17-year-old British Pakistani Sarah Francis is an internationally renowned philanthropist and vocalist. Sarah has devoted herself to promoting the values of the nation of Pakistan. After 9/11, she rose to the occasion by launching an international effort to spread Quaid-e-Azam’s message of peace and became the youngest ever nominee for President’s Pride of Performance. In 2003 she raised more than £12,000 for Afghan Refugees in Pakistan and presented the cheque to Pres. Gen. Pervez Musharraf for the President’s Relief Fund.

Sarah was inspired by Whitney Houston and Mariah Cariah in music. She writes most of her lyrics and I like every type of music, I make fusion of eastern and western music which is being liked in UK. Most of the songs are being composed by Sarah and her hit song Voice of freedom was also written and composed by Sara herself. She likes Nusrat Feteh Ali khan among Pakistani singers.

Tim, her music manger says that most of the songs are being composed by her and mostly I just collaborate with her. He said that I heard her song at the age of 13 and I always knew that she has the most unusual talent, enormous vocal range up to 4.5 octaves which is quite high range of voice and Sarah is second in the world. Sarah is doing experiments through her music and voice as she can sing different instruments in a song and her voice becomes like the background instrument. She is well respected in UK, and she has the potential to fill the niche for Asian Pakistani singer in an unusual way through her voice. She is also working with Richard Cliff, a renowned British Singer. Tim explained that she is being trained by top class musicians in the UK and predicted that Sarah would soon become be a household name.

Sarah’s major achievements include the prestigious 2003 Beacon Prize for Young Philanthropist at a ceremony at 11 Downing Street hosted by Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown MP. The award recognised her contribution as a Pakistani leader who was ‘bridging gaps between diverse peoples in the interest of peace and reconciliation.’ In 2004, Sarah was invited by the Minister of Sport, Youth and Child Affairs of Zambia to visit the country’s HIV/AIDS orphanages. Zambia’s First Lady, Mrs. Maureen Mwanawasa invited Sarah to the presidential palace and commended her for her devotion to these forgotten millions. She was being appreciated by Britain’s First Lady Mrs. Cherie Blair personally as she wrote to Sarah: ‘Pakistan must be proud of your role in leading a generation to live “in faith, unity and discipline” and by voicing the thoughts of the majority of their peace loving population into the world arena.’ The corporate world of British Telecom chose Sarah as an example of excellence by awarding her their Seen and Heard 3 Award in the City, December 2005. Internationally recognized dignitaries such as like Nelson Mandela stand shoulder to shoulder with Sarah’s noble mission and she donated for African HIV/AIDS orphans in South Africa.

Sarah is seeking a good name for Pakistan and gives a message of courage and philanthropy to her fellows and audience. She stressed that expatriate Pakistanis should help Pakistanis in every possible way and should donate for the earthquake hit people.

She is ambitious to turn Sarah foundation into a big charity around the world to help poor needy children. The upcoming projects are to strengthen the existing chapter of Sarah Foundation in Pakistan and to establish its new chapters in different countries of Asia and Africa. She thinks that everyone is born with some talent, and we need to use it in a positive way and think about other people in society.
While answering to a question what she will choose singing or charity, she replied that I will pursue both as I raise funds through my singing and I am passionate about both.

She explained that Sarah Foundation (www.sarahfoundation.com.pk).is a Pakistani initiative led by a group of enthusiasts inspired by Sarah’s incredible role model. The Foundation is committed to find local solutions to local problems and to be a worldwide beacon of kindness and mercy. It is the first of a growing number of Sarah Foundations that are being created around the world to create local solutions to local problems.

In the light of Sarah’s imminent visit, Sarah Foundation Pakistan eagerly anticipates raising awareness of their patron to a whole new level. We are celebrating her incredible achievements as a young person. Simultaneously, Sarah brings the work and values of Sarah Foundation Pakistan to national attention. Their tireless efforts on behalf of victims of the nation’s worst earthquake in five centuries is commendable.

Sarah’s Major contribution to humanity and to Pakistan in particular includes:
• Led the Asia group musical contribution to the Commonwealth Resounds performance and inaugural concert of the Commonwealth Society, London, Nov 05.
• Meeting firsthand with African HIV/AIDS orphans in Zambia, and campaigning on their behalf. Through the Sarah Foundation Pakistan, donating quality Pakistani footballs to sports groups throughout Zambia, being the first time a Pakistani NGO has donated to African HIV/AIDS orphans.
• Inspiring thousands of young South Africans gathered on Human Rights Day to commemorate the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960. She was escorted to the stage by an elite police band.
• Representing Pakistani youth as a life Fellow of Britain’s prestigious Beacon Fellowship, in the company of such mover shakers as Bob Geldof (organiser of Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8 events uniting millions in opposing world poverty).
• Hosting numerous fundraising and awareness-raising concerts across London on behalf of Pakistan’s earthquake survivors.

In her this visit Sarah has brought a container full of three thousand blankets and medicines for earthquake victims. She will visit the effected areas along with Dr. Ben. Richards, Director of Sarah Foundation, UK and also an earth scientist, who did most of his research on climate change, water resources, landsliding and earthquakes in Northern Areas of Pakistan. Sarah Francis will be in Pakistan till 10th January 2006.

This has been a bad couple weeks for your country, Pakistan. Every day brings more bad news. The worst indication is the drop in confidence among broad segments of the business community in Pakistan earlier this month, particularly the tech sector, which has been growing at over 50 percent per year and represents one of your strongest bases of support.

Whereas the world as a whole has been transfixed by the London bombings, recent telecommunication problems that cut most of Pakistan off from the outside world for more than 11 days have caused widespread economic damage.

Need for Telecom Reforms

If there was ever a time for a country to reposition itself, now is Pakistan's time. We begin here by outlining actions that can be taken to boost the economy and business confidence, then turn to what Pakistan might do to improve its image as a safe country in which to work and invest.

The economic damage caused by recent malfunctions with the SMW3 submarine cable was aggravated by government telecommunications policies. Those policies are still in place.

Your government has been moving to privatize the government-owned Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL), Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Oil & Gas Development Corporation (OGDC), and other government or state-owned firms. Privatization is not synonymous with economic liberalization, as we see in the telecom sector. Regulations stemming from another era that drive all international telecommunications traffic through PTCL are still in place.

If there had been full telecommunications liberalization before the recent outage, then individual firms would not have been blocked by the government from quickly arranging for communications backup links independent of PTCL. While the government did a commendable job of providing free satellite backup links to commercial call centers during the outage, other sectors of the economy that are not stand-alone international call centers suffered considerable damage.

Governments Cannot Pick Winners, Losers

In addition to allowing independent international connections, Pakistan needs to lift restrictions on the use of technologies that are well established elsewhere in the world. The first thing that can be done is to lift the limit on digital subscriber line (DSL) speeds from the current 2 Mb cap.

Second and more important is the question of lifting restrictions on the use of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) for making telephone calls over the Internet. Those restrictions were originally instituted to drive all telephone traffic through PTCL.

In speaking with overseas Pakistanis about changes they would like to see in Pakistan, lifting restrictions on VoIP outranks everything else. The ban on VoIP is a hidden tax that makes Pakistan less competitive internationally. At a time when all major international corporations are integrating their global operations through VoIP, a ban on VoIP is a high price to pay for protecting PTCL.

When governments pick technological winners and losers, everyone loses. Pakistan can be on the cutting edge of the deployment of new technologies. Fully deregulating telecommunications is a good first step in that direction.

To its credit, it should be noted that your IT Ministry recently succeeded in arranging for the construction of two separate high-speed telecommunications links. One new link will go through India and tap into their international telecommunications backbone, while another will be a submarine cable to a hub in France, with connections to the U.S. and UK. Along with recently expanded satellite links, Pakistan by the end of this year will have excess high-speed capacity and triple redundancy that will make it a reliable location for mission critical IT operations and a hot spot for IT outsourcing.

Diversify the Economy

Your government has been encouraging local investors to venture into the international call center arena. However, the future of customer service is not with pure-play call centers. Pakistan arrived five years behind India in this increasingly saturated market. Your country's international call center industry faces market-entry hurdles, despite Pakistan's cost advantages, more stable labor pool, and listener-friendly accents.

For Pakistani firms to trail India into the pure-play call center market might not be a good move unless those firms can gain competitive advantages through cutting edge technology or domain expertise in specialized market sectors. Technology developments in voice recognition software will cause the general market for low-end call center services to contract within 10 years.

A smart move for entrepreneurs would be to see where the markets and technology are heading in five years and to aim for those targets. South Asian investors who lack a background in high technology and a track record with small scale international IT and customer service outsourcing projects would be advised to invest in local firms with demonstrated expertise in those areas, rather than attempting to start their own firms right away.

In the future, traditional call center services will form a small portion of the revenue generated by companies with commercial call center operations. We will see more firms such as InfiniLogic in Karachi, which generate less than 20 percent of their revenue from call center services. The other 80 percent is generated by their technology products and services, and by Web site-content-creation work performed by their Karachi-based staff.

The future has Pakistan competing on the basis of brains, not on the numbers of call center seats filled by telemarketing agents. The future does not have Pakistan chasing other low wage countries into the bottom of the global outsourcing market. But that future cannot occur without the telecom reforms discussed earlier and without new initiatives at all levels of the educational system in Pakistan.

Educational Initiatives

Pakistan's educational system was inherited from the British. Under this system, as in India, the last two years of secondary school are called "college" or "plus two." An undergraduate university degree takes two years to complete, three years for "honors," followed by one year to complete a Masters degree.

To receive a Masters degree in Pakistan, as in India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, students only need to study for four years after high school. Because those South Asian degrees do not have formal counterparts within the U.S., they are rarely recognized within the U.S., where six or seven years of post-secondary study are often needed to obtain a Masters degree.

The colonial-era university system has done a good job of propelling South Asian countries into the global economy today. But that system needs fundamental changes to enable those countries to maximize their potential over the next 10 years. The first country in your region that upgrades its higher education system so that its degrees are considered on par with U.S. degrees will gain immediate competitive advantages.

Part of your success, as with the current prime minister of India, is based on having obtained degrees in the UK. One reason why it is so easy for Americans to do business in Pakistan is because so many top managers of Pakistani firms have U.S. or UK. degrees. They understand how to work with Americans and they are keen to buy products and services from the U.S.

Pakistan's economy is growing at 8.4 percent per year, faster than every other country in the world except China. To provide a skilled talent pool for sustaining that level of growth requires robust educational improvements at all levels. This means expanding access to high quality education beyond the urban elites, including at the preschool, primary and secondary levels.

International Funds

The global attention now being paid to madrasahs (the Arabic word for schools) in Pakistan can be used to attract international funds for upgrading schools in Pakistan. It can also attract teachers from the West. Western teachers, besides providing educational benefits, will also serve as a people-to-people bridge to dispel common misconceptions about Pakistan in the West, especially misconceptions that Pakistanis somehow dislike Westerners or that Pakistan is unsafe.

In addition to attracting new high-quality local and international instructors, Pakistan needs to do more to retain its best existing teachers. In universities, some professors in high-tech fields already have their salaries subsidized to levels of about US$4,000 a month. This is a good first step, but it is not enough to prevent firms that need middle or upper level managers from simply walking in and offering to immediately double or triple those salaries. We will address the subject of middle managers below.

At no university in Pakistan have I seen examples of exceedingly well-financed faculty positions (called endowed chairs) that can attract accomplished world-class experts to conduct cutting-edge work in Pakistan. Attracting top-tier international talent through endowed chairs will help give Pakistan a reputation and competitive edge that it needs in an increasingly competitive world.

Endowed chairs should not be restricted to elite private schools, but should be encouraged at the big government schools and in less central areas of the country, such as Peshawar. In addition to benefiting the country, endowed chairs provide long-term prestige and recognition for donors.

Importance of Middle Managers

As the global economy changes, so too does the importance of middle managers. When my father worked on database projects in Pakistan and India in the early 1960s, he only needed to interact with top managers in each country. Over 40 years later, everyone in an IT organization in those countries is potentially client facing, particularly given quality assurance and quality control processes now being used by Western clients. Everyone needs to have client relations skills, communications skills, quality control skills, and business management skills. Those skills are not being provided as part of standard university degree programs in high tech fields in South Asia today.

Roles of middle managers have become both more important and more complex in the last few years. Rana Saad of the software development firm Pi Sigma Group said:

"One thing I have felt having been in the outsourcing-to-Pakistan business for seven years is the shortage of good senior management skill and talent available to the IT industry in Pakistan. Everybody knows the role of IITs and other great IT institutions in the rise of India's technology industry, but an equally important factor has been the IIMs [Indian Institute of Management] and other good business schools. These schools are producing thousands of highly effective managers who are building and leading hundreds of companies globally. Pakistan has just two good business schools -- LUMS and IBA -- which together produce less than 300 MBAs a year, most of whom either go to work for large multinationals or go abroad to work. Most IT companies in Pakistan lack a business-savvy management team to take them to a global scale. Moving forward, if Pakistan is to become a recognized player in the global IT industry, it has to be able to produce the leaders and visionaries to help it get there."

Pakistan's Image

"News about international terrorist attacks and their ties to Pakistan are detrimental to the image of Pakistan as a safe place to conduct business," said Omar Khan, head of mobile phone software firm NetPace in Silicon Valley. Omar added, "The government needs to do a lot more to eradicate extremist elements from the country -- our future depends on that."

Although it is widely recognized within Pakistan that your country is the strongest ally that the U.S. has in its fight against terror, and that more Pakistanis have been killed on the U.S. side than people from any other nation, your government has done little to highlight its efforts in this regard. Consequently, Pakistan's role goes largely unrecognized internationally.

Also unrecognized is how safe it is to travel and work in Pakistan, and how welcoming Pakistanis are to Americans from all walks of life. There would be more Americans who could help get that message across if your government were to remove the one-month limit on durations of stay for most business visas and if it were to help make visa renewals a less arduous process.

Conclusion

"The recent problems with connectivity have wreaked havoc with a number of companies operating here but we are already seeing positive benefits emerge from the experience," said Ayub Khan at InfiniLogic. "There is a renewed sense of urgency amongst both industry and government about developing a robust infrastructure and eradicating the mountains of red-tape that have previously stifled small business," he said.

Ayub notes that IT companies in Pakistan are now talking openly and frankly with each other and with your government about:

• How to develop a common strategy for the IT industry.
• How to improve quality.
• How to improve the image of the IT industry.

Ayub recently participated in a meeting with managers from 10 other international IT companies in Karachi. He reported that every person attending the meeting was not just focused on their individual problems, but on not "letting the side down."

Most of those firms have managers who grew up in the U.S. or Europe, obtained their education and initial work experience there, and fully understand the quality of service that must be maintained in order to compete effectively in global markets. Ayub said, "It is this group who will lead the next wave of growth in South Asia."

A country’s image is its ‘brand’ and building an image is like building a brand. No country or society is perfect. What differentiates nations is the perception about them and the quality of their ‘brand’. The American or the ‘western brand’ holds sway where perceptions of progressive societies are concerned. It has not emerged overnight, but as a result of conscious and sustained image projection campaigns by these nations to project the values in their societies. They have been successful in creating ‘role models’ in every sphere and at all levels.

Pakistani nation as a whole is seen as retrogressive and given to wild emotional swings with unpredictable fallouts. We present a confused picture. We do not know what comes first? Our obligation to the nation or our perceived commitments to the Ummah? We are not clear about the sort of image that we want to present-a liberal image or a conservative one.

Pakistan with less ethnic diversity than India is viewed as a nation that can break up any time. A section of our media thrives in projecting the incidents of ethnic discord. A superb study by Rao Mohammad Iqbal of the ‘Institute of Pakistan Studies’ at Quaid-i-Azam University highlights the role of Urdu and regional press in generating ethnic hatred. Our image that has taken a battering for half a century in virtually every sphere is in tatters, with no effort by any section of the government or society to address the situation.

The reality is that the bulk of the nation is conservative with a tribal culture that thrives on confrontation. Our leaders and certain elements of intelligentsia have exploited this traditional mindset so as to divert attention from core social issues. Over a period of time the people have been fed with so many conspiracy theories that a vast majority genuinely think that the governments of the western nations in general and that of the USA in particular devote most of their time and energies in plotting Pakistan’s downfall. Our Governments have nearly always tried to explain away their shortcomings to regional and international conspiracies. Pick up any newspaper, especially an Urdu one and you will come across stories, views and analysis of the Jewish and Western conspiracies. Visitors to this country are bombarded with the same stuff, this time from the taxi drivers, shopkeepers and even educated persons they come into contact with.

The cumulative effect of all this is that our conservative character has become synonymous with fanaticism, intolerance and a misplaced concept of jihad. Our society is projected as following ‘role models’ that have all these negative qualities. In such a situation it becomes difficult to present a balanced and responsible image of our society as a whole.

The Western media on the other hand projects their ‘role models’ as tolerant, cultured and cherishing good values. It encourages others to emulate them; as a result setting in motion a cycle that ensures creation of role models in sufficient numbers. This favorable critical balance of role models projects a positive image of their society. The most noticeable thing in their media campaigns is the sense of pride that these campaigns infuse in the nation and a total absence of self-pity. We however tend to wallow in self-pity.

At a seminar organized by the youth wing of Karachi Rotary Club in August 2002 on the subject of ‘Marketing Pakistan’s Image’, most of the speakers (all prominent national personalities) were of the opinion that as a nation we have so many faults that it is not possible to project a positive image unless the entire nation reforms itself. Since that being a virtual impossibility, the speeches were more of an exercise in lamentation rather than coming up with suggestions to help improve Pakistan’s image. It was, however, heartening to see the young Rotarians refusing to be drawn into a state of self-pity. With such proud and talented youth, this nation certainly has bright future, provided it can overcome its image problem.

Our image building campaign should therefore, not be based on apologies. It should focus on projecting the role models, the many individuals, groups and organisations that are rendering valuable service for the common man in the field of health, education, economy, women empowerment, care for the orphans, environment and in creating religious and ethnic tolerance. We need to be seen as a society supporting the good deeds and services of individuals and organisations irrespective of their religion, caste and creed. We must concentrate on building the ‘Pakistani Brand’ that is associated with moderation, tolerance and positive values. While not overlooking the so many failings that we have as nation we must highlight our positives. This image projection campaign must be complimented by a parallel campaign to educate our masses. They should be made to realise that most of our woes stem from our own inadequacies and not because of external conspiracies.

We need to create ‘role models’ in all fields and at every level for others in our nation to emulate. They have to be projected without prejudice. This is perhaps the only way to encourage reformation in our society. People tend to emulate the role models. Once that process starts we would begin to regain the critical balance and generate a perception of a balanced society. With passage of time we may set in motion the elusive process of reforming ourselves. A few individuals in the beginning; in groups and communities after a passage of time and eventually in sufficient numbers so as to generate a positive image as a nation.

We have the choices before us. Continue to seek refuge in self-pity, self-delusion and keep on drifting on a path of irrelevance, or, rise to the occasion and utilize the tremendous opportunities available for building the Pakistani Brand that we can all be proud of.

The 4th International KaraFilm Festival 2004 ended on Sunday 12th December with a resounding thud. This year featured an eclectic and commendable range of films from all over the world, ranging from Russia to Spain, from Portugal to Palestine. But the few Pakistani films and documentaries that were featured made a lasting impact on the audience and have unequivocally proved that not only do we have the talent but we also have the market for such quality films.

The second documentary that highlighted a highly explosive situation, the hindu-muslim riots in Gujarat, was Rakesh Sharma’s The Final Solution. It aims to unearth the prejudices, the political venom, the hatred and vengeance in people’s hearts. The film is an extremely lengthy and hard-hitting depiction of how ordinary folks lose all sense of humanity and morality and embark on vengeance and destruction blinded by a hatred which is fuelled by the ring-leaders who are holding rallies churning people on whilst they comfortably sit in their parliamentary seats. The documentary gives you plenty to feel sick about, plenty to reflect on and encourages foresight on the part of viewers all over the world. Documentaries of this stature raise questions and urge people to find solutions and to defy the hate-fuelling policies and political rallies and religious fundamentalist movements on both sides of the border which can lead to catastrophes if they are not curtailed or quenched.
Alongside brilliant works from foreign directors, there were several well received contributions from Pakistani film-makers. More and more young people have been encouraged to find a medium to express themselves, many have taken to scripting, many have taken to face the camera and many yet have decided to use the lens to capture their ideas on screen.

One such film-maker, who is carefully carving his niche at a time where the entertainment industry is undergoing a massive explosion, is Syed Ali Nasir, the brains behind 25 short films to date, some of which played at KaraFilm Festivals. On completing his Economics degree, Nasir worked with TV stations and a stint with Disney in LA unearthing his passion for film-making. The majority of his work so far has been short-films as he confesses, “I’m the kind of person that needs to be completely satisfied with what I make, a perfectionist of sorts, so up till now I felt that I had a great deal of experience to gain form making short films and unless I got this figured out I would not take the next step”. He admits he has already been through a transition and sees a change in his own work from the time he started out till today, and has an award for Best Short Film (Room 708) of 2003 at Kara, to his name. Lust which showed at the festival this year deserves a mention; with its chilling confession by the Pakistan first serial killer and paedophile and a collage of stills we catch a glimpse of the man’s reality. Nasir through his films offers a slightly unconventional cinematic experience where the audience is left without a clear-cut explanation. His films are highly subjective and open to interpretation and hence unique in their treatment and impact.

After a short stint at a Pakistani TV channel, Nasir decided that the pace and pressure that TV directors work under was not for him. He prefers a more gradual medium where time constraints and daily deadlines do not dictate creativity. Nasir feels answerable to himself for the kinds of films he makes and does not see himself as a crusader for any kind of cause and insists that he will take on projects as and when he feels ready. Having just completed his first documentary for The Citizen’s Foundation, Nasir confesses, “My ultimate dream is to make films about Karachi. This is a city of millions of people from distinct ethnic and cultural backgrounds and each has a story to tell, form the fundamentalists to the neo-liberals, from the makrani and balochi to the urban youth. We have such a rich diversity of languages and histories which should be captured and put out there for people to appreciate”.

Nasir mentions films such as Requiem for a Dream, Amores Perros and City of God as his favourites and in the broader sense feels drawn towards Spanish cinema. “Hispanic cinema is far more visceral and honest in their treatment of real issues, and that is why I feel inspired to take films like City of God and base it on the metropolis that is Karachi”. Nasir ended his experiences at Kara 2004 with an award for Best New Talent and a confession, “film-making for me is mainly about putting my ideas and concepts out there, I haven’t worked so far with a specific issue or target audience in mind, which I’m sure, will happen in time. But each phase is a stepping stone for me. I love making films and that’s why I do it, not for market value but for self satisfaction, it’s as simple as that”.

Hammad Khan, BAR at Law, working for the British Board of Film Classification in the UK, comes across as unmistakably amiable and driven in his approach. His family was forced to leave Pakistan in the 80’s but on his return he spent some of his adolescent years in Islamabad and Peshawar and felt a great sense of relief and belonging. Hammad recently felt inspired to cast aside his role as bystander and step into the foray of film-making with Samovar. Hammad has entered with a clear purpose in mind. “I want to put Pakistani cinema on the map; we have no excuse for not being there”.

Hammad talks about the experiences of making this short film and how he discovered that his fictional storyline was far more real than he had anticipated. He began to realize that what he was capturing on screen using ordinary local residents was doused in reality and a great number of young men shared experiences with the main character Owais. Hammad took on the story of this young graduate boy who is jobless and constantly hounded by radical Jihad recruiters. In order to lend authenticity to the film it was shot entirely in Pashto with a loose script where the actors were encouraged to improvise and act as naturally as possible under Hammad’s direction. The result is a darkly honest film where you find yourself understanding the characters mindset and choices. This film uses a great deal of symbolism to carry the story as he does not believe in over-stating emotions and situations. The boiling samovar (tea container) and the leaking tap, the parrots trapped in cages, snake charmers, and posters of political parties with their false promises on walls convey volumes in Owais’s story.

The remarkable aspect of this film, which earned Hammad an award at this year’s KaraFilm Festival, was its ability to make the audience understand why Owais does what he does without dramatizing his situation or providing a definite conclusion. Hammad wanted to highlight a social ill affecting our society not only in the frontier but all across Pakistan and feels there is a deep crisis of identity amongst Pakistani youth. “The reason I chose this subject for my film is not to show our local or western audiences what is wrong with our society but to show them a true picture of what is going on and possibly unravel the causes and underlying forces behind social ills. I want to make films which challenge the audience, which requires them to develop an understanding of films so the viewer feels involved”.

Hammad has learnt a great deal from the styles of Satyajit Ray, Stanley Kuberick and Terence Mallick and is taking on several ambitious projects. “Frames” his next short film, currently under production, will be a spiritual journey of exploration and discovery, the story of two people living on different ends of the spectrum in Pakistan and the indelible connection between their lives. Hammad is determined to make his mark as a Pakistani film-maker in world cinema and feels he will continue to handle socially relevant subject matters in his films. He states with a sense of urgency and vigour, “This is what I feel passionate about at the moment, I have a number of ideas and concepts based on social issues and want to see them materialize. If I embarked on a pure commercial film I wouldn’t bring anything to the table. But we need to understand that we must inculcate a cinema culture in the younger generation and use cinema to express ideas, to raise questions to call people’s attention towards things that matter”.

In this impressive anthology of young Pakistani directors Adnan Malik is certainly a name which will create ripples on the circuit in days to come. Adnan is younger brother to Saqib Malik the well reputed adfilm maker turned music video director. Inspired by Saqib’s fascination with the Pakistani film industry, Adnan’s began research for his documentary Bhooli Hui Dastan (the Forgotten Song) which premiered on the final day of the KaraFilm Festival. This documentary highlights with precision, humour and uninhibited candour the state of our film industry, the factors behind it and the possible solutions to this quandary. The film is not cluttered with big names or spotlight seeking celebrities, but with a select few well known actors, directors, producers and cinema owners. The honesty and rawness of their opinions is brilliantly captured and a thought provoking debate ensues on camera.

The blame for the demise of Lollywood bounces around from film financers to unprofessional attitude of actors to apathy from the audience and no one takes responsibility nor accepts their role in the neither destruction nor resurrection of the film industry. But what does emerge through this documentary, is an awareness of cinematic history, of political interventions and social changes and their repercussions. The point that comes across is that cinema relies on audiences for support and Lollywood is an integral part of a society whether we acknowledge it or not. This documentary portrays the need for cinema, the conviction of those who produce films today and the persistence of the small percentage of patrons. It tries to cover as extensively as possible the strengths, the failings and the handicapped state of the cinematic industry. In the words of one of the individuals in the documentary, “pakistani film industry died 20 years ago but its taken decades to finally bring it to the graveyard that is why everyone has suddenly taken notice of the situation and created a fuss now”.

During the session with the audience a popular Lollywood actor and director were present at the screening and both established an argument that far too much pressure lay on the Pakistani film industry to improve itself in a small period of time without the proper financial support. Adnan, while discussing the restrictions that are choking the industry raised a valid point, “No liaison exists between the film associations and the government at the moment, and they are both working in isolation and therefore can’t reach a viable compromise”.

After his return from the US having studied film-making Adnan treaded the obvious path and his first film “Bijli” won awards at Karafilm 2003 as well as in India. He chose to return to Pakistan as he felt this where he needed to establish himself and wanted to create a cultural identity for the generation today. “I wanted to engage people with my work, because there is a serious identity crisis in our society right now. We once had icons and films that people admired and empathized with, because back in the 50’s and 60’s cinema was the decisive pop culture”. Adnan’s motivation at the moment is to make films which provide young Pakistanis with something they can relate to, but he does cater to specific commercial dictates or financer’s whims, but instead wants to fill a void which exists today. “There is a segment of our society, the 4% elite who look to the west for heroes, and the rest of the youth which is the largest social class in our country at the moment is lost without icons, without self-awareness. What I want to bring about is a change in attitude. I want people to realize that it is trendy and fashionable to be Pakistani and to be aware of what makes us inherently Pakistani”.

The near future will see Adnan embarking on a series of films looking at Pakistani pop culture through the ages, highlighting what it was, how it changed and where it stands today. He wants to invigorate the youth with a sense of pakistani culture, all aspects of it, ranging from language to music, from past to present, just so the youth can have a tangible and sophisticated sense of who they are. “I want all the mobile phone touting, Hrithik and Shahrukh imitators with their bolay to street lingo, to find something within the realms of Pakistan to identify with”.

Adnan’s attention detail is obvious throughout the smooth flow of the film, as he undertook painstaking editing measures condensing 50 hours of footage. The unbiased feel throughout the film lets the viewer analyse and decide for himself which is a commendable effort on the director’s part. Adnan in his typically pensive and articulate manner explained, “I want to be a channel for the audience and use cinema as a medium because honestly the power of the word is dead and gone, it’s the visual now, its all about imagery and language and how its understood and manipulated to evoke reactions from the audience”. Films such as these trigger a great deal of reactions, laughter, shock and spontaneous applause from the audience and prove that if a film-maker handles his subject-matter honestly the audience will take notice of all the subtleties, the wit, the humour and the understated profound messages embedded in the story. Adnan provides an inkling of what we should expect from him in the future, “I want to pull people in and capture where we are today and where we are headed; my films should play the role of a Trojan horse. In one blow I want to entertain them as well as plant a seed in the audience’s mind, to make them think, to make them react, to make them discover, what it means for all of us today, to be Pakistani”.

With the diversity of Pakistani talent emerging on the scene in all spheres of the entertainment industry, the next few years promise to be exciting with respects to exploration and discovery of identities and cultural contexts. Our film-makers who have dared to take the initiative today and the audiences who are supporting these efforts are writing a page in history which will prove to be a most volatile and significant time for this generation.

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