Navigating the sets with Najaf

Cinematographer of ‘Dukhtar’ fame apprehensive about terming the new wave of Pakistani films as the industry’s revival

KARACHI:

Having been part of the Pakistani entertainment industry for more than a decade as a cinematographer, documentary filmmaker and director, Najaf Bilgrami has seen it all through the lens. As he witnesses how the new wave of films has reduced the country’s illustrious and, sometimes, controversial cinematic history to a footnote, he remains apprehensive about terming it as ‘revival’. “Pakistani cinema is doomed from the start because we’re not willing to accept our past. Ours will always remain a struggling cinema,” says Bilgrami. “The debate about what we should and should not make will go on,” he adds.

Most local releases have solidified Pakistani cinema’s reputation of becoming an extension of Bollywood. Bilgrami cites new-age filmmakers’ detachment from their cinematic history as one of the reasons behind this perception. “We’re not ready to accept Maula Jatt, the so-called crappy Gujjar cinema and [even] the cinema of Zia Sarhadi. Regardless of how they were, we need to embrace our past, even if it is for the sake of our future,” noted Bilgrami. “Look at how India accepts Govinda and Mithun da’s white pants. Whether this is good or bad, they acknowledge that it happened,” he added.

Bilgrami also laments how veterans have been typecasted in the film industry. While filming a grand mela sequence as director of photography for Dukhtar in a village on the outskirts of Punjab, Bilgrami had the opportunity to interact with renowned Lollywood director Hasan Askari. During the conversation, he tried to persuade Askari to embrace the digital age of Pakistani cinema or venture into television for financial security.

Despite Bilgrami’s insistence, Askari ruled out both the possibilities. “TV is a different way of telling stories ... I’m a single-narrative guy. I cannot tell stories in episodes and shoot on anything other than celluloid because I need to imagine it and make it appear exactly how I envisioned it to be,” Bilgrami quotes him as saying. “That’s auteur theory,” he explains in awe. “And we have relegated him to just another Punjabi film director.”

Bilgrami served as the film’s DP

But despite the criticism, it is not all doom and gloom for the local cinema, according to Bilgrami. He feels that no matter how much Pakistanis try to copy their next-door neighbour, their approach to cinema would remain inherently ‘original’. “We have a different food palate. Nihari and daal are available in both Karachi and Mumbai, but ours would always be different.”

Apart from his career as a cinematographer of films, such as Zibahkhana, Bilgrami has long served as an instructor at multiple Media Sciences institutions. Having experienced the industry first-hand, he states how there is not so much a lack of tools but an absence of technology that is hindering its progression. “We have all the tools to make a good film. “Technology does not mean excellent lights, cameras and lens. It is a technique – the optimal use of resources,” he explains. “What we require is technology to make creative producers, who can develop movies and mastermind the whole process.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th,  2015.

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