The Pakistani film industry had came in to birth in 1896, and since then it has played a vital role in revolutionizing the overall entertainment factor in Pakistan. Cinema of Pakistan was termed as “Lollywood”, and this term was first coined by Saleem Nasir, who used to write for the now defunct magazine called “Glamour”. After the partition era, the Pakistani film industry began to dip down as most of the skillful and talented actors/directors migrated to India.

However, with such legendary personalities like Noor Jehan, Ahmed Rushdi, Waheed Murad, Zeba, and Nadeem, the Pakistani film industry recovered in to the Golden Age era, where the nation’s film industry started to dominate once again. Such was the promising background of the Pakistani film industry, but now a days the entire film industry is progressing nothing because of the low-budget movies and the heavy fan-base of Indian cinema.

2010 was the worst year ever in the history of the Cinema of Pakistan because only seven movies managed to release, and six of them failed big time, discouraging the fans of the Pakistani film industry. 2011 seems to be a nice year though, as some of the anxiously awaited movies are scheduled to be released. 14 movies are in queue to get released in 2011, and each one of them looks interesting to say the least. (more…)

The History of Pakistani Pop Music

By Salman Siddique

salman@pakium.com

Pakistani Pop music has always been something which attracts because it is a wonderful mixture of beautiful genre of music which include Classical music,and western versions of Jazz,Rock and Roll,Hip Hop, and Disco. It all started by Ahmad Rushdi’s “KO KO KORINA” in 1966.Then came Nazia Hasan with her brother Zohaib Hasan who took the infant industry to sky-high levels. You can easily find fans of Nazia Jee and Zohaib any where , even at a market place. After them the “Pop Flag” was hoisted by Vital Signs, Strings, and Junoon. By their efforts “OUR” music soon spread in our country as well as got a reputation in neighbouring countries and ultimately South Asia.Vital Signs’ soft songs, Junoon’s Sufism and String’s freshness is still being praised by music lovers.

(Apart from that,Pakistani classical music has also produced worth mentioning names like Mehdi Hasan Sahab, Madam Noor Jahan and several Classical Music Gharanas) (more…)