ABSTRACT
This series on the Punjabi contribution to cinema traces its evolution in the background of the wider political and cultural context. A chronological approach is adopted with a view to establishing its structure and the process through which it unfolded while the larger drama of the future of India and the British rule was being played out on the political stage. As I argued earlier, cinema withstood political pressure till the very end, and the film industry never succumbed to the divisive and communalist thrust of the 1940s and the post-Partition continuation of that thrust except as aberrations during periods of extreme confrontation. At any rate, the 1930s were defined essentially by the Congress-inspired freedom struggle, which emphasised the partnership of Hindus and Muslims and indeed of other Indian communities in a united and free India. The Lahore, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras film industries took their cue from it and highlighted what was common and shared in historical and cultural heritage.
