Umar Marvi and the Representation of Sindh: Cinema and Modernity in the Margins
Résumé
Umar Marvi, the first Sindhi feature film made in Pakistan, was released in 1956, in the context of the One Unit, when the merger of West Pakistan’s provinces pushed Sindhi intellectuals, students, and politicians to assert themselves in defense of their language and culture. By depicting the story of a famous folk heroine heralded as a patriotic figure by Sindh’s most prominent nationalist leader, we contend that Umar Marvi contributed to the construction of a modern national imaginary for Sindhis in post-Partition Pakistan. This imaginary rests on a narrative that conceives Sindhis as a peaceful and syncretic folk culture continuously occupying the mythicized land of the Indus. We show that Umar Marvi takes part in this narrative by portraying a certain image of an idealized community and by representing a fixed, folklorized heritage while attempting to master cinema as the medium of modernity.
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