Daily Times

There were times when old Lahore was a status symbol and many eminent personalities resided here. Those who were born and those who came from other parts of the subcontinent to settle here; both took pride in being Lahori and living inside the mystic city of thirteen gates. Lahore, being a cultural and literary hub, has given birth to several known scholars, writers, poets, singers, sportsmen, painters, actors, actresses and artists. To name a few, Allama Iqbal, Sir Abdul Qadir,  Daag Dehlvi, Molana Zafar Ali, Mustansar Hussain Tarar, Gama Pehelwan, Faqir Syed Azizuddin, Faqir Syed Noor ud din, Agha Hashr,  Munshi Mehboob Alam, Fasih Ul Mulk, Chaudhry Sir Shahab Ud Din, Nazeer Chaudhry, Syed Nazir Hussain Nazir Lakhnavi, Judge Syed Muhammad Latif Maulvi Ahmed Din, Maulana Rohi,  singer Rafi, Mollana Muhammad Ali Johar, Hassa Pehalwan, , Ghulam Abbas, Madam Noor Jahan, Ustad Ghulam Ali, Choudhry Barkat Ali, Mian Abdul Rashid Kardar, Mirza Adeeb, Imam Bux and Shafi Buksh and many more were either born, studied or lived inside the Walled City of Lahore and also started their careers from the streets and stage of the city.

You all might know of the legendary Indian actor Om Prakash. The place I am taking you today is his house which is located inside the Koocha Beli Raam. Koocha Beli Raam is a locality inside the Lohari Gate of the walled city was named after a famous Hindu merchant. Prakash was born in Koocha Beli Ram on December 19, 1919 and started his career at the All India Radio Lahore in 1937 on a monthly salary of Rs 25. The character he played on radio was named Fateh Din and thus he became popular with the same name not just in Lahore but all over Punjab which was then a part of India.

How Om Prakash became a film actor is another story. He was entertaining people at a wedding one day when the well-known filmmaker Dalsukh Pancholi saw him and asked Prakash to meet him later. That is how Pancholi gave Prakash his first breakthrough as an actor in the film ‘Daasi’. He was paid only Rs 80, but the film earned him the kind of recognition that would give him a means of livelihood for a lifetime.

Historic accounts and other references about him tell us that Prakash’s father was a rich man and they had bungalows in Lahore and Jammu. He joined radio out of his love for classical music and there he worked as an actor and singer. In an interview Prakash said, “The programme was so popular in Lahore and Punjab that people would crowd near a radio when my programme was being aired. Even now, my friends in Punjab who are still alive, remember Fateh Din. At the radio station, I met my guru of dialogue delivery, Sayyed Imtiaz Ali. He was a great writer and he is the man who wrote Anarkali. I resigned from All India Radio Lahore because they were paying me a salary of rupees 40, when even the peons were getting more. But I still parted on amicable terms.”

It is said that soon after the Partition he went to India, like many others. Prakash in one of his interviews mentioned that he was a witness to the partition riots in Lahore. That was the time when he was really upset and worried as he loved the city. He added that the bloodshed and fire everywhere in Lahore was unimaginable for a peace loving land. “To reach Lahore railway station, we had to pass through Muslim inhabited areas. And it was a Muslim family who rescued us and took us to the station. It was crowded with people clamouring to pay astronomical prices for tickets. My elder brother opted to stay behind and I was the only male with a whole lot of women and children. There were two ways to leave Lahore. One could either go to Jammu or to Amritsar and we decided on the latter,” the actor recalled.

Prakash was a versatile actor with 307 films to his credit. If you go to his house today you will see that it is in shambles and not at all a well maintained piece of heritage. The family which settled in the same house after partition failed to maintain it. I met the person living opposite Prakash’s house and he said that his grandparents used to tell him stories of the actor living in the opposite house.

After suffering from a heart attack, he died on 21 February 1998, but I guess his house in Lahore met its death when he left the city. I wish that his house could be restored and opened for the public by building a small museum and gallery there and maybe his classic films can be displayed to create awareness in the new generation about Lahore’s rich cultural heritage.

Published in Daily Times, November 23^rd 2018.