KARACHI: A befitting tribute to film star Shabnam was paid by the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi on Monday evening, just a day before the cinema icon’s scheduled return to Bangladesh. Not only was she presented a lifetime achievement shield by the Pakistan Film and TV Journalists Association, but clips and songs from her popular films were played for the audience.

The jam-packed event was held at the open air theatre of the Arts Council where speakers discussed their association with the veteran actress. Writer/director Syed Noor corrected the hosts Noman and Uzma Alkarim that he may have written films for Shabnam; he never had the chance to call the shots in a movie featuring the actress. He told the audience that he will be continuing the story of Nadeem-Shabnam starrer Aaina as Aaina 2 where the story of the two characters will be taken ahead, and through this ambitious venture his desire to cast Shabnam will be fulfilled.

The event was attended by fans of the great actress as well as many of those who had worked with Shabnam in her career spanning over 40 years. Nadeem Baig (her co-star in over 50 films) and Mustafa Qureshi spoke about Shabnam, with the latter disclosing to the audience that he felt jealous of Shabnam’s heroes as they always got the girl. He thanked late producer Aslam Natha for making Masti Khan where Mustafa Qureshi was the leading man, and Shabnam was his love interest.

Veteran actor Nadeem chose to spoke late but he was in a good mood, considering he hardly attends events after dark. Shabnam’s frequent collaborator told the audience that she may have left Pakistan, but she lives in the hearts of Pakistanis. He also reminisced about the shooting of the song Wada Karo Sajna that was filmed at Sharea Faisal with him navigating the bike they were riding.

Shabnam, after receiving the accolades, addressed the crowd at the very end; she publicly asked Nadeem sahib whether he still arrives late to work and the veteran actor replied that it was only when he was working with her that he arrived late on set as he was unable to sleep the night before. In her very short speech, she thanked everyone who took out time for her and wished her well, promising to be back soon for her film shoot as well as other projects.

President of Karachi Arts Council Ahmed Shah and office bearers of the Pakistan Film and TV Journalists Association also spoke about Shabnam. Veteran TV actress Bushra Ansari, PTV legends M. Zaheer Khan, Iqbal Latif and Salma Murad, wife of late Waheed Murad attended the event that featured songs from students of the Arts Council Music Academy.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2017