October 2 was the 75th birth anniversary of Waheed Murad.
In my opinion, Waheed Murad was the best film actor produced by Pakistan and second only to Dilip Kumar from the subcontinent. Contrary to the false perception about most Pakistani actors, Murad was very smart and well-educated, having completed his masters in English Literature from Karachi University. Judging from his subsequent love of literature he must have studied and not just bought his degree!
Murad came from a well-to-do family being the only child of Nisar Murad, an established and successful film distributor. He was born in Sialkot (the birthplace of Iqbal, Faiz and both of my parents!) on October 2,1938. He initially wanted to be just a film producer but after being convinced by actress Zeba he cast himself as the hero in the film Armaan (1966), and as the movie broke all Pakistani box office records, the rest, as they say, is history.
The movie had a number of hit songs like Akele Na Jana, Ku ku Raina and Jab Pyar Mein Dou Dil Milte Hain (my favourite). These songs established a very warm bond between Murad and the singer Ahmed Rushdie. Rushdie incidentally had replaced Saleem Raza as the premier playback singer for Pakistani movies and while the great Raza was the voice for Darpan and Santoosh, Rushdie became the singing voice for Waheed Murad.
Over the next few years of his career, Murad starred in 124 movies (115 Urdu, eight Punjabi and one Pushtu) and won 32 awards, which still remains an unbeaten record for a Pakistani actor.
While Murad’s success and popularity is no secret it is not that widely known that he used to read English literature every night. He was certainly inspired by his readings. The award winning scholar on Mohammad Iqbal, Khurram Ali Shafique writes, “Ulysses by James Joyce inspired Waheed Murad while he was studying English literature. Research into the Stream of Consciousness led him to other works by Joyce and works by Henry James, Virgina Woolf and William Faulkner.”
Waheed Murad’s inspiration was evident in the movie Ishara (1969), which was written, produced and directed by him. Not only that, Shafique finds links between Iqbal and Murad as he writes, “Iqbal used the name of his son, Javid, to represent posterity. Waheed used the name of his daughter, Aliya, as a metaphor for the next generation, as he instructed them about mysteries just like the old sage of Avicenna’s story, transforming them from the children of the first scene to the college student of the main story.” Unfortunately, the movie did not do well at the box office (what else do you expect from our public?).
Incidentally, Murad’s grandfather was Zahoor Ilahi Murad, a lawyer from Sialkot and also an acquaintance of Iqbal.
Murad fell in love with Salma, daughter of a Memon seth when they were both in grade nine, and married her in 1964. Despite their ups and downs (as in all marriages) they were still together when Murad died.
1983 was a sad year for Pakistan. In April, Ahmed Rushdie died, speaking at a memorial about him Murad rightly said, “Today I have lost my voice.” Rushdie sang over 200 songs as a playback singer for Murad.
Murad had a facial scar due to a car accident and went to Karachi for surgical repair. His son, Adil, was in Karachi staying with his grandmother. A day before his facial surgery on November 23,1983, Murad celebrated Adil’s birthday. He bought several gifts for him and wished him a happy year. He returned late to spend the night at Anita Ayub’s –former mode and actress — mother Mumtaz Ayub’s house. When Murad did not wake up until late, the door had to be forced open and he was found lying on the floor, dead for several hours. A paan leaf with ‘something’ in it was found in his mouth. Nobody knows for sure if it was a heart attack or suicide. Waheed Murad was buried near his father’s grave in the Gulberg Graveyard, Ali-Zeb Road, Lahore. Incidentally, Saleem Raza died on November 25,1983.
Waheed was only 45 years old, Rushdie was 48 and Raza 51.
As we know: “One by one/Only the Good die young/They’re only flying too close to the sun/And life goes on/Without you…” (Queen’s tribute to Freddie Mercury)
The writer is a UK-based doctor