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.ÂÂ 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:
I dont think his material was ‘family unfriendly’ at least not in the early days. There was a lot on stage that was and partly that made him more popular because although he was edgy his material was not vulgar. The clip you have here is a good example.
Bilal i totally agree with you… being brought up in PIB colony and studied in City school, i know both the extremes and umer sharif has a larger appeal in the middle class group due to close to reality jokes and issues raised by Umer Sharif. He always tends to insert a patriotic unifying message for pakistan as well. He WAS, IS and WILL be the most funny person in the theatrical stage..
true enough i can’t watch with ma family but i rofl when watchin alone or with cuzns… heheheh
saw umer sharif live at the Kara Film Festival inaugural event at the mohatta palace museum; this guy was just too funny to be handled by anyone; the funniest stage show i have seen on one of the cable channels was the one in which he enacts a PIA flight; people being fed water from a baltee, people being given an azarband to tie themselves to the seats than actual seatbelts etc; the whole thing was hilarious; he is at his funniest when he stays away from vulgarity; he is a natural
can you believe that our local cablewala stills shows Bakra QistoN Pe sometimes.. it was an instant hit in India and I still have an old (and broken) video cassette of Bakra… My family and I still talk about Mirza and Professor Nizami’s dialogues and have some good laugh:)
[quote comment=”36856″]but unfortunately he has at times stepped out of the decency grove for his comedy stage shows which are not at all suitable for family entertainment, I wonder how can people go to the stage shows with their wives and kids.[/quote]
I second that.
He at times gets too vulgar for family entertainment.
but when he is not that, he is simply awesome.
check this clip and u’ll know what i mean:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws_cF_9Gwmc