Tempestuous, unabashed, unpretentious. On meeting Saba Qamar, one senses a volcano of emotions simmering just beneath the glam surface. Her statements come layered with meaning. She has strong opinions that she is very willing to voice. And her eyes glint, letting you know that she isn’t a woman who takes easily to being crossed.

Saba Qamar has journeyed hard and long, beginning her career at the tender age of 19, weathering disappointments and deceptions, but always holding her own, simply because she is an actress par extraordinaire.

Acting is an inherent part of her being, the passion to which she has devoted a large chunk of her life, and if there’s one thing that she’s sure of, it’s her various on-screen performances. This faith in her craft lends an air of confidence to her persona; acting is her ballgame and no one dare challenge her position as a star player.

In fact, hardly anyone does so. Saba excels in delivering impactful, nuanced performances, slipping as easily into the skin of the effervescent siren as in that of her character in Kamli: repressed, taut with emotions, speaking with her eyes and her body language rather than with words.

One of Pakistan’s most powerful actresses, Saba Qamar can, like a chameleon, change into the skin of her varied, often offbeat, characters. But with a string of back-to-back hits and critically acclaimed performances, she’s also ruling the roost like a lioness. So what kind of animal is she really?

As I write this piece, Saba’s performance as the main protagonist in Sarmad Khoosat’s movie, Kamli, is winning rave reviews. At the premiere, she broke into tears once the movie ended. Even during my interview with her, she gets teary eyed while musing over the subtleties that defined her very complex character.

“For so many days, I was her, Hina,” Saba says. “I related to her pain, invented how I wanted her to move and communicate. It was physically and emotionally draining and, when shooting ended, I broke into tears because I would be leaving her behind.”

Your dedication is visible in your performances, I compliment.

She thanks me, to which I point out, “You must be used to such comments.”

Saba nods. “Still, I have given my whole life to this career and, if someone praises me sincerely, it always makes me happy.”

There’s a flipside to Saba, the powerhouse actress who — almost — always gets accolades; she laughs a lot, often at herself. Right before we begin our interview, her publicist and close friend quips that Saba’s suit is colourful, like a desi gola ganda. Saba throws her head back and chortles.

I’m reminded of another time, about a year ago, when she wore a shoulder-less gown on her birthday and social media was aghast, creating memes where sleeves and a dupatta over the head had been added in. Saba had a grand old time resharing many of the memes. She may take her work seriously, but she’s also very real, willing to laugh at a good joke or make the odd, politically incorrect — but very funny — comment.

“I’m very emotional,” Saba agrees with me when I point this out, “but an actor needs to be that way, in order to be believable. The day I lose my emotions, I’ll become a model.” And she squints and pouts for me, her eyes twinkling with laughter.

Doing Kamli

“I just say whatever comes to my mind and it is because I’m so expressive that it was particularly difficult to play Hina in Kamli. Hina doesn’t say what comes to her mind, she communicates with her eyes until, ultimately, one day she bursts. That’s where you see Saba Qamar in her,” she quips.

“Before enacting Hina, I would listen to music, usually Naina from Kamli’s OST [soundtrack]. I had to become her, the way she breathed in and out, the way she moved her body. There would be a two-hour walk sometimes to the shooting location and, every night, my wet hair would be tightly wound in braids so that it would curl in a certain way when opened in the morning. My hair would remain wavy all through the day but, to achieve that look, I wouldn’t be able to sleep restfully at night. I quite literally have given my sweat, my blood, my heart to this role.”

Sarmad Khoosat [Kamli’s director] says that this is your best performance to date, I tell her.

“You know, maybe Sarmad is right,” she muses, “although, so far, my most widely seen role has been that of Qandeel Baloch in the drama Baaghi.”

Saba continues, “Kamli is the first project that I signed on to without reading the script and, instead, after just hearing a song from it. I had met up with Sarmad and we were discussing something else altogether when he played Naina for me. I was captivated. I asked him ‘Yeh kis ka gaana hai?[Which film’s song is this?]’ He replied, ‘Kamli’. I asked him who was doing the movie and he said, ‘Aap’[You].”

She smiles at the memory. “I asked him, ‘Yeh kab hua?[When did this happen?]’ and Sarmad said, ‘Abhi [Just now]’ and he placed the script in front of me, telling me, ‘Main ne inkaar nahin sunna [I won’t accept a no]’! And just like that, I was in the movie.”

Kamli, even at this initial point, may be getting critical acclaim but does she think that it will be commercially successful? “I can’t be sure if Pakistan’s audience will truly appreciate this movie until it begins running in cinemas,” she says. “Yes, it isn’t a conventionally commercial movie, but it is a tasteful one with beautiful music that you want to hear on repeat.”

I completely lose myself in my characters. I won’t care if my hair is falling on my face or if I’m not wearing any make-up. If I am lying in bed and my shalwar hikes up a bit, showing my leg, I won’t tug it down. Isn’t that how we lie down in our homes also? I can’t lose my focus on the character by worrying about how I am looking.”

The girl who dares

Kamli is also a movie that pushes boundaries, tackling subjects that are generally swept under the carpet and airing them out for the world to see. Its narrative is sensuous and compelling, delving into desires and needs that are innately human but are more or less taboo topics in our region. This is, however, hardly the first time that Saba is enacting a character that is — for want of a better word — daring.

There was her enactment of the unfortunate Qandeel in Baaghi and, more recently, she played Umaina in the Zee5 web-series Mrs and Mr Shameem, a girl who gets impregnated by her boyfriend and ends up marrying the effeminate Shameem in order to save face.

Kashif Nisar, the series’ director, had told me some time ago that he couldn’t have imagined anyone other than Saba playing the role. “She lets go of her inhibitions and gets completely lost in the character,” he had said in praise of her.

Nevertheless, does Saba ever worry that enacting a brazen character may lead to backlash from Pakistan’s predominantly conservative audience? Her eyes flash at me — I have evidently touched a nerve that is close to her heart.

“Why should I worry? Why do we find it so wrong to tell stories about feelings and basic human needs? We are a nation that sins but refuses to acknowledge it, hiding our faults rather than facing them and talking them out. The reason why I accept such roles is that, somewhere, there will be a handful of people who will understand what the story is trying to say. If there are others who are unable to understand, what can I do?”

I mention Kashif Nisar’s comment and she nods. “I completely lose myself in my characters. I won’t care if my hair is falling on my face or if I’m not wearing any make-up. If I am lying in bed and my shalwar hikes up a bit, showing my leg, I won’t tug it down. Isn’t that how we lie down in our homes also? I can’t lose my focus on the character by worrying about how I am looking.”

Was there a time, earlier in her career, when she would want to play the quintessentially good, typical heroine rather than a character with ambiguous layers and complexities?

“I have always wanted to play blatantly real characters,” she says. “Even when I was a 19-year-old debutante, I would get calls from the Hum TV Network and I would refuse some of the offers, telling them that I wanted to play interesting roles rather than typical ones.

“Sometimes I wonder what to do that would be completely new. I could go bald, but my mother would hate me for it!” she laughs. “I recently said in a few interviews that I would love to explore the psyche of a politician and, in my next web-series, I am playing a politician.”

Busy times

There are many more projects that Saba has got lined up. Her drama Fraud is currently on air on ARY Digital. Also in the pipeline are the dramas Tumharay Husn Ke Naam and Serial Killer. “Serial Killer is very, very different,” she says. “It’s the sort of project that I expect to become an all-out hit, the way Maat and Baaghi did.”

Her repertoire is extensive and she’s worked with a very varied range of actors. Who are her favourite co-stars? “I think Mikaal is great. Also, Ahsan Khan is very inspirational. He is constantly working and doing so much, hosting as well as acting. Whenever I meet him, I feel so charged!”

What about Naumaan Ijaz? I ask her about one of her longest standing co-stars who is also one of the country’s finest actors.

“My very first project was with him and, after that, we have worked together countless times,” says Saba. “He and I have a very unique understanding. In one shooting session, we will be best friends. The next time I come, we won’t be talking and I’ll understand that he’s having a mood swing and keep my distance. Kashif [Nisar] bhai and him are such good friends but they haven’t talked to each other in a year because Naumaan is angry with him. That’s just how he is!”

“I do think that no newcomer could have acted opposite him in Mrs and Mr Shameem. Not everyone can understand that, while he has his moods, he is a truly genuine person. He is good at heart, speaks his mind and is unfortunately very fond of cracking jokes — even though a lot of times people don’t understand his sense of humour and it leads to social media controversies!” she laughs.

“There have been times when I have asked him why he needs to make jokes that may end up getting misinterpreted, especially when he’s such a great actor and people hold him in such high esteem. ‘I am just like that’, he tells me! Beyond all this, he’s a fine actor. When I act opposite him, sometimes I just go quiet for a few minutes in order to prepare.”

She has also worked with the late Irrfan Khan in the Bollywood movie Hindi Medium. Irrfan was one of Bollywood’s most impactful character actors but did he seem to be happy with being just that, or did he have aspirations to play the chocolate hero?

“He was a brilliant actor but I always did see a chocolate hero in him, jaisay un ke andar ek Shah Rukh Khan hai [Like he had a Shah Rukh Khan inside him], who wanted to sing the romantic songs and act in pretty movies. I was not just his co-actor but also his big fan, I would notice little details about him. Of course, these are just my observations and I could be wrong.”

She may be busy with work but, lately, there has also been talk of her planning to get married soon. Time and again, Saba has been posting videos of her room getting filled up with bouquets by a secret, special someone. Is she truly in a relationship?

“You know me — I wouldn’t imply that I was in a relationship if I wasn’t!” she says. “If I’m in love, I declare it out. When I fall out of love, I announce it again. If I set my wedding date and then the wedding gets cancelled, I let the world know!” she grins, herself mentioning a certain recent controversy that she had asked me not to question her about — only now she’s joking about it herself.

“So yes, there is someone. For a while, I couldn’t trust anyone and didn’t want to be in a relationship but, then, someone comes along and you begin to have faith again.”

In a recent TV interview with Vasay Chaudhry, Saba had hinted that the man in her life lived overseas. Could we know more? “He’s Muslim,” she says. “We hope to get married and then go for hajj before our honeymoon. It is on my wish list to go for hajj with my partner.”

Will she continue working after marriage? “I doubt it. I’m that loyal and committed that, if my partner doesn’t want me to continue on with my career, I’ll leave it.”

Saba, I can’t see you retiring, I observe. “You know, a lot of people tell me that! I’ll just act at home — a new character every day!” she chortles.

For now, though, her schedule is choc-a-bloc with work. Now that she has wrapped up Kamli’s pre-release promotions, Saba will be resuming shooting her drama Fraud, in which she plays a girl who gets cheated by a wheeling dealing Ahsan Khan.

Interestingly, Saba’s protagonist is a girl whose marriage has been delayed — perhaps this was the scriptwriter’s way of ensuring that she fit into her role. It is not out of the ordinary for drama and filmmakers to tweak their scripts in order to get an actor of her calibre to sign on.

Still, does ageing worry Saba? “No it doesn’t,” she professes. “We all have to age someday, so what’s there to worry about? My career has grown over the years so gracefully, and I hope to continue seeing it grow. I’m still playing the heroine. Jungle mein sher tau aik hee hota hai! [There’s only one king of the jungle!]” She arches her eyebrows challengingly.

And that metaphorical lion — or lioness — is Saba Qamar?

She laughs. “I didn’t say that!”

But the implication is very much there. Docile one moment and fierce the next and one of Pakistan’s most powerful actresses of all time, Saba is very much queen of the jungle. This queen is also a chameleon, however. Today, she’s Hina in Kamli; tomorrow, she’ll slip just as easily into another character. Whichever animal she may be, her reign continues.

Published in Dawn, ICON, June 5th, 2022