A damaged bridge - work in program

By: Molly, IndiaFM
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
I am not an architect but I firmly believe in what I call the architecture of human relationship and human feeling, wishes, ambition and desire. I know something about how human emotions take shape and how they are cemented and how they react under various climates, circumstances and calamities. I know a little about how the desires of man and woman are born and how some of them die before they start taking any form and how some are fulfilled, making them landmarks and milestones. I know something about ambitions and desire struggle to rise and how some survive and how some are smashed to the ground. And I know most about how human bridges build between two people, two communities and countries are built. And I believe that new bridges are easier to build than to repair and renovate bridges that have been damaged and ravaged by time and the merciless madness of man.

Right now I am talking about a short bridge between India and Pakistan. The two countries which were one not so long ago but were torn part because of the wild ambitions and malicious motives of people on both side which resulted in the birth of two different countries, Hindustan and Pakistan. The bridge was built and it was difficult for people who were one once to cross that bridge which was further damaged by three different wars and various other attacks of hostility led by leaders who had their own evil intentions. On the other hand, there have been people on both sides who have been making gallant efforts to rebuild the bridge and if there is one group of people who are trying their best, it is a group of filmmakers and artists of the two countries. The efforts had reached a healthy mark with showed signs of great improvement till the Mumbai bomb blasts put a stop to the efforts. But the efforts of some brave people are still on ...

Hindi films are one of the strongest cementing factors, the unadulterated concrete that is bringing the bridge into a better shape. I know there are people who have been trying to make films the medium of bringing the two people together. I know there has been no time when so many Hindi films and even TV serials are being seen in as many Pakistani homes as they are in the entertainment-starved country across the border. Entertainment is as important as roti, kapada and makan, the basic necessities of life. It is the lack of this source that has led the people of the country to depend on Hindi films and their dependence is only growing stronger. True, the country has its own film industry and it makes its own films but they have not been able to make any impact on the people. In fact, more than two hundred theatres in the country have closed down in recent time because of people simply shunning them because of their bad condition and more because of the very bad films that they have been showing since years. Of late, there has been a very rapid movement of filmmakers and artists of Pakistan, most of them moving into India to know more and to even try and find work which will give them a better opportunity to make use of their talent. They are also coming to India because they have the right subjects, some of them better than the subjects in Hindi films but they just don't have the technology and equipment necessary to make quality films. They have to travel to places like Dubai and Hong Kong and other countries and are now finding it easier to come to India which is willing to offer them the permission and the facility to make their films take a better shape. Only last week there were a record number of five Pakistani films being processed at Manmohan Shetty's Adlabs and there are chances of many more films following after the report of the facilities offered in India.

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