Another shot at glory
By Mohsin Jafar
About 30 years ago, renowned actor Mohammed Ali was shooting a scene on the Karachi beachfront for his film Jag utha insaan. Some girls had been cast as extras to shoot a song-and-dance sequence. Suddenly, Ali noticed a smart looking boy wearing girl's clothes and riding a camel. He felt that the boy was wasting his time running around pulling silly stunts like that. He called him over and gave him an earful, advising him not to waste his time and to complete his studies so that he could then join the film industry.
At that time, no one, not even Mohammed Ali, could have imagined that the young person riding a camel was to become a successful actor and director one day.
This incident was narrated by Mohammed Ali, who served as chief guest at a recent awards ceremony in honour of Jawed Sheikh's blockbuster flick, Yeh dil apka huwa (YDAKH). The event also served as the launch pad for Sheikh's new movie, Khulay asman ke neechay. Despite the rainy weather and seemingly freezing temperature in Lahore that day, the ceremony was well attended, with nearly all the bigwigs of Lollywood present. Another interesting fact was the presence of some test cricketers at the function. Moin Akhtar, who compared the show, was at his usual best. He elegantly handled the proceedings in his trademark manner.
The function was divided into two parts. The first part consisted of the distribution of awards to the crew and cast of YDAKH. Awards went to Jawed Sheikh, Sana, Veena Malik, Moammar Rana, Salim Sheikh, Shafqat Cheema, Ismail Tara, Sheri Malik, Amjad Bobby, Safina Behroze and others. Shafqat Cheema, who had played the role of a police inspector, said that when the film was released two years ago, his name had not been mentioned during the publicity campaign. He, at the time, thought that Jawed Sheikh had cut all his scenes from the film, but he was surprised to see all his scenes intact, and that people had appreciated his role. Moammar Rana praised Sheikh for not forgetting the minor members of the team on the occasion, while Sana felt that the success of the movie was due to teamwork. Salim Sheikh acknowledged his elder brother's hard work and Ismail Tara said that this was a very expensive project and only Jawed Sheikh had the courage to take such a big risk.
The second part of the function was the inauguration of Jawed Sheikh's new movie Khulay asman ke neechay. The cast comprises of Nadeem, Sana, Meera, Humayun Saeed, Uzma Gillani, Salim Sheikh, Behroze Sabzwari, Ismail Tara and of course Jawed Sheikh himself. Nadeem, also present, said that he was proud to be in the cast as Jawed Sheikh was a talented director. Humayun Saeed claimed that he signed the movie instantly when he received the offer because he did not want to repeat the mistake he made when he was offered the main role in YDAKH and had declined. Meera praised the actor, saying that she felt Jawed Sheikh was her mentor in tinseltown, adding that she was very happy to be back in his team. Senior TV artist Uzma Gillani stated that in her acting career, which spanned 34 years, she received many offers from Lollywood and had refused them all, but after seeing the results of YDAKH, she had agreed to work in Sheikh's new flick.
Mohammed Ali observed that the local film industry was going through a crisis because of those people who didn't want to learn from others. He was of the view that people from the film industry should have learned from people working outside of the film world, especially TV artists. He appealed to the movers and shakers of Lollywood to make movies that would bring laurels to the industry.
Jawed Sheikh looked very emotional on stage. During the programme, which was hosted by Kodak, he revealed that while growing up, he was crazy about movies and was beaten by his father for this. He said that as a teenager, he used to dress up and act like Nadeem and Mohammed Ali. Today, he was proud to be sitting next to his childhood heroes. He also said that he used to spend hours waiting to see a glimpse of his favourite stars outside what was then the Intercontinental Hotel in Karachi. Sheikh said that he would try his level best to maintain the standard he has set in YDAKH for his new flick.
