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“Internet
has virtually removed the collectors’ snobbery” “I
like the organic feel of books” “YouTube
is a Between
radio and the web “There
is no turning back now”
Talking
about generation loss…
“Technology
shouldn’t be the focus” “We
are lagging behind culturally” “A
few clicks only”
“Internet
has virtually removed the collectors’ snobbery” Former GM, PTV Lahore, and an avid music
producer, Farrukh Bashir admits he is “a very old listener”. Back in the
1960s, as a young kid, he had a great taste for classical music — “I
used to collect my favourite artists’ works on spools and gramophone
records which were also called the 78rpms or, in more popular lingo, ‘tawwa’,
because they were black in colour and had the shape of the roti maker,” he
says. “Later, I started collecting audio cassettes and would
often record music of my choice from transistor radio. “We didn’t have any FMs in those days,” he
recalls, “only medium wave (MW) and short wave (SW), and the sound was
also mostly mono.” Then, VHS came and, more recently, CDs and DVDs which,
Bashir says, have allowed people like him to have access to a greater
variety of international music and films. Interestingly, Bashir is one of those rare people from
the older generation who has kept up with the changing technology —
something in which he was obviously aided by the nature of his job on
television (he was a music producer and, much later, director of programmes).
Today, he is a proud collector: “I’ve some rare live
items that I recorded from radio, in addition to a lot of my other
collection of music.” Bashir intends to share his collection on the vast world
of web by uploading it on YouTube and esnips.com, a valuable site for music
lovers that he is “managed by my friend Dr Ashfaq.” He agrees that some of the items stored on spools and
audio cassettes may not be publishable because of the poor sound quality,
but they will have to be digitally mastered to some extent. To this end, he has digitised a lot of his collection
already. “I believe I am not as proficient with technology as the
youngsters today, but I know what I want and so I just take help from a
technical operator and direct him,” he says. Talking about preserving the old machines, Farrukh
Bashir says they have become obsolete. “Now you don’t even find people
who could repair them.” He has happily embraced the new technology, in his
pursuit of interest in music as well as films and TV shows, and is raring to
share his collection with the world out there. “The age of internet has virtually removed the
collectors’ snobbery; everybody who has access to a connection is
downloading as well as publishing their best collections. Publishing is
sharing,” he says. — Usman Ghafoor
“I
like the organic feel of books” “I’ve professed this many times that I am a
technical moron, I’m not a gadget person at all,” says Mira Hashmi, a
young film critic and academic. “Come to think of it, I don’t even have
a smartphone and I don’t imagine myself getting one!” A big film/TV and music buff, Mira says she is able to
“do basic stuff with whatever gadgets I have, for instance an iPod. I can
manage my interests. I also occasionally download a TV series from torrent,
but I prefer going out to a market and buying DVDs and CDs, because I
can’t wait for six months before the next season [of the series] is aired. “So, to a certain extent, I am ‘with it’, but
generally I am not after whatever the next big gadget is. I don’t fret
over not having the latest version of iPhone, and I don’t have a desire to
be that way.” An iPad is another no-no. “I don’t own one and I
think even if I had to, I wouldn’t know what to do,” she chortles. “In a sense, I am pretty old-fashioned. I like olden
machines, I still have LP records, and they work fine for me. In fact, I
think they produce the richest, the warmest and the most intimate tone than
your CDs or any other digital device can offer. Nothing comes close.” Mira is also a lover of books but, again, she says
she’d rather “read lying down in bed or sitting alone in a café, book
in my hand, and I really wouldn’t be able to enjoy it on Kindle or
whatever. “Even when I am editing my articles, I have a problem
working on a laptop; I have to, but I’d still rather do it on a hard copy. “See, I like the organic feel of the book, the
records, and all these things,” she declares. “I find the gadgets very
cold.” — Usman G.
“YouTube
is a Arshad Mehmood is critical of the apathy of
state organisations as well as the general public towards archiving our
local and regional music. Personally, he is happy to have kept his penchant
for classical music alive by transferring it over time from LPs and
cassettes to CDs and DVDs. Mahmood believes there is no other option before us but
to welcome and adopt all the new technologies being used for archiving
music, “I had a collection of old music records on LPs and cassettes so I
knew that I had to transfer them on CDs and DVDs or else I would lose it.”
The music maestro makes another important point:
“Archiving is important not just because it enables us to enjoy music or
drama from the times gone by, it would also, in the same way, help our
future generations to know about things we would like them to know about,
such as our changing culture, society, and history, etc.” He gives an example of the letters that Ghalib wrote.
“In one of his letters, kept in the archives, Ghalib talks about the
letter-box. He expresses his surprise by describing the letter-box as one
‘open-mouthed box’ that has replaced the official at the post office.
This gives us an interesting glimpse into the bard’s times and how the new
ways were replacing the old.” Mehmood regrets our lack of attention towards archiving,
“We don’t have, for instance, old photographs of Queen Victoria’s
statue that was removed from the Charing Cross in Lahore at some point in
the 1950s because we perhaps believed it to be our national obligation to
remove every symbol of the British Raj. But we do have a glimpse of it in
one of Mussarrat Nazir’s films.” He is not very happy about the state institutes’
approach to archiving, “I hope Radio Pakistan Lahore is archiving its
work. We have had, for instance, EMI that keeps records of things. One
Lutfullah Khan in Karachi is noted for having done some wonderful archiving.
Besides, there may be only some individual efforts in that direction.” According to Mahmood, websites like YouTube are not
meant or designed to archive things, “YouTube is at best a showcase where
you can find a lot of old and new works. I also find some of my work on it.
But this is not in any way a substitute for proper archiving.” He is somewhat satisfied about having done his best to
archive his melodies and other works, “I have tried to archive music from
the early 1970s to the present day. So, when I am no more, you will have my
work properly archived in the form of CDs and DVDs.” — Ather Naqvi
Between
radio and the web Noted film columnist Aijaz Gul has a word on old
habits that die hard: “Films began as a small scale industry and a work of
magic in France, the United States of American, the UK, Germany and Russia,
where it was difficult to convert theatre addicts into movie junkies. France
even tried and failed to film theatrical productions and screen them in
cinemas. But with the passage of time, movies did manage to create a place
for them and, gradually, became a dominating force in entertainment the
world over. If anyone thinks that technical changes in film, TV and music
have mostly taken place only in the last 30 years or so, he is grossly
mistaken.” Again, Gul quotes the example of cinema. “The medium
is now one hundred and seventeen years old (born in 1895), but it has been
subject to change from the very beginning. It went from silent and B/W to
sound, from Nitrate to Safety raw film stock, Colour and Cinemascope to
Widescreen; Mono to Stereo to Digital Surround; 35mm to 70mm and 3D. “So, going Digital, downloading movies from torrent or
watching them on YouTube etc is consistent with any of those changes.” According to Gul, it is “ironical (and tragic) why
Kodak did not keep up with the changes and went bankrupt. If clients gave up
on the 35mm film stock, Kodak should have looked for alternatives. He recalls an American presidential debate where
President Obama, talking about his country’s defence spendings, once said:
“We have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has
changed [from horses to aircraft carriers]!” Pakistan film industry, Gul adds, has miles to go before
it can catch up with the new-age technology. “It is not just the film
studios, but most of the leftover cinemas need to replace their Westrex
projection system from the ‘50s and ‘60s with new formats along with new
sound system.” On a personal front, Gul says he considers himself as a
person who is somewhere “between old-fashioned and a person who has gone
on unwillingly with the changes. I still listen to music on radio which is
lying at my bedside table, but on the other hand, I read newspapers online
and like to watch old and not-so-old film songs as well as film clippings on
YouTube. And, when it comes to showing films to the media students in my
Film History/Appreciation classes, DVDs come in handy. “One must keep the balance. Immodest as it might sound
but I think the following French saying applies to me perfectly, “The more
you change, the more you remain the same.” — U.G.
“There
is no turning back now” “There is no comparison between the technology
of the past and what it is now,” says film maker and academic Shirin
Pasha. “More than in any other field, digital technology has achieved more
for film makers in a short span of time lately than what they had achieved
over a hundred years previously.”
Correspondingly, Shirin says she can now access a lot
more information in books, films and music than ever before. “I enjoy this
immensely, because this way I keep learning all the time. “Now we have to see how things will be stored and
archived, who will manage all the information. This process is constantly
evolving and changing at a very fast pace, so much so that a social
networking website like Facebook has taken away from our interaction with
each other in the real world.” Sometime in the future, she hopes, “we will be able to
strike a balance between the digital medium and the physical world. “I don’t think anyone can totally live without
digital technology. There is no turning back now, this is the way of the
future and people and nations who do not address the need to learn and adopt
digital technology will be left behind, and that is what is happening.” — Ali Sultan
Talking
about generation loss… “I am one of those people who have kept up
with technology,” says popular columnist and radio jockey Fasi Zaka.
“Though my archiving photographs or TV shows would not be of any use to
Pakistan, it is more of a personal collection and includes television
serials like Trinity, Highway to Heaven and Perfect Strang However, Zaka admits to have “started digitising my
grandfather’s old photo albums recently; I am still in the process of
scanning them all.” Similarly, in music, he claims to have “a huge castle
collection, some of which is not even available now. Ali Sher’s song ‘Do
Pal’, which he sang at the beginning of his career, before he took off to
a totally different genre, is a favourite.” Zaka has also archived Nusrat Hussain’s album
‘Erum’ which, he says, is not available in the market. Pakistan Television and Radio Pakistan are a treasure
trove of archives, says Zaka, a fan of old PTV serials. He watches them on
YouTube, but is quite turned off by their poor video quality. He has an explanation: “The users have converted it
from VHS which results in generation loss, as they say. BBC has everything
available online, PTV and Radio Pakistan should also make their records
accessible and in good quality.” — Naila Inayat
“Technology
shouldn’t be the focus” “For me, personally, nothing has changed. I
don’t use computers, so reading books on a device like Kindle is not an
option,” says Dr Enver Sajjad, well renowned playwright and director. “I
still have my old tapes and records that I play to relax. “Yes, overall, I realise that things have become
faster now. The young lot is doing good work with the ever-changing
technology, but technology shouldn’t be the focus of, say, storytelling;
it should aid it. I see many young people being sucked into technology and
not paying attention to the craft of storytelling.” However, he is not averse to digital technology. It has
a lot of benefits, he admits. “With computers and digital technology, old
plays are being archived and also being watched which is great.” — A. Sultan “I take the blame for the loss”
She goes on to explain how TV channels such as Filmazia
and Silver Screen have acquired software of old Lollywood movies from the
studios and they air it after Telecine-ing it. Besides, there are companies
such as Sadaf and, previously, Shalimar, which have always taken the lead in
releasing the golden oldies on cassettes and, now, on CDs and DVDs. However, Sangeeta laments the fact that she never got
around to digitising her personal photographs. “All my photo albums, from
my childhood as well as early days in films, were stolen from my residence.
They are now only a distant memory, and I take the blame for the loss.” — N. Inayat
“We
are lagging behind culturally” Senior journalist Ghazi Salahuddin has noticed
and recorded many history-making moments during his professional life
spanning over decades. He is also witness to three generations grappling
with their challenges in their respective times. The world is changing and
so is mankind — the speed of evolution in the 21st century is unmatched
due to the fast growing technology. Salahuddin feels nostalgic and regrets the loss of a
classical past due to over-reliance on machines. Lamenting the loss of
classical work produced by PTV at one point of time, he recalls how he was
shocked to find out that PTV had not archived the documentaries made by
Obaidullah Baig, a pioneer of documentary films in the country. “After
Baig’s demise, we went to the PTV station, Karachi, to get some of his
documentaries, but the TV authorities were at a loss to find one, because
none of his works had been archived,” he says. Why archive old works when more and more new work in
film, drama, music and poetry is being created? Salahuddin has a point to
make, “There is no comparison between the art being produced today and the
classical works of yore. More genius and professional people were at work in
the past and they created exclusive art that has stood the test of time.
With more and more people joining the ranks of the ‘artists’, we have
lost quality. So, archiving past golden age is necessary.” Though he agrees that new technology has made life easy,
he regrets the fact that cultural literacy does not match the computer
literacy. “As a nation, we may be advancing mechanically but,
unfortunately, we are lagging behind culturally.” Despite being comfortable with the latest gadgets, he
says, his daughter does most of the archiving and computer work for him. Internet provides a window for people like Salahuddin to
bask in the golden past as he finds it easy to access old movies and music
of his choice. — Mazhar Khan Jadoon
“A
few clicks only” A senior photojournalist, associated with the
daily Dawn, Azhar Jafri has been capturing history through his camera and
the amount of work he has done would be hard to store in a single-room
setup. A smart person, he found the answer in “new technology that is ever
growing and improving.” Today, he has all his professional work converted onto
the digital format — DVDs and CDs — which, he says, has made it “very
easy for me to archive.” He recalls how it would be quite difficult for him in
the past to retrieve a photo. “I’d have to literally dive into the
bundles of negatives, fishing for a photo that I required for publication.
But now life is very easy and you are able to dig whatever you want in a
matter of a few clicks only.” Talking about the ever-changing technology that also
triggers cut-throat competition, Jafri says, “If you have to survive in
these times, you must keep pace with the changing trends as well as
technology. There is no other option but to run in the fast lane and keep up
with the challenges of the fast moving world. “We are replacing the old, low-resolution cameras with
the latest and improved digital cameras which have a capacity of 20-25
megapixels, and the results are astounding!” Jafri also has a special interest in classical music,
and while he claims to have a fair collection of songs by Salamat Ali Khan,
Mehdi Hasan, Ghulam Ali Khan and Roshan Ara Begum, they are stored on audio
cassettes mostly. His reason: “they are a more reliable and dependable
format than any of your CDs and DVDs. There are fewer chances that you will
lose your data and the cassettes are also easy to repair.” Computers and internet are also part of Jafri’s
professional as well as personal life. “You can transport yourself into
the past easily by logging on to, say, YouTube, and enjoy the golden PTV
dramas and music. You can also download any movie, drama or song for your
own record. It helps you link your present with the past.” — M. K. Jadoon
We wonder if many
people know about this one more feather in Unesco’s cap. It asks the world
to celebrate the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage every year on October
27. This is a call to save all sound recordings and moving images that are
vulnerable and are liable to be lost with each advance in technology. Since
the advance of technology itself, to this degree as the people today know
it, may be a hundred years old, it is quite possible to save at least some
of our shared audiovisual heritage. Unesco operates at the
level of the whole world, trying to raise global awareness and working with
global partners, especially the ones responsible for archiving. The next
unit of engagement is at the country level. It mainly talks about film,
television and radio that are our common heritage. This week we at TNS
decided to join the Unesco in celebrating the audiovisual heritage day but,
for once, we did not focus on the official endeavours. We knew there would
be some structure somewhere trying to do whatever it can under the
circumstances. But there would be so much to lament about, in terms of lack
of resources, infrastructure facilities and, of course, bureaucratic red
tape and non-cooperative attitudes. We tried to focus our
attention elsewhere — among individuals. How are individuals, masters,
connoisseurs, collectors, filmmakers, composers, photographers managing to
keep pace with digital technology. The responses we have got are amazing. Some of the people we
interviewed consider themselves old-fashioned and would only get only as
much technology as required. Others have not looked behind, and what is
wonderful is they have managed to archive so many resources, even if for
their own needs. At least there is a
collection out there and, hopefully, people know about it. Here’s to
Pakistan’s audiovisual heritage as the people know it.
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Giving
the example of camera, she says, “Where once you had very heavy cameras
and needed large crews to operate them, now you have cameras that one can
carry in a purse and a single person can operate it.”
ers.”
Renowned
film — and now, TV — actor and director Sangeeta says she has never had
to do any archiving of her films, “As technology changes every day, I
consider myself fortunate that almost all my movies and songs are intact.”
