PESHAWAR: Usman Khan, a resident of Peshawar, has garnered appreciation on social media owing to his comic expressions with an objective to bring smiles to people’s faces and provide them relief from stress and trauma.

In an informal chat with this scribe, he said that since his early childhood he would get people’s attention because of his unusual facial expressions laden with a bit of mischief that aroused rich laughter and it stayed with him till he grew up.

Hailing from a poor family, he could get education only up to fifth grade and thought out a plan to make comedy acting as a career like the world-famed Charlie Chaplin.

He said he tried his best to act like him through his screen persona and his idea was sold and proved an interesting experience.

He said one day when he showed one of his shoots to his parents they were stunned with his witty art.

“After watching videos and films of Charlie, my body is now fully wrestled with comic expressions and even in sleep I act like him as I get up with a laughter and go to bed with a giggle because I strongly believe laughter is the best medicine,” said the comic young actor.

Due to close resemblance with Charlie, his videos filled with satire, and humour soon earned him fame and a few of fans gifted a smart phone to him to produce more videos.

However, some of his fans asked him to produce videos in black and white to bring him closer to Charlie’s era of late 70s so he borrowed the required stuff from his friend and it shot him to fame.

“Surprisingly enough, in addition to physical resemblance to Charlie Chaplin, his family background, including extreme poverty and several other things, also matched with him.

“I was determined that I would use my talent for bringing masses out of stress through my comic expressions and would earn world fame as Pakistani Charlie Chaplin contributing to society in a positive manner,” said Mr Khan.

About his hardships, he said he was in dire need of an HD camera, attire like Charlie Chaplin and a card carrying his identity as an actor to shoot his videos on the required spots.

“Most of my videos are characterised by social satire that motivate people to correct their faults. It is my attempt to contribute to my community through comedy.

“I am three in one – scriptwriter, actor and editor. I just want to arouse laughter to reduce the intensity of sadness and devastation that have griped our society for long,” Usman Khan said.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2021