How Zee Zindagi is connecting lives across borders through popular culture

Zee Zindagi showcases popular Pakistani dramas, a soothing and refreshing attempt to show Indian viewers a slice of Pakistani life and culture.
Zee Television’s newly launched channel – Zee Zindagi which goes by the tagline of “Jodey Dilon Ko” (connecting hearts) – has been received with warmth and excitement by Indian audiences. The channel showcases Pakistani dramas for which there is a huge and untapped audience demand in India.

Strained relations between the two neighbours had resulted into restrictions on the exchange of media such as books, newspapers, broadcast channels, films, music videos, folk art, and theatre. Despite this, Bollywood movies and Hindi films actors remain hugely popular in Pakistan, while Pakistani artists have frequently crossed the border to work in the Indian entertainment industry. Popular culture whose role in shaping perceptions is quite significant has cultivated stereotypes while depicting the ‘other’. In such a scenario, Zee Zindagi is a novel venture and a bold initiative by a mainstream media channel to offer to Indians a slice of Pakistan’s life and culture. It also brings in an amount of freshness and innovation to Indian television content.

A few years ago, with stumbling blocks in Indo-Pak relations it was difficult to imagine such an exchange in the mainstream media. Majority of Indians who tend to believe that all Pakistanis are backward, treat their women shabbily and possess a parochial outlook will now be exposed to the realities of life in Pakistan.

The channel is aptly titled “Zindagi” since popular culture is actually supposed to be a reflection of people’s lives, their trials and tribulations, aspirations, and desires. It is gradually emerging as a medium that can connect two sets of people – a majority of whom have not met each other, or have met each other with much difficulty, have not been able to visit places in the ‘other’ country, or have not had chances to interact with people who live ‘normal’ lives across the border. Hence, the ‘other’ is visualised as someone alien or unfamiliar.

A student of the Lahore University of Management Sciences, Sehr Nisar believes that the broadcast of Pakistani dramas on Zee Zindagi offers a new ray of hope to peace talks between the two countries. She feels that this is the best medium to let Indians know Pakistani culture and way of life, thereby breaking stereotypes and bringing a kind of positive energy to the troubled relationship. With storylines that are so refreshing, plots so simple and closer to life, characters so believable and portrayals so charming – that you cannot help but admire the way simple stories are narrated with conviction. Be it the story of ambitious yet simple Kashaf (Sanam Saeed) in Zindagi Gulzar Hai, or the story of bubbly Zara (Maya Ali) in Aunn Zara, or the engaging and socially sensitiveKash Main Teri Beti Na Hoti.

A still from Aunn Zara
Pic – Wikimedia Commons

Popular culture can work as a powerful force for peace and change since it offers simple life stories—those that can act as bonds between conflicting populations. In many conflict zones across the world, there have been examples of positive roles of popular culture in stimulating change and humanizing enemy images. Letting people see what kind of lives the ‘other’ leads is a good way of shedding stereotypes, and a part and parcel of peace initiatives that must be encouraged between governments.

Qurat Ul Ain Ansari, a young entrepreneur from Lahore opines, “I wonder why it took so long, when we here in Pakistan have been enjoying Indian dramas, movies, and award functions since many years. More and more Pakistani shows, songs, movies and dramas should be promoted in India as it will lessen the distances between us and develop a feeling of apna-pan“. Pakistani dramas are meaningful and depict the struggles of ordinary Pakistanis, their life values, cultural ethos and offer life lessons that have been so beautifully put up to let the viewer feel at home with the characters and their life stories.

Chintan Girish Modi, founder of Friendships Across Borders: Aao Dosti Karein believes, “These TV shows will play a very positive role in changing attitudes that Indians hold towards Pakistanis. Viewers will get to see a whole range of characters, and that will make a difference. The assumption that all Pakistani women are Muslim, burqa-clad, and oppressed needs to change.” His personal favourites are Kashaf and Rafia from Zindagi Gulzar Hai – both quite different from each other but strong, resolute, hardworking, and self-respecting women.

For long, popular culture in India and Pakistan has served as medium for strengthening bitterness and perpetuating stereotypes. Now, however, popular culture can take a lead in smoothening of ties by holding aloft the mantle of peace. People on both sides who fear change and are unsupportive of peaceful relations resist cultural exchanges. Such groups in Pakistan have often demanded a ban to be imposed on Hindi movies and TV soaps, for they believe this will pollute Pakistani culture and adversely impact the youth of the country.

Title credits from Zindagi Gulzar Hai
Pic – Wikimedia Commons

Similar elements in India have expressed strong dislike for Pakistani artists who come and perform in the country. As a matter of fact, any scenario of hostile relations has had immediate effects on cultural and sporting exchanges. Devika Mittal, Convener (India), Aaghaz-e-Dosti  - a peace and friendship initiative between India and Pakistan says, “One of the strongest forces that sustains conflict is a lack of communication and a lot of miscommunication. The serials that are being shown on Zindagi are breaking these stereotypes by highlighting similarities in terms of language, culture, customs, thinking and even in our problems.”

While these dramas could anyway be accessed on the internet, bringing them to Indian audiences via television is a major step that could propel peace between the two nations. One cannot help but notice glaring differences between Pakistani and Indian TV soaps, the latter stretching beyond audience imagination to insipid story lines of scheming and heavily decked up women busy in kitchen politics. Some friends have appreciated the elegance and realistic portrayals of Pakistani shows, far removed from the superficialities involved in daily doses of Indian Television.

Kiran Bhatia, a student at The M.S.University in Baroda strongly believes that integration of peace concepts in popular culture can change thinking pattern of masses. “Pakistani Dramas on Indian television will help people in India get a glimpse of the commoners in Pakistan. Familiarity with and exposure to Pakistani lifestyle and thought processes will make the peace process between the two countries citizen centric and thus more effective as change will be generated at the grassroots level,” she says.

Real peace can be achieved and sustained not when it is imposed through mechanisms of power but by people working for it themselves. Zindagi is a great first step in that direction. Muhammad Uzair Niazi, a student from Mianwali in Pakistan deems culture to be the soft power of any nation and advocates mainstreaming of cultural activities on both sides through which coming generations can be made more peaceful and friendly.

A still from Aunn Zara
Pic – Zee Zindagi | Facebook

This attempt by Zee Zindagi to bring Pakistan to the doorsteps of Indian viewers is sure to be lauded and go down in history as a positive and constructive exercise in engaging people of India and Pakistan. “South Asian culture does have great synergies with Indian culture…and these serials help make the other seem very like us. For those of us not lucky enough to meet people from other countries, the insight through these serials is a good beginning,” is what Raakhee Suryaprakash, an international relations analyst based out of Chennai thinks.

As we relish the cross border cultural fare that Zindagi brings to us, we – as Indians and Pakistanis must remember that while we may not be totally similar, we are not completely different as well. And this is what popular culture ought to celebrate to usher in peace and change.

Published on The Alternative, July 17

http://www.thealternative.in/society/how-zee-zindagi-is-connecting-lives-across-borders-through-popular-culture/

हिंदुस्तान, पाकिस्तान और फ़िल्मिस्तान

Dear Sehr,

How have you been? Hope doing well. I am missing our conversations and I know that you must be missing them too. We have tried out best to make up for the lost time, however technology has betrayed us. Still, we must keep connecting, keep talking and sharing. This flow of conversations must never stop, whatever be the hurdles. I have been thinking of you for quite some time now. Especially when you tell me about the load shedding problem in Larkana and the infrequency of electricity. 12 years back we faced a similar situation in Gujarat. Electricity problems galore, especially during the summers - we used to count hours when we had electricity. But things changed for the positive after 2001 - after which we have not faced much of an electricity issue. In fact, today Gujarat is credited as the only state in India where even remote villages get 24*7 electricity facility. Hope this becomes true for India and Pakistan soon.

The past month has not been quite well - with all kinds of horrible news surrounding us. First there was the stoning of a lady near the premises of the Lahore high court (supposed to be an honour killing though I do not know what kind of honour is attached with such an act, our notions of honour have become so petty that even God must be feeling ashamed of us). Then in India we had the Badaun rape case in which two young Dalit (lower caste) girls were raped and then hanged from a tree. If this was not enough, in the recent weeks there has been news of other rape cases emerging from media reports. A tragedy also struck students from an engineering college in Hyderabad while they were on a study tour in Mandi (Himachal Pradesh). They were washed away in the river waters of Beas as they were clicking photographs, as water from the dam was released without any precautionary warning. I also heard about two back to back terror attacks at the Karachi airport and watched news about in dismay and horror. It has been learnt that the TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban: Pakistan) has claimed responsibility for the attacks. It is in this connection I remember asking you about the spread and influence of Taliban and you had told me that they have been causing mayhem in Karachi. So you now know that the week has not been good as far as news and reports from the media are concerned. It is indeed gloomy. Yesterday while messaging you on Whatsapp, I saw your status message and felt that it was very telling and poignant. It read like this:

"I declare myself a corpse for not being able to to anything for this dying nation"
It immediately struck me and I realised that may be you have written this in the context of the current trend of events taking place in Pakistan. As young people, we feel for what is going on in our respective countries and we desire to do something to improve the situation. But alas, at times we feel very desperate and despondent and give up because we see no hope around. I think the situation of people on both sides is the same in this regard. We say we have much in common, but I do not like the fact that we have such negative things in common.

The only ray of hope that helped me stay bright and cheerful this week (and reinforce my belief in the goodness of humanity) was a film that I saw. Its called "Filmistan" and trust me I missed you so much while I was watching the film. I just wished if you were with me - what a treat it could have been. Watching a film on India and Pakistan together :) I was told about the film by one of my friends, she said I should watch the film since I am working on India-Pakistan issues. I also heard a lot about the film and got to know that it has got some very positive reviews. So, I decided to watch it. But I missed you. I will tell you about the film briefly and my experience of watching it, only hoping that someday you get to seen it in Pakistan.

The film is aptly titled Filmistan - as it depicts a young man's crazy love for Hindi films. The protagonist Sunny Arora is a wannabe actor who apes almost each and every Hindi film actor. He is a struggling to make his mark felt in the Hindi film industry. In the midst of this, he lands up as an Assistant Director in a documentary being made by some American group. However, the shooting of the documentary is done in Rajasthan, in the vicinity of the border areas. Accidentally he is kidnapped by a terrorist group and held captive in a village in Pakistan. He is abducted even as the terrorist group rues the fact that they kidnapped an Indian instead of the American group. The entire setting is then shown in a Pakistani village (I am sure its a border village). He somehow through his love for films and the camera befriends the people of the village as well as Aftab - who is a Pakistani madly in love with Hindi films. Aftab is also an aspiring film-maker who dreams of making it big in Lollywood (that is what the Pakistani film industry is referred to, I believe). Both bond with each other over their love for films and become the best of friends. The terrorists however do not appreciate this and do not leave any chance of humiliating Sunny. Even in captivity, Sunny is shown to be very positive and friendly with the Pakistanis especially the children of the village. He mimics, acts, plays and has fun with them - forgetting that he is an Indian and they are his enemy. What bonds Sunny with the village and its dwellers is the common bond of films. He watches Hindi films with the villagers, enthuses them by mimicking several famous Bollywood actors and even helps Aftab learn the tricks of the trade by teaching him how to operate the camera. Their friendship blossoms over their common interest for film-making and Aftab decides to help Sunny escape from the clutches of the terrorists to the other side of the border i.e. his home in India. There are two poignant scenes in the film that touched me apart from the camaraderie of Aftab and Sunny ( they are like us, like Nidhi and Sehr and the others in our group).

In one scene, as Sunny lands in Pakistan (a fact of which he is unaware until told), he says that since the food, clothing, people and surroundings looked so similar to him, he could not recognize that he was in Pakistan. In another scene, after being short by a terrorist, Sunny is treated by the local hakim with whom he recounts his grandfather's days in Lahore, while the hakim recounts his own days in Amritsar ... expressing their deep desire to be on the other side of the border, which of course they know is not an easy task. All they have is memories. This scene brought tears in my eyes. There are many such scenes in the movie - the message is but one. We are one, we are alike, we are brothers and sisters, why fight? why hate? I was quite intrigued by the fact that the movie has been named "Filmistan" though at the end of the movie I realised that films have been used as a metaphor for the common connections we share, the bond that keeps us together. In fact popular culture is a big force that can help shatter stereotypes and bring people closer. These days,a popular TV channel in India - Zee TV is showcasing Pakistani serials. This is the way mediums of popular culture can be used to harness proximity. I came out laughing, enjoying and also with tears in my eyes because I missed you. I couldn't see the film with you (though I hope that you get to see it in Pakistan, I know you see a lot of Hindi movies). It is so difficult for commoners like us to even imagine to cross the border without hurdles and make friends there. We are at least lucky to be part of the BPP group and interact with each other. There will be many on both sides who may be finding it difficult to visit their families and friends on the 'other' side just because a section of people wish to continue and perpetuate animosities for their own selfish purpose. Another reason why I was drawn to the movie was that it came as a very refreshing take on Indo-Pak relations. If we see most Bollywood movies show Pakistan as the villain and use anti-Pakistan sentiments to whip up nationalism and patriotism. But this one offered a different way of looking at the relationship - from a humanistic perspective, not from a state-centric one. Such movies which will contribute to building positive public opinion on both sides are extremely important. As a movie goer, I almost forgot my nationality in this tale of friendship. Isn't that amazing? I would like to know from you about Pakistani movies? Are they also anti-India?

I think films are just a one off medium to connect with people on the other side of the border and there can be many more such mediums such as - art, songs, music, and many other cultural aspects. After seeing this film I got more curious to know from you - as to what do you think of Hindi movies? Do you watch them regularly? Who are you favourite movie stars? Do your friends also watch Hindi movies? What about Pakistani movies? I am eager now to watch a Pakistani movie and I hope that you will suggest one to me. I wonder when a day will come when you can come down to Baroda and watch a Hindi movie with me and I can fly down to Larkana and watch a Pakistani movie with you!!! The end of the movie Filmistan tells me that this day is not coming soon, there is a long way to go, we have to wait till this can be realistically possible. For now I am not that hopeful. Still, films are definitely a uniting factor ... three cheers to the power of cinema on both sides.

Nidhi