Encyclopedia of Islam

Ibram in Paris (1964) highlighted the difference 

between Iranians and Europeans.

The intellectual response to this commercial 

cinema is not limited to the production of art films. 

In 1971, Masoud Kimiai (b. 1941) undertook the 

production of Dash Akul, based on a modern clas-

sic short story with the same title by the acclaimed 

Iranian prose writer Sadiq Hidayat. The story is a 

psychological evaluation of the themes of chivalry, 

which are also expressed in the film’s more commer-

cial counterparts. In the 1960s, other art filmmakers 

such as Furugh Farrukhzad (1935–67) and Dary-

ush Mehrjui (b. 1937), inspired by international 

cinema, made great contributions in their docu-

mentaries and surrealistic films. These filmmakers, 

along with others, developed the New Iranian Cin-

ema as an alternative to commercial cinema.

With the establishment of the Islamic Republic 

of Iran in 1979 and its puritanical attitudes toward 

the arts, the prospects for Iranian cinema seemed 

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murky and pessimistic. More than half the country’s 

nearly 500 movie theaters were confiscated or 

closed down. Contrary to expectations, however, 

Iranian cinema in the past two and a half decades 

has developed into an international cinema with 

claims on artistic novelty. Today, filmmakers such 

as Abbas Kiarostami (b. 1945), Muhsin Makhmal-

baf (b. 1957), and his young daughter Samira are 

familiar names to Iranian film viewers across the 

globe. Perhaps the religious revolution, followed 

by unforeseen conditions of strict censorship and 

oppression, actually inspired and compelled the 

creative work of these filmmakers and many oth-

ers. The topics explored by the filmmakers of the 

post-1979 revolution era tackle the subtleties in the 

controversies that define the sociocultural life of 

Iranians today, such as war, the relations between 

the sexes, and the status of women. Furthermore, 

the vital and dynamic relationship between this cin-

ema and its audience abroad has produced a range 

of new possibilities for artistic expression that was 

not evident in the decades before the revolution.

INDIAN CINEMA

The place Muslims occupy in Indian cinema is 

something of a conundrum, reflecting their vexed 

affiliations within South Asian modernity. If one 

focuses on the supposedly Hindi-language cinema 

based in Bombay, it is necessary to underscore the 

extensive influence of Urdu literature on both film 

dialogue and song lyrics. Before the partition of the 

country at the point of its independence from Brit-

ish rule in 1947, Lahore was also an important cen-

ter for the production of Hindi-Urdu films. Already 

in the 1940s, Muslim producer-directors such as 

A. R. Kardar and Mehboob Khan had come into 

prominence in these two centers. As Bombay cin-

ema was securing its genres and audiences and con-

solidating a national cinematic idiom, composers 

Ghulam Haider and Naushad were instrumental in 

laying down the conventions of a musical style that 

became the most identifiable trait of the industry. 

The 1940s were also marked by a steady 

mounting of communal tensions and brutal riots, 

eventually leading to the creation of p

akistan

.

In the course of the mayhem, millions of people 

became homeless refugees; the early skirmishes 

over Kashmir in the late 1940s compounded the 

atmosphere of hatred and suspicion. Some Mus-

lim actors took on Hindu names to ensure their 

acceptability. Thus, Mumtaz Jehan came to be 

known as Madhubala, while Yusuf Khan became 

famous as Dilip Kumar. Nargis, on the other hand, 

did not suffer any loss of popularity due to her 

openly Islamic identity, went on to play the title 

role in the landmark film Mother India (1957), 

and became a member of parliament in the 

1970s. Other luminaries of the Bombay industry, 

including Ghulam Haider and singer Nurjehan, 

chose to move to Pakistan. Contemporary popular 

discourse, for instance in the anglophone maga-

zine  Filmindia, reflected the deep anxieties and 

ambivalences of a wounded social matrix, mourn-

ing the loss of creative agents and simultaneously 

denouncing them for their “betrayal.”

Muslims who stayed on in India as part of a 

minority community faced prejudice and wari-

ness. Even someone as respected as Dilip Kumar 

had to contend with aspersions and periodic 

witch hunts. The plight of the Muslim citizenry 

is thoughtfully documented in M. S. Sathyu’s 

film  Garam Hawa (1973), which, after initial 

difficulties with the censors, went on to win the 

highest national awards. At the end of this film, 

the young protagonist, Salim, chooses to stay 

on in India and finds his community in a leftist 

group. The narrative resolution clearly upholds 

a secular, class-based political agenda over com-

munal politics founded on religious affiliations. 

The author of the original story, Ismat Chugtai, 

and the scriptwriter, Kaifi Azmi, were both asso-

ciated with the Progressive Writers’ Association 

and were stalwarts of modern Urdu literature. 

Azmi was also responsible for many superb song 

lyrics; his daughter, Shabana Azmi, became an 

important face of the so-called Indian New Wave 

of the 1970s (and is currently the most revered 

actress of the Indian screen and a social activist of