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:
Haathi: ghudoodaan-e-meda mein haalaat-e-khaana jangi! is still used in my family conversations!!!
I don’t know if many people are familiar with the audio tapes that initially made Umer Sharif popular, but it used to be an annual tradition around eid…Umer Sharif show ’81, ’82, …, ’89 (I think!) util the videos of his stage shows became really big, and the audios ended. Some of the audio jokes were then carriied over to the stage shows, but those audios were priceless :) Examples? Here you go: (1) Film producer’s response to the suggestion of casting Babra Sharif with Alam Channa: Alam Channa aur Babra Sharif mailay mein jaa rahay hon ge to lagay ga ke baap beti ko ghubaara dilanay le ke jaa raha hai, oye Babra Sharif jitnay to mozay pehanta hai woh! (2) Shehenshah Jehangir touring modern day (i.e., in 1984 or roundabout) Karachi: Darbari! Fasal kat gai?? Aalijah, fasal to nahi lekin aaj Bohri bazaar mein hamaari jaib kat gai! (3) a poetic-urdu description of diarrhea: ghudoodaan-e-meda mein haalaat-e-khaana jangi!
Oh and that hilarious Sindhi accent that used to be an Umer Sharif trademark! Well folks, excuse me while I go wipe this stupid grin off my face.
his old stuff back than 50/50 era was very funny so much in touch with common people and close eye on social problems , always come up with strong message.i must agree with others when he stays away from vulgarity he is definately funniest
But what ever he is either good or bad he has changed our culture all together…
The stage shows rather comedy stage shows might have changed from “bakra kiston peâ€
During my childhood years, I found that Umar Sharif was the most popular Pakistani in India after Imran Khan. Imran had so much appeal that people couldn’t hate him even though they wanted to hate him. Javed was hated. I too grew up on that Sharjah Six and was so angry with him in my childhood.
Khair.
Though I didn’t like Umar Sharif’s style of comedy much, most of my friends were great fans of Umar Sharif. They would mimic him and watch his casettes. In those good old days, I didn’t have any VCR and so missed it. He surely connected well with the audience. Great work, Adil Bhai, for the post on Umar Sharif.