LAHORE: Artiste friends and former colleagues of legendary puppeteer Farooq Qaiser termed his demise a big loss for themselves as well as the world of performing arts while sharing their old memories of him with Dawn.

A gem in the world of puppetry, script writing, lyrics, cartoons, columns and voice acting, Qaiser introduced the puppet of Uncle Sargam in 1976 in Kaliyan, a TV programme for children.

Dawn talked to some of the artistes who were close to the deceased and remained with him through his journey that started with the PTV in the 1970s.

Salima Hashmi, the painter and art educationist, who introduced Farooq Qaiser through the PTV programme Akar Bakar recalled good old days with him. It was 1972 when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the president of the country and Aslam Azhar took over as the managing director of the PTV. He landed in Lahore and called Salima and her husband Shoaib Hashmi from the airport, telling them they could do any programme they wanted to do for the PTV.

“We both said we wanted to do children’s programme. That’s how Akar Bakar started and we thought it would be an educational programme,” says Ms Hashmi. It was in the same programme, she introduced Farooq Qaiser and his friend Shahid. She knew both of them from the National College of Arts (NCA).

“Though we had seen Sesame Street, we wanted out programme to be desi. So we came up with the idea of the duck, called Big Duck, and Farooq made a life-size puppet of the duck and wore it too for 26 episodes, spanning over six months while Shahid played the role of a bhalu. Pretty soon, I discovered that Farooq had many other talents as well, apart from making puppets. He was a writer, lyricists for puppets and a satirical poet.”

That’s how Salima Hashmi’s long association started Farooq Qaiser. When her father, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, became the head of the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA), he asked her and Shoaib Hashmi for some talented people and the first person they named was Farooq Qaiser. This took Qaiser to Islamabad where he designed the logo of the PNCA, inspired by a silver amulet, Alys Faiz had found for the Lok Virsa Museum from a small village near Haripur.

“Farooq Qaiser later went to Lok Virsa. During (General) Zia’s regime, when we were taken off air, Kaliyan started. Through this programme, Farooq said the things which we couldn’t say, entertained the people and made them laugh in the darkest of times,” Ms Hashmi remembers.

The association continued despite Qaiser’s move to Islamabad and he would come over for the Hashmis’ children’s birthdays. Salima says once a reunion was arranged for Akar Bakar team and the people, who remained associated with the programme, came over from other parts of the world. Qaiser wrote a poem for that reunion which Arshad Mehmood composed.

Recalling the days when she first met Farooq Qaiser, actor Samina Ahmed says she first met him during the days of Akar Bakar before he left for the PNCA. They again met during the telecast of Kaliyan.

“The PTV wanted to take Kaliyan off air for some reason and it was my most favourite programme. I was teaching at a school then. The children studying at the school wrote letters to the PTV, pleading not to end the programme and it continued,” Samina says.

Qaiser, she adds, was a multi-talented person with many feathers in his cap.

“I called him in the 1980s at the Alhamra Art Centre to stage the Uncle Sargam Show.”

Samina says the official soundtrack (OST) of her famous TV series, Family Front, was written by Qaiser.

“I was thinking who would write its theme song and then called Farooq Qaiser. He wrote the song for me the next day and Arshad Mehmood composed it”.

She says the late artiste had written her play Hu Bahu, which had 50 episodes.

Actor Bushra Ansari used to sing for different puppets in Kaliyan such as Sharmeeli, which used to be a lamb. To her, Qaiser was a gentle soul, a humorous man and a unique artiste.

“I always conversed with him in Punjabi. We never conversed in Urdu, interestingly. He was a multi-talented person who gave so much to the PTV,” says Bushra who is still reeling from the death of her Sumbal.

Novelist and TV host Mustansar Hussain Tarar says he was in depression.

“Many of my friends have passed away in the recent times. First, Haseena Moin left us, now Farooq Qaiser. In India, my friend Shamim Hanfi has also passed away.”

Mr Tarar calls Qaiser a man of great wit and wisdom who crafted and used puppetry in his unique way on the TV.

Poet and playwright Amjad Islam Amjad remembers Qaiser as one of the most amazing personalities of the PTV.

“His satire was never harsh because for always being decent. Through his puppetry, he said what he wanted to say. His void cannot be filled,” says Amjad.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2021