Daily Times

Roohi Bano was a lost soul because she wore a lost look in almost all the characters she portrayed for the mini screen.

Even during her unwell days, she looked deep in thought, staring in vacuum. It is indeed a tragedy that an artist of her calibre was made to stay in a mental hospital most of the time where nobody tried to bring her back to normalcy. The only look that she exhibited was that of an old lady with dyed red hair. I have seen her during her heydays in the corridors of Pakistan Television (PTV) Lahore office in the 1980s where she looked sharp, educated and cultured unlike the actresses of her time.

Since I gave the background theme song for Ashfaq Ahmad’s drama series ‘Aik Muhabbat Sau Afsaney’, I was witness of her appearance in one of the episodes ‘Ishtebah-e-Nazar’. She argues with her blind mother Attia Sharaf that she was not with anybody but was laughing at the scarecrow. Her performance in this play was close to her real life suffering. It was a drama delineating the irony of her life! Little did she know that she will depart the world unfulfilled and tragically becoming the character she played.

After doing wonderful roles in PTV dramas like ‘Qilla Kahani’, ‘Hairat Kada’, ‘Darwaza’, ‘Zard Gulab’, ‘Kiran Kahani’, ‘Jazeera’ and ‘Adhe Chehre’, she did some films as well. She was seen in an intimate dance scene with Waheed Murad lip-synching Mahnaaz’s voice in “Aao Barsat Ki Rim Jhim May” where Muhammad Ali notices this activity while passing in a car.

She even did an emotional death sequence during a mujra filmed on some unknown dancer on Nashad’s music in the 1980 film ‘Zameer’. Muhammad Ali is also seen in the song “Hum Na Hongay Tau Hamay Yaad Karegi Duniya” rendered by Mahnaaz. This glamour was totally opposite to her sober and philosophical roles in the TV classics mentioned above. She was paired opposite great actors such as Talat Hussain, Rahat Kazmi, Shakeel Yousuf and alike. Earlier Roohi Bano’s mother had taken her to Dr Anwar Sajjad to give her a break in acting. Bano was an intermediate student then. Later she became popular through Haseena Moin’s drama serial ‘Zair Zabar Paish’.

For two decades Bano ruled the mini-screen but equally tumultuous was her personal life; two broken marriages and losing her son Ali in a murder case close to her residence in Lahore. On November 6, 2005, local newspapers reported, “Artist Roohi Bano’s only son was found murdered near his residence in Gulberg III on Friday evening. Rafique Akhtar, the brother-in-law of Roohi Bano, told police that he visited Bano’s house on Eid. He said his nephew Ali (24) was present on the second storey with his friends – Zahid Ashraf, Sohail Islam and Farrukh. He said after spending some time there he returned to his house when police informed him that Ali was shot dead near his house. A police source said that Ali left the house with three of his friends besides one Hamid Bhatti who had joined them later. He suspected that one of them might have fallen out with Ali over some issue and shot him dead. The killer(s) dumped his body alongside a fence which was spotted by passersby after listening to the ring tone of his cell phone.”

Initially, the police did not inform Bano as she was not feeling well.

I’m aware as to what happened to the murder case but the shock was too much for Bano to bear. She lost her mind afterwards although people who knew her from college days say that she was a lost soul even when a student of Psychology in Government College, Lahore. Media reported that Bano owned a house in Lahore and a flat in Karachi. Her sister and brother did not allow her to live alone after seeing her lonely and admitted her in Fountain House. That brings us to the question of the state’s responsibility in maintaining great artists in their later lives. I have seen in the media about Punjab government asking artists to fill medical cards. Let us hope this idea gets implemented!

Bano was the daughter of an Indian tabla player Allah Rakha. That link made Ustad Zakir Hussain her step brother. Her other sibling Taufiq Qureshi is also an Indian traditional musician while Fazal Qureshi is also an Indian tabla player who seeks guidance from his father. Her sister Rubina Yasmin does not belong from the industry.

The writer can be reached at doc_amjad@hotmail.com

Published in Daily Times, January 27^th 2019.