KARACHI: Pakistani lovers of showbiz and especially light-hearted programmes woke up to a pleasant surprise on Wednesday morning to see Google containing the images of the popular puppet characters Uncle Sargam and Masi Museebtay as part of its regular doodling on its homepage. The characters were created by the supremely gifted artist, the late Farooq Qaiser, and yesterday Google paid a tribute to him on his 78th birthday.

Qaiser was a multitalented man — a puppeteer, an actor, a writer and a poet. A graduate of Lahore’s reputed National College of Arts (NCA) he joined PTV in the early 1970s to work alongside the likes of Shoaib and Salima Hashmi. It didn’t take him long to carve a niche for himself, though. He came up with a show titled Kaliyan in 1976 that catapulted him to national fame. It had memorable characters such as Uncle Sargam, Masi Mussebtay and Haiga. Although the programme was primarily meant to entertain children — since it was based on puppets — it acquired a large audience of all age groups because of its subtle sociopolitical satirical and funny lines. He went on to do similar shows such as Putli Tamasha and Siyasi Kaliyan.

Qaiser also forged a nice relationship with the formidable musicians, the Niazi brothers, sons of the legendary folk singer Tufail Niazi. Together they came up with a variety of skits, which also involved peppy musical numbers.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2023