Islamabad: Lok Virsa held an elaborate book launch ceremony of its publication ‘Journey Through Lens-Pakistani Cinema’ on Wednesday.
Apart from authors Aijaz Gul and Jamal Sohail, there were distinguished guests who graced the occasion. Paulo Neves Pacinho (Ambassador of Portugal), Zhang Heqing (cultural counsellor, Embassy of People's Republic of China/Director China Cultural Center in Pakistan), Rehan Hasan (dean, head of Riphah Institute of Media Studies, Riphah International University, Rawalpindi), Muzaffar Qureshi, Basharat Qadir, Zarina Salamat and several other eminent personalities graced the occasion.
‘Journey Through Lens-Pakistani Cinema’ first and foremost, covers history of Pakistan films. It traces films in Lahore long before 1947 Independence to the mid-thirties when Lahore became major center of film-making. It even goes back to 1895 when film was born in France, United States, UK and Germany.
It briefly gives us glimpses of world cinema today from China, Iran, Turkey, South Korea, Russia, Japan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India and of course Hollywood. It is a book for film scholars, researchers, enthusiasts and students. There was then little reason why it should not have been just an ordinary dull, banal and mundane textbook. However, with imagination and visual conception of Fouzia Saeed (then executive director Lok Virsa), it turned out a glamorous extravaganza with lost, forgotten black and white archival photographs juxtaposed with dazzling glamorous color photographs in hardcover coffee table edition. The book cover itself brings seventy years history in images from Asha Bhosle - Nasir Khan in our first Teri Yaad( 1948) to Mahira Khan in Verna (2017) with Sabiha, Santosh Kumar, Mohammad Ali, Zeba, Nadeem and Shamim Ara joining the marquee.
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