FAMED and much respected showbiz personality Naeem Tahir’s infatuation with films started when he was a school-going boy, and since then there has been no going back as he has watched a great number of movies throughout his life, and continues to do so. Therefore, the number of films that influenced him in some way is too many to be named here.
But still there are films like Andaz, Tarana, Barsat, Shabnam, Dard, and Nagina of which he is all praise. “I was an enthusiastic fan of Marlon Brando and used to watch his movies with much fondness. When in 1962, he came to Pakistan I met him. I still have my personal collection a photograph taken with him,” says the seasoned television artist calmly. This speaks volumes of his interest in the dazzling world of Hollywood.
“Although, nowadays, I prefer to watch historical and social movies, but I saw films like Bhawani Junction, Roman Holiday and Samson and Delilah several times. Jurassic Park was also a movie worth watching as it was technically up to the mark,” Naeem Tahir opines. He also viewed the recent version of Devdas and is of the opinion that though the new one was more “glamourized”, on the whole both the versions were good as they aptly catered to different times.
As regards our local film industry, he says that we have a small market, so the ratio of successful films is very low. “Before Partition, we had a thriving film market, so the investor used to pocket a handsome profit. But now the situation is very different and he has to compete in a small market where educated viewers are very few. In order to appease the illiterate cinegoers, the filmmaker has to add spicy dances and scenes. In this whole process, the quality of films gets a deathblow. That is why it is not fair to blame the filmmaker only for the depreciating standard of films. We must also take stock of the other factors,” says Naeem in his charcaterstic mellow voice.
Among the people who throng the cinema, a big chunk is of those of who like to see films bristling with barbaric bloodletting, he states. Therefore, he is of the view, our local industry could not come up with superb movies like Pheray, Heer Ranjha, Umrao Jaan Ada, Gulnaar and a host of other films that our industry made in its nascent years. He strongly believes that the ban on the screening of Indian movies in Pakistan must be done away with, as this would be very beneficial for our ailing industry.
In the field of music, too, Naeem Tahir’s choice is quite varied. If, on the one hand, he listens to K.L. Saigol, Rafi, Lata, Manaday, Asha Bhosle and Alka Yagnik with relish, on the other hand he has an unbounded veneration for Malika-i-Tarranum Noor Jehan.
“I am very happy to see so many young faces taking up singing as a profession. It is a good omen for our music. From the young lot, I like Abrar and the Junoon. But Noor Jehan is still unparalleled due to her inborn singing talent and booming voice. These days I love to enjoy symphonic music with good rhythm,” chuckles the eminent actor.
Apart from music, Naeem Tahir also taught dance at Alhamra for several years. Says he, “When I was studying in America, I also learned to dance as I felt greatly drawn towards it. Naheed Siddiqi is one of my students. It is very depressing to see that our society has put a taboo on dancing and its learning. I feel that like music, sculpture and painting, dance too is a mode to express your feelings. There should not be any particular reservations regarding dance.”
For a man whose personal library is teeming with as many as 10,000 books on all the subjects, it becomes an arduous task to tag just one book as his favourite. But somehow Naeem sahib comes up with quite an unlikely book that he continues to adore over the years. “The Editor of a newspaper Statesman, Mr Arnold wrote a book about his experience in India titled White Sahibs in India. In this book the author has depicted the behaviour and the way of thinking of the Britishers in a befitting manner. I have read it for umpteen times to find it enthralling each time”, tells Naeem Tahir. Being a voracious reader, he read a mammoth collection of books on all subjects throughout his life. So the works of Krishan Chander, Manto, Bedi, Faiz, Iqbal, Nasir Kazmi, and Parveen Shakir give him pleasure. These days he is preoccupied with writing a book on the history of the region that we call indo Pakistan. He has been doing painstaking research for it for the last four years and culled the necessary material for the book from across the globe. “I want to trace the origin of the people that inhabit this region. For this I have studied the Geography, Cultures, Languages, Religions and Anthropology of the area exhaustively”, ends the conversation Naeem Tahir.
FAVOURITE FILM: Roman Holiday
FAVOURITE MUSIC: Dil Ka Diya Jalaya Mein Nain by Noor Jehan
FAMED and much respected showbiz personality Naeem Tahir’s infatuation with films started when he was a school-going boy, and since then there has been no going back as he has watched a great number of movies throughout his life, and continues to do so. Therefore, the number of films that influenced him in some way is too many to be named here.
