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Needed — a change in roles
Times have changed for the Pakistan entertainment industry, particularly the small screen. But old acting stalwarts such as Talat Hussain, Uzma Gilani, Shafi Mohammad and Firdaus Jamal haven’t. They shouldn’t. These actors are far too great to alter, fine tune or trade in their distinctly individualistic styles. Having said that, one has been consistently feeling that over the last few years, these actors, despite appearing in a number of series’ and serials, haven’t had any real impact on viewers. Which is not their doing or fault. It’s the era we live in. The quick-paced editing techniques, the less profound dialogue and the single-camera angles could all be key contributing factors. But isn’t it a fact that a real artist is one who has the ability to reinvent or rediscover himself or herself?
When peerless Marlon Brando, who is to many the greatest actor of all time, first appeared on the showbiz firmament in the late 1940s and early ’50s, theatre and cine-goers found themselves completely in awe of the thespian. Throughout the ’50s, Mr bratty Brando ruled the roost and most of his contemporaries couldn’t match his presence. During that time, he gave unparalleled performances in movies like A streetcar named Desire, On the waterfront and Viva Zapata. But in the ’60s, the sun began to set on his dominance. He grappled with his own talent for almost a decade and only then did Brando realize that it was time he reinvented himself, pandering to the then prevalent artistic trends. And then came two of the most memorable Brando-acting stints in the history of cinema: one in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather and the other in Bernardo Bertalucci’s Last Tango in Paris.
Here in Pakistan, Shoaib Mansoor followed more or less a similar path. When the TV director discerned that a new breed of video directors and drama makers had invaded the local TV industry with their inventive camera-handling gimmicks and editing software, he came up with Gulls & Guys and then the spiritually stupendous music video Ishq, teaching the young Turks a thing or two.
One feels, by the same token, that the acting giants of Pakistan such as Talat Hussain, Shafi Mohammad, Uzma Gilani and others must gauge the depths of modern day creative trends. They’re superlative performers. They very well know when to drop anchor and when to sail through. All they need is a new look — not with respect to physical appearance, but in relation to the roles that theyy’re accepting these days.
Talat Hussain, Shafi Mohammad and Firdaus Jamal are more than capable of pulling off characters like Frank Slade or Don Corlione. It’s just that they have to do a little bit of self-discovery one more time, which doesn’t mean, God forbid, that they have to prove anything. They’re beyond that stage. The artists that rediscover themselves are the ones that taste immortality in their lifetime. Laurence Olivier is one cogent example. One admits that Talat Hussain’s recent project, Hasina Moeen’s Eik naey morr per acquired tremendous commercial success, but he looked the same great actor of the recent past. One concedes that Rustam and Laila Majnoon were very well marketed plays, but Shafi Mohammad had the same air of a wadera about him. One knows Uzma Gilani worked really hard in Reshma to jalli hai, but one could detect the ’80s long-play style gesticulation and mannerisms in her. These are great individuals we’re talking about.
One hopes that with the blossoming of so many channels, these legends will soon pull something really startling out of their top hats. It’s the need of the hour, particularly when one looks at the monotonous, predictable and cocky young breed of actors ruling the idiot box, unwilling to learn.
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