While watching Teen Bata Teen, the character of Lucy holds your interest. Yet, it is difficult to believe that the guy who is playing the role has in fact written and directed the play. However, it all becomes believable when his family background is revealed. The actor is none other than Adeel Hashmi, the grandson of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and the son of Moneeza Hashmi.
It is often very difficult for children belonging to families that are already in the limelight to make their presence felt. However, it was Adeel’s individual style and approach, as well as an eagerness to explore unusual things that made him a success story. Teen Bata Teen was his debate play and he received much kudos for it.
He acknowledges that not everyone gets the same opportunity in this industry. “It takes years to establish one’s career in showbiz, and to do a role that people would remember for long,” says Adeel.
When asked about his interest in music, movies and books, movies turn out to be his passion. “I love movies, specially the mainstream Bollywood flicks, and in the Hollywood movies I admire those in which within the first two minutes thousands of people die like in, Spider Man, Matrix and T3,” Adeel says, trying to sound serious.
“I cannot eat without watching a movie, whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner,” says Hashmi. Observing his obsession for movies, I ask if he would also act in one, to which pat comes the reply that he will. The theme he finds most apt for his film is love. He considers love to be inseparable from movies, whether they are action oriented or not.
Talking about his favourite Bollywood flicks, he names Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dhoom, Kal Ho Na Ho and Hum Tum, whereas from Hollywood productions, he is deeply inspired by Titanic. He reminiscences that he was working in the marketing sector when he first watched this phenomenal movie. Soon he left his job and seriously gave a though to acting.
The actors he admires are Tom Cruise, Nicholas Cage and Harrison Ford from Hollywood, while from Bollywood, he likes Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan. After thinking for a moment, he adds Aamir Khan to the list. “In Pakistan,” Adeel says with a sheepish grin, “I prefer only myself and Faisal Qureshy.” Both, he confesses, have promised to name the other if this question is asked.
Among the females of Bollywood, Adeel only likes Karishma Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai. And turning to Hollywood he names Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Anniston. Directors such as Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar and Farhan Akhtar have really brought about a change in this field and this is what he admires them for. James Cameron is his favourite Hollywood director.
He revealed that he had a collection of 500-600 DVDs, lying in every nook and corner of the room, but after his marriage his wife packed them out of the room.
The discussion then turns to music, which he claims that he is deeply moved by. “I wanted to become a musician, and leant to play piano by different teachers, but after years I discovered that it was not my cup of tea,” he discloses. The choice of music, he feels, depends on one’s mood. Some of his favourite singers or groups are Abba, Sony Em, Enea, Yani, Michael Jackson, Bee Gees and Phil Collins. Shankar-Ahsan-Loy (the trio) and A.R. Rahman are his favourite Indian music composers. However, he finds the music of Yash Chopra’s films no less captivating. “And don’t forget to add that I also like the tunes to which Kareena Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan dance,” he laughs.
In Pakistan, he believes that no one has been as sensational as Nazia Hasan and Zohaib Hasan. Atif Aslam and Abrarul Haq are up next in the list of singers that he loves to listen to.
While in ghazals, Tina Sani and Nayyara Noor are at their best when rendering Faiz’s poetry, whereas when it comes to Ghalib, Chitra and Jagjit Singh are spellbinding. There are two movies which he thinks have spectacular music and those are Kal Ho Na Ho and Titanic.
Books come after the above two in his priority list. He cherishes the six volumes of the famed Alif Laila. One historical book that Hashmi found to be quite enticing is Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Labbiere. “Usually the books based on the Indo-Pakistan history have a lot of Hindu or Muslim bashing, this is one of the few based on the actual facts,” says Adeel Hashmi.
After watching the documentaries by Michael Moore, buying his books was a must. Sidney Sheldon is what the actor/director likes to read while travelling. “I have got 50 copies of the same novel, as I would buy one copy of it whenever I had to take a trip,” says he with a hearty laughter. One genre that Adeel Hashmi is put off by science fiction.
He takes pride in the possession of exclusive volumes of the compiled works of poets such as Faiz and Ghalib. His fondness of the two poets is evident, as he has memorized a number of their poems.
Shafiqur Rahman is one of his most admired authors. One of his book Shagofay, he read when he was in class two or three. Though there was little that he could understand at that time, he was immensely pleased by it. Over the years he discovered the real gist of the book, the more he read it the more he appreciated it. He recalls almost meeting this respected author in Islamabad a few years ago. “The weather was very pleasant and me and my friends, instead of having a rendezvous with the author, played cricket the whole day,” he reveals. “The worst part was that Rahman Sahab died after a few days,” Adeel adds sadly.
However, when he was doing his Masters in film making in the USA, Adeel had to submit a documentary or a short film as his final assignment. He could not find any material as ample as Shafiqur Rahman, and so he made a film titled Bazam-e-Jahan Ki Ronaq. Needless to say the institute revered his work.
While watching Teen Bata Teen, the character of Lucy holds your interest. Yet, it is difficult to believe that the guy who is playing the role has in fact written and directed the play. However, it all becomes believable when his family background is revealed. The actor is none other than Adeel Hashmi, the grandson of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and the son of Moneeza Hashmi.
