ISLAMABAD: Hamesha dair kar deta hoon main

Har kaam karnay may

Zaroori baat kehni ho

Koi wada nibhana ho

If you walked into the Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF) on Sunday afternoon, you could’ve been forgiven for thinking that the ghost of Munir Niazi was speaking from beyond the grave in his signature, gruff style.

If you lingered on any longer, you would’ve heard the voices of even more; Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Josh Malihabadi, Jaun Elia and Habib Jalib, all greats of Urdu poetry, one by one, reciting their most famous verses.

But this was no séance, rather, a one-man mushaira conducted by Syed Nusrat Ali, an unassuming management consultant and motivational speaker who stole the show on the final day of ILF.

The jam-packed audience was treated to a side-splitting performance by the accomplished mimic, who impersonated the style of more than two dozen of the biggest names in Urdu literature.

All that is, except Ahmed Faraz. “I can’t do it the way he did it, because it would ruin the beauty of the verses for you,” he told his audience when hecklers requested him to recite something by arguably the greatest of the modern Urdu poets.

Mr Ali exuded a natural flair for the stage; he was terribly at ease with the dynamics of microphone management and used interruptions by the festival’s sound technicians to humour the audience, often directing a biting couplet at an errant stage hand, much to the delight of the audience.

From the unmistakable drone of Faiz Ahmed Faiz – on whose style Mr Ali remarked: “His mannerisms were meant to defeat any who should try to mimic him” – to the melodious lilt of Habib Jalib’s Dastoor, everyone was represented.

Near the end of the session, when he offered to recite something by Ghalib, an audience member inquired whether Mr Ali would also be mimicking Assadullah Khan’s style as well – a query that prompted peals of approving laughter.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2017