Written by: Haroon Shuaib
Posted on: December 28, 2020 | 
| 中文
Uncle Sargam and Maasi Museebte
In 1970, Farooq Qaiser graduated from National College of Arts (NCA) with a degree in Textile Design. While he was unsuccessful in immediately finding a job, his teachers Salima and Shoaib Hashmi had already recognized his creative potential. The couple, along with some other pioneers of the first television station in the country, Pakistan Television, were putting together Akkar Bakkar. This was to be Pakistan’s version of the iconic Sesame Street, an entertainment and educational show involving muppets (a cross between a ‘marionette’ and ‘puppet’) for children.
Qaiser’s first assignment was to make a desi (local) version of the legendry Big Bird. Without any prior knowledge of how to develop muppets, after 4 days Farooq was at the studio with a life sized duck suite made of sticks, hard board, and lots of yellow paper. This was the beginning of a lifelong affair with muppets, as he kept producing new and more complex characters for Akkar Bakkar.
Uncle Sargam and Rolo
Puppetry as an art is diverse in shapes, forms and techniques across cultures. From a simple finger, a glove, human arm puppets and the carnival or body muppets, there are over two dozen different types of puppetry techniques. Play of light is often used in shadow puppets, black light puppets, and light curtain puppetry. “Puppetry has been practiced in many culture, some of which for over 5000 years, such as in Far Eastern countries of China, Malaysia, and Philippines. In our part of the world, the art of Kuthputli (a type of string puppetry) by families of wandering artists was prevalent in Rajisthan, Thar, and the Punjab. This was a kind of mobile theatre for common folks, telling fascinating stories of court and nobility. The puppeteers would put up a charpai (a wooden cot), manipulate the string puppets while hiding behind it, and the villagers would come out in droves enjoy the show. Unfortunately, the kuthputli tradition is almost extinct in our country,” Farooq shares.
Qaiser’s love affairs with muppets, which started from Akkar Bakkar, never left him. He went on to receive a master's degree in Graphic Arts from Romania where he also trained in puppetry. As soon as he returned, he started Kaliyan (Sprouts), his own puppet show on Pakistan Television.
Qaiser with His Puppet Mr. Bonga Bakheel in 1989
Kaliyan became an instantly popular hit, and marked the birth of the now iconic Uncle Sargam, the inimitable Haiga and the curious Maasi Museebte. He created the character of 'Uncle Sargam' with a resemblance to his teacher Mohan Lal from Romania, and has been lending his own voice to Uncle. “Uncle Sargam symbolizes your typical Pakistani. He has the same strengths, weaknesses and personality traits that all of us in Pakistan share. He may always be dressed in a suite with a tie trying hard to fit in, but he has the same insecurities and fears of every middleclass Pakistani. That is perhaps the reason for the popularity of Uncle Sargam, and the goodwill that he has enjoyed for decades with young and old alike. He could say things that a common man wanted to express but could not say. This was only possible through the medium of puppetry,” Qaiser remarked.
Along the way, Farooq received another master's degree in Mass Communication from the United States and also became a reputable newspaper columnist, TV show script writer and director, comic book writer, and voice actor. His puppet characters kept growing along the way, incorporating more popular oddballs to the ensemble, such as Rola, Bonga Bakheel, Sharmeeli and Gora Saab, becoming household names through series such as Daak Time (1993), Sargam Sargam (1995), Siyasi Kaliyan (2010) and Sargam Back Home (2016). In 1993 Farooq Qaiser was honored with the President’s Pride of Performance Award, Pakistan’s highest civil award for his contribution to the field of literature, art, sports, science and education.
Qaiser in his Home (photo credits to the writer)
Qaiser reflects, “The popularity of Uncle Sargam and his friends kept growing as new viewers kept getting introduced to them. We added music, poetry, celebrity guests and social commentary in our shows. From a hand muppet, Uncle became a full body muppet who always unconditionally loved his people and his country. We now take the show to all parts of the country to spread messages of health, education, and other issues of social relevance. It is so heartening to see our resilient communities always being receptive to him. I recently went to Sukkur for a show, and the children from the neighborhood turned up to meet Uncle Sargam the same day. I told them that Uncle will come for the show tomorrow only if they wore neat clothes and shoes. I also told them that Uncle Sargam was upset to see the litter on the streets. To my surprise, I learned that the kids not only cleaned their street overnight but they also showed up wearing neat clean clothes and shoes. That is the magic of a muppet figure like Uncle Sargam.”
In the age of life-like animation and increasingly sophisticated computer graphics, some believe that puppetry is no longer a viable form of entertainment. When asked if puppetry still has relevance to modern day, Qaiser made a valid rebuttal, “Walt Disney is considered a pioneer of animation and holds the record for most Academy Awards, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. Yet, he also started his career with full body muppets of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto. This gave the characters a life beyond years and dimensions, and even the best animation technology has not been able to make the use of muppets irrelevant.”
A Museum Diorama of Uncle Sargam at Lok Virsa Museum, Islamabad
Puppetry remains important to the arts not only because it is an ancient and highly technical tradition of storytelling, but also because it has the ability to tell the stories of our lives through a lens of wonder and fun. If there is one thing that has ensured the popularity and longevity of both Qaiser and his alter ego Uncle Sargam, it is the commitment with which the muppet and the man serve Pakistan and its people.
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