Adil Najam
Although I have always found Umar Sharif’s comedy to be socialy poignant, hard-hitting, and often hilarious, I must confess that I was not a great Umar Sharif fan growing up. This was largely an age and timing thing. But it is quite clear that there has been no stage comedy phenomenon in Pakistan like Umar Sharif either before or after him.
Although he has now taken on a broader - even sub-continental - canvas, his early work was very rooted in the Pakistan mega-city culture; especially Karachi and Lahore. His ‘burger’ kid routine really went home on the social and economic apartheid that still tears at our society. Sometimes the pungency of his jugaat masks the craftsmanship of his theatrical performance, but to me there are very few who command the ’stage’ presence that he does, particularly in the stage play. Indeed, he was to stage comedy in Pakistan was Fifty-Fifty (and here) was to television comedy.
Moeen Akhtar, obviously, has ruled he stage show scenaro like no other; but his stage presence is of compare and senior fankaar. The Umar Sharif phenomenon is primarily about the stage comedy play. Even though he has tried to become a Mueen Akhtar look-alke as stage compare, that is not his forte and in that role Moeen still rule (at least for me).
And within the genre of the Pakstani stage comedy play, there is nothing that even remotely comes close to Baqra Qistoun Peh; which, in some ways, is Omar Sharif’s signature performance. Here is a clip from that play which demonstrates why:
Adil, Now that I have recognized you from a previous post (I think we talked about SAF games of 89 at some point), I remember umer sharif showing up in one of your talk shows you did from islamabad. I rememeber that show because I think he was really funny [for that time an may be for that age of mine] that night. I used to wonder what happened to that host after you dissapeared.. :) I think your place was taken over by naeem bukhari.. ;)
I stopped watching him about ten years ago. I think he just lost his touch after moving on to the movies….that spontaneous unscripted line from him just wasn’t there anymore.. I think it was because he lost touch with the street itself that made him popular. A couple of times it was sad to see him show up on stage completely wasted. All what you wrote about him is true up until bakra qistoan purr. Also, very people know that he “was” a terrific on stage singer. At times he even surpassed the original singers of the songs he sang.
Stage shows from lahore are without a doubt funny.. but they cannot be watched with the family. In fact there is hardly any woman in their physical audience. That said, I don’t think I know a better jugat baaz than Amanullah.
Umer Sharif is good but I think there are some really funny characters in Punjabi stage dramas. These include Mastana, Amanullah, Tariq Teddi and others. Although Punjabi Stage is not well recognized and acknowledged in the bigger picture probably because of the vulgar language that is used these days on stage. But I guess there is a huge huge audience in many cities in Punjab who come and enjoy their jokes.
Bakra QistoN Pe was Umer Sharif’s magnum opus which even garnered him a lot of popularity/notoriety in India. After that, none of his stage dramas gained any popularity or were remotely as funny as this one. He even tried his luck on the big screen and failed miserably. While being on stage as a compere, other than introducing the guests, his comedy routines were limited to making fun of women wearing a lot of makeup and people from defence which after some time became boring and corny. If anyone saw his recent show on ARY, Umer Sharif Vs Umer Sharif, I’d say that pretty much spelled the end of his career.
In his early days, Umar Sharif embodied the humor of “lower middle class” Karachi. This section of Karachiites have a very distinct sense of humor, ripe with insults, curious observations, put downs of the opponents and yet intensely funny. I loved him growing up and I agree with the earlier post that he influenced the vernacular of the entire city.
I also agree that he no longer posseses the same alacrity he once did.
It’s unfair to compare him to Moeen Akhtar who is in a completely different class in my opinion, given the fact he is still relevant after probably 30 years performing.
If you grew up anywhere near the urban Karachi city, the Nazimabads, Golimar, Lalookhet, Malir etc you would not only find Umar Sharif’s comedy funny, but also real and close to life. He introduced hilarious (though perhaps unsophisticated) verbage to everyday Urdu language in the city. In many ways, his style and delivery was as much influenced by the urdu-medium lower-middle class mohajir tabqaa of Karachi, as they were by him and the stage show culture of the 80’s.
Umar Sharif fans are the people who grew up in the tumultuous, yet exciting at the same time, Karachi politics of late 80s and early 90s. I am a big fan, and I could see a bit of Umar Sharif in every person I met at a political jalsa, juloos, and rally then. Chewing a pan, riding a motorcycle, making fun of a bihari or a Bengali - all the while knowing that we were all in the same boat - the idea that Iss hammam mein sab nangey hain.
Umar Sharif’s jokes allowed Karachiites to learn to laugh at themselves - and that is one aspect of his comedy I will always be thankful for.
I agree that he recent stuff is same old same old and has become routine. But at his peak he was new and fresh and very very different from everyone else. Certainly from MueenAkhtar who always wanted to sound so very ’sophisicated’ as you put it. What made Omar Shareef so popular was that he seemed real. He may not have pronounced words right, but his issues and his subjects and his jokes were the things that people actually were talking about. He seemed to be of the people and worried about things they were worried about. That was his power.
Umer Sharif is like a less sophisticated, less refined Moin Akhtar. he was funny some ten years ago. now his stuff is pretty unfunny.