AN avid listener of music, veteran actor Shakeel claims his taste in music has remained constant over the years. Although he enjoys local contemporary singers, his marked preference is for ghazals and semi-classical music.
Says Shakeel: “Whether it is Mehdi Hassan, Farida Khanum, Noor Jehan or Lata Mangeshkar, I am always ready to hear them. As for Asha Bhosle — what a fantastic tribute was paid to her when she was described by a journalist as a singer ‘who does acrobats with her throat.’ She is truly vivacious and a superb singer.” That is not to say that Shakeel rates Bhosle more highly than the other singers. Says he, “Each has their own niche and calibre. There is no ‘naimulbadal’ for any of them. Many youngsters have come up who sound like Lata Mangeshkar but they can never replace her.”
Not that Shakeel is appreciative only of veteran singers. He likes the voices of youngsters as well, such as Ali Zafar, who he finds “amazing”, Shafqat of Fuzon, Hadiqa Kiyani, Abrar and Sajjad Ali. He claims to enjoy western music as well although he does not have “an urge to listen to English songs” and explains, “As long as the sur is good, I don’t mind listening to western music. As Roshan Ara Begum had once very aptly put it, ‘sur ki pehchaan’ is very important. I don’t enjoy ‘shor sharaba’ and I’ve somehow never been interested in the Beatles or Spice Girls. However, I do like listening to Whitney Houston.” Not surprisingly then, Shakeel is also fond of instrumental classical music of masters such as Mozart.
As for movies, Shakeel claims there are a few vintage Indian, Pakistani and English films that he can watch over and over again. He says from Indian flicks he can see Gunga Jumna repeatedly whereas from the old Pakistani movies he could never tire of watching Baji and Lakhon mein aik. About the former, he says “Baji was a beautiful, soft and subtle film about a single, middle-aged woman who finds herself getting involved with her young cousin. However, she sacrifices a relationship that could have developed and makes way for her young neighbour instead, who is also interested in the cousin. It was a very new and unusual triangle theme, with the subject of different aged women dealt with in a sensitive way. The film also had a great musical score and all the songs were super hits. Although all the ditties were memorable, I particularly remember the one sung by Farida Khanum and Madame Noor Jehan — Sajan lagan tori — which was picturized on Amy Minwalla’s classical dance.”
Shakeel is equally fond of Peter O’Toole’s classic mega hit Beckett, which also co-stared Richard Burton. Toole played the role of the King while Burton that of a governor who rose to become the Pope. The film revolves around the deep friendship between the two and the insurmountable chasm that later develops between them. Says Shakeel “I was really inspired by Peter O’ Toole in the film — who in fact, won an award for his performance — and consider it the most beautiful English film I’ve seen. It deals with intense, extreme emotions, whether of love or hatred. The film left an everlasting impression on me and I am eternally in awe of it.”
Vintage movies aside, Shakeel does enjoy watching the current crop of Indian and English movies as well. He says he likes love stories, fiction and art films. He considers M. F. Hussain’s Minakhshi a very beautifully made movie. He normally sees Indian movies in bits and pieces though, and says he saw Kyon, ho gya na? recently in which Amitabh, who has of late begun to adhere to staid character roles, had a comic part. Says Shakeel admiringly “He has an amazing sense of comedy and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Another relatively recent Indian movie that Shakeel raves about is Devdas. He admits “I agree with Vijyantimala when she says that she thinks the new version of the film is over glamourized, but can’t help but feel that its overall packaging is extremely very well done. I know that the climax of the film has been completely hijacked by choti ma and Devdas’s death is not correctly portrayed. But the songs and dances in the movie are so beautiful that I didn’t mind the liberties taken, and can happily see the movie again.”
While Troy is one of Shakeel’s favourite English films from among the relatively recent ones, he claims that the era of Pakistani films is over and he doesn’t watch them any more.
With regard to books, Shakeel says it is very difficult to pinpoint a favourite one as they keep changing with the passage of time. He recalls being a voracious reader as a kid and reading all the Urdu risalas for children — Saathi, Naunehal et al — but was never fond of reading comics. He claims that as he grew older he got hooked on English novels and began to read a lot of fiction, before reverting to Urdu and developing a penchant for Urdu literature.
“I began to regard Nasrullah Khan sahib as my ustaad and read a lot of Riffat Chughtai and Manto among other writers. In fact, over the years I have re-read these authors and found a different beauty and dimension to their writings with every read. I also read a lot of English books and remember reading Lady Chatterly’s Lover’ out of curiosity initially, because it was banned, but later enjoying it for its literary merits.” Lately, however, Shakeel has begun to read a lot of books on suffism.
AN avid listener of music, veteran actor Shakeel claims his taste in music has remained constant over the years. Although he enjoys local contemporary singers, his marked preference is for ghazals and semi-classical music.
