Ghoonghat, a family musical drama with delightful melodies by Amjad Bobby made big profits for the producer and the distributors. Shaan appeared in the film as an obsessive psychopath and gave a fantastic performance.

The nineties saw complete downfall of the film industry with the demise of Nazrul Islam. There were no good directors to make good films, the situation nose-dived further as satellite TV, cable and CD invaded the market. Directors like Iqbal Kashmiri, Sangeeta and Pervaiz Rana churned out mediocrity in dozens. Syed Noor who has scripted around two hundred films in the 70s and 80s, turned to direction and came out with Qasam, Sargam, Sangam, Ghoonghat, Deewaney Terey Pyar Key, and Daku Rani. He showed some spark, but it turned out to be as temporary as a spark is. The director chose to go the quantity way and dipped himself into a pool of films. The decade also saw rise, fall and rise of Shaan who made an entry with Javed Fazil’s Bulandi (1990), but lost his way in the industry with time. The actor bounced back with Sangeeta’s Khilona (1996), and then ruled the box office throughout the decade – Aijaz Gul

Movies of the eighties increasingly focused on violence; films featuring gangsters and the mob started taking centre stage.

Pakistani Cinema became loud and localized, wanting in artistic or aesthetic merits. The large number of films produced in various vernaculars speaks for itself about the decline of the film world during this decade. The cancellation of all censor certificates of all films issued prior to the imposition of martial law, the new code of censorship, Indian television and finally the influx of uncensored pirated movies from Hollywood and Bollywood resulted in the overall decline of film quality and good number of cinema houses were closed down – Mushtaq Gazdar

Love across the frontiers of state and religion can only end in tragedy in a Pakistani movie. The last scene from Lakhoun Mein Aik (1967 - Shamim Ara, Ejaz) directed by Raza Mir.

During this period, Pakistan witnessed great political and social upheaval. The country lost its other half. Nurul Haq’s Jalte Suraj Ke Neeche was the last Urdu film from the golden land of what was known as East Pakistan. The former eastern wing (now Bangladesh) was an important film market for the Urdu films of Lahore and Karachi and contributed around thirty-three per cent of the total investment in a production. The drying up of this source of revenue was a major blow to the national film industry. On the other hand, it became a turning point for the development of regional cinema as the producers looked into the financial viability of making more films in the provincial languages – Punjabi, Pashto and Sindhi. The seventies also brought the husband-wife-cum-director-star team of Hasan Tariq and Rani to the forefront of Urdu cinema. The Rani-Tariq team’s filmography consists of almost two dozen ventures including such classics as Mera Ghar Meri Jannat (1968), Anjuman (1970), Umrao Jan Ada (1972) and Ek Gunah aur Sahi (1975). Aina (1977), a musical love story with a tinge of social comment established Calcutta – born Nazrul Islam as one of the topmost directors of Pakistani Cinema. The film created history for having the longest combined run in Karachi – almost 250 weeks.

Also during this period, a small group of influential film makers managed to get away with some explicit scenes, which normally would not have been allowed by the Censor Board. Eager male audiences thronged the theatres to watch a series of yellow movies like Khatarnak, Khaufnak, Khanzada, Nawabzada, and Malikzada. Lewd dances and songs, rape scenes, and semi nude actresses dancing in the rain were common ingredients of such blockbusters – Mushtaq Gazdar