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Collector issue
If Guddu, as he likes to be called, was to ever give a PhD thesis, it would be on Pakistani cinema with special focus on the late Rani and Babra Sharif’s films. The man is a veritable encyclopaedia on local films and what’s more, has an unbelievable archival collection to supplement his research and knowledge on the subject.Guddu claims his passion for films was kindled at a young age when he accompanied the ladies in his family to watch movies in the many cinema halls then. Songs and dances held a special fascination for him, particularly those filmed on the two stars. His craze received a further boost when Hyder, son of then famous Pushto film star, Shireen Taj, became his classmate in school and Guddu began visiting his house regularly. Once there and to his delight, he would often find film stars visiting Hyder’s mother and he would spend hours in their company. When Hyder moved to Lahore, Guddu convinced his family to let him go with them, and so began numerous trips to the film studios where he not only met Rani but also began to study her dance steps. Today, he himself is an exponent of Khatak.
But dance did not become his only passion. The more he visited the film studios in Lahore and watched the stars, the more intense his love affair with films became. As so started a collection almost two decades ago of all kinds of paraphernalia associated with Pakistani films — original life-size posters, sets of photos, brochures carrying details of the film cast, songs, story-line, etc, (once given out by distributors at the release of a film), features on Rani and Babra including those penned by himself, postcards, books on Pakistani films and most important, practically every video on Pakistani films and all kinds of audios of Pakistani songs (including of Pushto films) on 45s, 78s and LPs as well as cassettes and CDs. Guddu even has 78 r.p.m records made out of graphite, and to play these he has a unique briefcase-style, three-in-one player.
A simple soul, Guddu has crammed this treasure trove in one large room. He is now trying to tabulate all the material he has so that he has proper inventory of his collection. So far he has maintained lists of the stock of movies he has starring Babra and Rani, beginning from their first movies, Intezar and Mehboob, respectively, listed in order of their release. While Rani’s first film was released in 1962 and she performed, according to Guddu, in 163 films, Babra’s debut-making film was released in 1974, and she acted in a total of 145 movies. He claims that his collection misses only six or seven from both their repertoires combined, which are not available on video. The collector also has all the songs picturized on these two superstars with their complete lists in chronological order.
If there is any other film actress on whom Guddu has collected considerable material it is Firdaus. He has many classic films such as Riaz Shahid’s (Shaan’s father) Zerqa and Heer Ranjha and a geetmala of their songs on video. In fact, he claims he has 5,000 song videos (excluding those of Babra and Rani) and audios of dhamals and war songs as well.
Guddu says he lost quite a bit of his collection of posters, etc, by lending them to people but seldom getting them back. On the other hand, he has had to pay for every single item in his collected, very often a princely sum, for it didn’t take people in the market long to discover his obsession. He recalls, “I’ve been to all kinds of places to get hold of these rare items, discovering them in abandoned stores which were so filthy that there wasn’t a spot to sit and infested with termites and mice.”
It’s no wonder then that among the rare pieces in his collection can be found an old but extremely well-preserved copy of Eastern Film magazine then priced at 50 paisa for West Pakistan and 65 paisa for East Pakistan, with a cover story on Rani Mukhtar as she was then known. Among the mind-boggling collection of posters and audios that Guddu possesses, which includes ancient films like Sakhi Lutera, Deedar, Seeta, Mariam, Margaret; Umrao Jan Ada and Aik Thi Ladki, are some of films that were never even released, such as Jangli the songs of which had become hit, nonetheless. Also in his possession are posters and songs of the film Bobby and Julie which Guddu claims had the shortest run in Pakistan’s cine-history, having been pulled down from cinema halls from all sectors after just the first show. Surprisingly, its songs sung by Alamgir are super hits, the most prominent being Dekha Na Tha.The oldest film poster he has is of Rani’s first film, Mehboob, and he also has a cutting of her Lux ad, as indeed of Babra’s Jet Washing Powder ad which shot her to fame. He has over 20 volumes of audio cassettes which he has compiled of Punjabi songs sung by Naheed Akhtar as well as original posters of Rani’s film Jahez also starring Shahid and Deeba, as well as its records. The film was never released. Also compiling the vast collection are recorded interviews of almost all old and new film and television stars and singers.
Guddu claims there is not a shopkeeper in Karachi’s Rainbow Centre who doesn’t know him. So acutely aware are they of his deep knowledge of the industry — at least up till the time of film actress Neeli for after her he did not feel the industry was worth studying — that they call him up whenever they need information about the name of a movie or a particular song. He is also willing to challenge certain claims made by the local showbiz lot. For one thing, he says Babra Sharif’s sister Fakhira claims that her first movie was Insaaf Aur Qanoon, while according to Guddu it was actually Khoon-i-Nahaq in which just one song was picturized on her. Similarly, according to him although Tahira Syed says that her first film song was Yeh mehfil jo aaj saji hai sung for the movie Mohabbat (1974), she had earlier sung under the name Syed Bibi for the Punjabi film Baazi Jit Layee, the song being Peera ho Peera filmed on Rani. Yet another very interesting piece of information Guddu gives is that the film Afshaan starring Aliya has Babra Sharif who was at the peak of her career then, sitting in the audience during a dance sequence, but there is no mention of her in the guest appearances in the movie. He also states that Babra did a dance sequence with Asif Raza Mir in the Punjabi movie Wade Thanedar starring Mumtaz and Nannah, a fact that even she had forgotten until he mentioned it to her.
So why doesn’t Guddu exhibit his massive collection for the public? “I am waiting for some material pertaining to Rani’s childhood and her parents, which her only daughter Rabia has promised me. I plan to make a video film on Rani’s life and hold the first exhibition.” He has already begun to make photos of the posters he has and plans to make postcards out of them. He is also making a set of geetmala videos which will focus on stars such as Samina Peerzada who have made a one-off appearance on the big screen. This will be one exhibition movie-buffs will be quite keen to attend.
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