Mamta Kalia

Mumbai) was released in Iran and cinema
halls in Quetta and Peshawar, in the
NWFP. Four more Iranian films were
produced in India in the 1930s.
Indigenous production of films in Iran
started in 1948 when Ismaiel Kooshan
(father of modern Iranian cinema)
returned from Germany and established
Mitra Films and Pars Film studios in
Iran. The first film made by Kooshan
was Toofan-i-Zindegi. Kooshan produced
and directed low-grade films which later
came to be called “Film Farsi”. These
were often crude imitations of
contemporary Hollywood, Indian and
Egyptian films.
In what seems to be the first serious
attempt of the Iranian state to look at
its film industry, the Ministry of Interior
announced a code of conduct for scripts,
film production and exhibition. The
Ministry made it clear that “Films in
conflict with the foundations of Islam
and the twelve Imam versions of Shi’sm,
Films in opposition to the constitutional
monarchy…Films that encourage political
revolution…Films opposed to the nation’s
customs and traditions…Films depicting
female nudity…foul language…naked
couple in bed…” 3 were to be proscribed.
Along with the Ministry of Interior, the
Ministry of Culture, the Department of
Media and Radio and the Iranian police
were authorized to enforce the
regulations. Also, under the new
dispensation, imported films were
subjected to arbitrary cuts. With the
advent of the dubbing industry in Iran,
the new technology was increasingly
deployed to enforce censorship
regulations. In 1959, the Exhibition
Department warned studio owners that
any transgression would invite immediate
prohibition.
One of the predominant features of
Iranian cinema in the 50s was the growing
popularity of the song-and-dance format.
The phenomenon can be understood in
the context of the rapidly changing
cultural landscape in Iranian cities. By
the second half of the twentieth century,
Iranian cities like their Islamic
counterparts in Egypt and Turkey were
opening their doors to cafes, cabarets
and night clubs. The woman performer
occupied a central position in the newly
created public space. For the majority
of the poor urban residents “who couldn’t
afford to attend these establishments,
the only access to music was through
watching films or listening to radio
shows.” 4 Thus, even though the songand-dance
feature in Iranian film was
distinctly an alien import as it did not
have any antecedents in Iran’s visual
and performing arts, it acquired
immediate popularity.
As a seductive spectacle of movement
and fantasy, however, dance easily lent itself
to film. Films featuring dance particularly
to women – a growing part of the Iranian
middle-class film audience– and was
undeniably associated with their new-found
sexual freedom. The liberation of Iranian
women on screen was crystallized in dance.
From this period, until the Revolution in
1978, Iranian cinema would continue to exploit
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