Herald exclusive: The decade in culture

It was the countrys exposure to global geopolitics in the 2000s whether its difficult relationship with the United States or its internal struggle with Islamist violence that became the main inspiration for creative activity this decade. Photo courtesy: The Herald

Ten years, ten times the culture. In art, literature, film, music and theatre the Herald looks back at the decade that was. 2000 to 2010 is a long time, but a couple of overall trends clearly defined these years. Military dictatorship, corruption, inflation, flawed democracy these are issues that Pakistans creative community has addressed before and continues to reflect. But it was the countrys exposure to global geopolitics in the 2000s whether its difficult relationship with the United States or its internal struggle with Islamist violence that became the main inspiration for creative activity this decade. It was also obvious that what growth there was resulted from the patronage of a world suddenly fascinated by all things Pakistan, the individual efforts of ambitious and entrepreneurial artists and writers, and the support of domestic private sponsors and non-governmental organisations. The Pakistani state continued to be largely absent as a source of support.

Within this bigger picture the story varied for each field. In art and literature Pakistanis went global, winning international critical acclaim and awards and experimenting with exciting new styles influenced by global movements. In music it was a decade of experimentation and entrepreneurship, whether Sufi music going mainstream, the emergence of an underground music scene or Pakistani musicians crossing the border into India in droves. In film and theatre, sadly, the picture was much less upbeat. While Bollywood achieved some high points amidst the thousands of movies it churned out and foreign films used formal expertise to! address the worlds most pressing issues, Lollywoods demise continued unabated apart from occasional independent efforts. As for theatre, the institutionalisation of training resulted in an increase in the number of productions in the last few years of the decade, but overall the field remains severely underdeveloped. Most notable plays in the last decade were put together by activist theatre groups that are in the process of transforming themselves from issue-focused political performers into cultural revivalists.

And much of whatever creative activity there was occurred in the first seven years of the decade, economic boom time at home and abroad when it was raining sponsorship and donor money. Post recession there is still healthy activity in some fields, but not at the heady levels that persisted until early 2008. What remains to be seen is how things will change now that the world is no longer swimming in cash. by Madiha Sattar

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Urdu literature
By Mohammed Hanif
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Films: Bollywood
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On top of the list of Bollywood trends this past decade would surely have to be the ubiquitous item number.
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Foreign films
By Bilal Tanweer
This p! ast deca de has been extraordinary for cinema, not in a groundbreaking sense but in that so many of the formal experiments of the past 30 or 40 years showed themselves in the telling of urgent and pressing stories from around the world.
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