THE INVASION OF MARASIS INTO MAIN STREAM MEDIA
PROFERSSIONAL YES BUT PANDERING TO BASIC INSTINCTS

Intellectualism, Aesthetics and Finer Taste all dead.

It is said that once MARASIS was an honourable word. Those were the people who cared for MERAS or culture. History says that the Marasis were responsible for keeping the legacy record of each and every family of the village, or more precisely warasat, and from there the Punjabi language converted Warasi to Marasi. Not relevant for our discussion at all.

In the course of time a Marasis was merely a joker meant to make people laugh by telling the audience jokes, and more often vulgar jokes. In private audiences even most vulgar jokes. We used to witness the invasion of PANDS into wedding ceremonies and they were so much a nuisance, that at times they were removed by physical force. Normally they would not budge an inch without taking money. They had a leather in their hand by which they used to bring out noise of giving a beating to the other person. Enough of that.

Cable TV nurtured the Punjabi Marasai drama. It would be full of jokes, ribald ones the most, with stress on passive homosexuals and transgender antics. In any normal and decent house the channel was flipped away as being too vulgar to even watch for a little time. And then the dancers with their so called sexual appetizing mujras (repulsive to the educated), which the dancers resented to be called as such. A famous dancer complained that their work was termed as Mujras and when the dance occured in Arts Councils, they were termed as Performance. Forgotten was the aspect that she represented sexuality dominated one, the other was pure sensuality of movement. It was like comparing Arjumand Shazadi with Sheema Kirmani. Obviously taste determined choice of both. Nothing else.

All these marasis, otherwise actors were very professional, and there is lack of professionalism in Pakistan at the moment. With classic actors being so much under paid, that the bias for becoming actors was lost with time. This gap was filled by the Marasis as they shifted into main stream media. No harm done. Enterainment continuity was assured. But the real loss is not felt be people who do not realize that the FINER ASPECTS OF TASTE are being questioned. Our standards of appreciation going down. Are we meant to laugh at the cries of a young factory worker being sodomized? A joke is redundant on this puerile subject.

If this is not checked with time, tastes developed by people like Imtiaz Ali Taj and Enver Sajjad would go down the drain. Lahore was famous for its INTELLECTUALISM, AESTHETICS and FINER TASTE. Bring that back before that is lost forever.