Zinda Laash: Pakistan’s First Horror Film
One of my favourite conversation points growing up was sharing ghost stories. Stemming from the fear of djinns, there was always something intriguing and fascinating about whispers in the night, figures in the middle of a dark road, or even superstitions that I still think about to this day.
Most of the fear came from the perceived reality of evil spirits who live among us, a fear that those who grew up in religious households may know well. Recently wanting to revisit these stories (mostly for fun, mostly to see what I even believe), I wondered whether there were any specific stories rooted in South Asian folklore - stories told across the years with only a few details changed here and there. As I looked, I was surprised to come across what is known to be the first horror and X-Rated film to be produced in Pakistan, so off I went down the rabbit hole.
Zinda Laash (“Living Corpse”), directed by Khwaja Sarfraz, was released in 1967 and is considered to have largely followed the plot and stylistic devices of Hammer Horror’s Dracula from 1958, alongside, of course, Bram Stoker’s novel of the same name.
In this movie, we see Professor Tabini (i.e. the vampire) who is desperately trialling a new concoction that he believes will allow him to outlive death. Upon taking this, he tragically dies, after which his assistant finds him and takes him down to the basement and it’s here that he resurrects as a vampire.
Similar to Frankenstein’s hubris of going against the nature of God and creating life, the beginning of Zinda Laash deliberately portrays Professor Tabini creating the concoction; he is going against God’s will, and it’s due to this (as opposed to the potion itself) that he is resurrected as a blood sucking vampire - a warning to those who commit God-less actions, perhaps?
It’s also important to note that vampires do not strictly exist in South Asian folklore so, of course, the element of religious and cultural morality is then sprinkled within to act as a reasoning for the invention of the character.
Zinda Laash of course features the well-known use of strictly suggestive sexual content commonly employed in South Asian cinema by omitting even a vampire’s neck bite whilst simultaneously incorporating Stoker’s more gory elements from the novel - one of the first adaptations to ever do so. Not attempting to lean into Western portrayals of the story however, the movie instead considers its Pakistani viewers, and builds a narrative that is more akin to their sensibilities and popular media tropes.
Despite the obvious plagiarism that’s to be expected in a budget movie (including the famous chiaroscuro light effect that’s reminiscent of Lugosi’s Dracula from 1931), Zinda Laash is surprisingly enjoyable and camp, with almost eerie musical numbers, as well as portraying a scene from the novel that was never before translated into film or TV (spoiler: it’s the obvious doll child being eaten).
Almost lost to the public for decades, film scholar Omar Khan who, after reading Pete Tombs’ book Mondo Macabro, was inspired to search for and uncover the movie again. The movie was then re-released on DVD in 2003, and included commentary from both Tombs and Khan, as well as an episode of “South Asian Cinema” from Tombs’ Channel 4 show, Mondo Macabro.
Tanking at the box office, and released in the US under the title Dracula in Pakistan, the movie still remains Lollywood’s first horror film that’s sure to be added onto cult movie lists.