had roared in the air in the session before. ‘Glitter of the Silver Screen’ would have the difficult job of following up at what was by far the most popular session at the festival so far.

“The title does not really seem apt for such a festival,” said Meher Jaffri, one of the people lined up to speak at the event, while talking to The Express Tribune. “The glitter of the silver screen seems out of place here, they should have focused on the art behind it, rather than the glamour.”

When one talks about the glitter of the silver screen, one imagines Humphrey Bogart, who while shooting The African Queen was the only person in the entire film crew to not get sick due to the infected water. The reason, he told later, was because he never drank water, only whiskey. One thinks of Daniel Day-Lewis, who to ‘become’ his role, lived in prisons, worked as a butcher, refused to leave a wheelchair and insisted on being spoon-fed for various roles.

However, the members of the panel - three young film makers - and moderator Javed Jabbar talked only about the economics of film making, of how many screens there are in the country and the collective experience of cinema, hardly what one associates with its glamour or ‘glitter’. While part of the Karachi Literature Festival, the talk had little to do with Karachi, even less to do with literature and was surely not a festival for any audience member.

The first to speak was Meenu Gaur, the co-director of Zinda Bhaag, who talked about the collapse of cinema in Pakistan. “There is something very sad in seeing the ruins of studios that have experienced much grander days,” she said. “Zinda Bhaag is a tribute to an industry that no longer exists. We were sick of the stereotypes portrayed of Lahore and Pakistan. We wanted to portray the everyday stories of Pakistan.”

She was followed by another man heavily involved in Zinda Bhaag, Mazhar Zaidi, who also perhaps failed to look over his shoulder at the large projector that showed the name of the talk. Had he done so, he might have read its first word. Instead, like Gaur, his talk started with doom and gloom. “The infrastructure of Pakistani film industry has collapsed,” he started. “When we started making our film, the biggest challenge was human resource and equipment. It isn’t economically viable to make films purely for Pakistan anymore. While there were 735 screens here in the 70s, now there are only 62.”

Finally, Meher Jaffri started speaking and while she also refused religiously to talk about the glamour of cinema, she was still the saving grace amongst the three speakers - which she managed by talking the least.

Gaur then decided it is a good time to discuss trade between India and Pakistan, first starting off with the exchange of films between the two countries and its importance to the industry but then talking about trade and how the government should intervene. The speakers were so off-topic by now that one expected them to stand up and start sharing their grandmother’s special recipes.

The utter absurdity of the talk was captured by an audience member, who with a completely straight face managed to utter the following. “When the Taliban takes over, what kind of films will you make?” A funny quip, but sadly, he was not joking.