| Summary: | The study discusses the evolution of Pakistani cinema as a gendered medium to
analyse the changes in visual pleasure and the male and female gaze in regards to
representations of real Pakistani women in films released for exhibition before
and after the issuance of the Motion Picture Ordinance of 1979. It discusses how
the élite gazing at the traditional, introvert chhooi-mooi girls, who never raised
their eyes before the elderly and men and closely guarded their self-respect and
sexuality in early films, differs from the lower classes gazing at free women who
are open with their emotions and sexuality in contemporary films. The study uses
the critical theories by Mulvey, Derrida, Rosen, and Comolli and Narboni to
discuss male fascination and anxiety with the female form, social formations and
epistemology to examine the difference between real women and their
representation in films from both eras. For this purpose, it focuses on the chhooimooi girls of the black and white (B&W) cinema from Qaidi (The Prisoner)
(1962) and Paristan (The Fairy Land) (1968), as opposed to modern exhibitionist
"rain dancers" who reveal their bodies and join terrifying villains and vulgar
comedians to make "the trio to get-real-culture" in the coloured Sher-e-Lahore
(2001) and Choorrian (Bangles) (2001). The study finds that the attitude of the
Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) towards exhibiting films like Chingari
(Vigor) (1964) and Sher-e-Lahore (2001) was puritanical earlier and progressive
later. The images of real women and their representations mirror shifts in the
opposite directions since Zia: the celebrities have become freer and open with
their emotions as opposed to the celebrities of earlier films, while real women
have become more conservative as opposed to the earlier women. This
phenomenon signifies resistance to oppression by women and society in both the
pre-and-post-Zia films
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