Written by: Haroon Shuaib
Posted on: April 21, 2020 | 
| 中文
Moin Akhtar as Various Characters on Loose Talk
Steven Wright, ranked amongst the best standup comedians of the world once said, “Comedians are sociologists. We're pointing out stuff that the general public doesn't even stop to think about, looking at life in slow-motion and questioning everything we see.”
This perhaps doesn’t hold as true for anyone in Pakistan’s media scene as it did for the legendry Moin Akhtar, who breathed his last on 22 April 2011 in Karachi, where he was born to Muhammad Ibrahim Mehboob, a printing press owner and garments contractor, in 1950.
Originally from Muradabad, India, the family had made Karachi their home after Partition. The diversity of ethnicities, cultures, dialects, and economic strata in Post-Partition Karachi must have left some indelible marks on young Akhtar. With a keen observation and a natural knack for acting, impersonation, characterization, singing, and writing, he learnt several languages, including English, Bengali, Sindhi, Punjabi, Memoni, Pashto, Gujrati, and Urdu. At age 13, Akhtar made his acting debut playing the role of Shylock, the antagonist in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.
Young Moin Akhtar
There was no stopping Moin, as his next step was in Radio Pakistan’s office in Karachi, which was then considered the prime training academy for many great actors of Pakistan. It was in the same radio studios that his wit, humour and flair for comedy crystalized, and learnt the art of dialects, annunciations, and annotation.
By 1966, Moin Akhtar was on television as a comedian impersonating the Hollywood actor Anthony Quinn and the former US president John F. Kennedy. His mastery of mimicry and comic timing left the audience in splits. They were also astounded by his limitless talent every time he appeared on the television screens.
He formed a team with the prolific satirist Anwar Maqsood and the remarkable Bushra Ansari, an actor and mimic of equal merit and a perfect counterpart. With their help, Moin Akhtar quickly became a household name in Pakistan. Almost 45 years after his first appearance on television, Moin Akhtar was a sure success with audiences, whether he was acting in television plays, compering for live transmission, doing comic sketches, or stage shows.
Moin Akhtar (Left) with Anwar Maqsood (Center) and Bushra Ansari (Right)
Moin Akhtar was liked and respected by his audience and acting fraternity. This was not only inside Pakistan, but also wherever people spoke and understood Urdu. He was the preferred choice for hosting shows, and his interviewing of dignitaries and other celebrities was faultless. His tongue-in-cheek humour and disarming charm meant that he got away with some audacious questions and comments.
His guests included heads of state such as the King of Jordan, many presidents and prime ministers of Pakistan, and such eminent actors as Dilip Kumar, Mohammad Ali, Babra Sharif, as well as sportsmen like Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas and Jahangir Khan. He even interviewed music legends, such as Madam Noor Jahan, Mehdi Hassan, Lata Mangeshkar, and Nazia Hassan. His performances in cult shows such as Eid Train, Studio Dhai (2.5), Studio Ponay Teen (2.75), Show Sha, Show Time, Yes Sir No Sir, and Bakra Qiston Pay (Goat on Instalments), left his viewers eagerly awaiting his next great idea.
Moin Akhtar with Dillip Kumar
His role in Rosy, an adaptation of Dustin Hoffman’s Tootsie (1982) for PTV, is considered iconic in Pakistan’s television history. He played the titular character, a struggling actor finally gets his big break impersonating a female actor. The amusing turn of events provided tremendous comic relief, but Rosy also had a deeper message. It showed an actor’s hunger for a meaningful role, and the lengths they go to find it. The last scene in which he reveals his true identity, and breaks into an emotional monologue, left the audience moved every time. Akhtar said that this was one of his favourite roles to perform.
Moin Akhtar as 'Rosy'
In one of the rare occasions when Akthar himself was interviewed, he described his method of acting as such: In comedy you need to work on many things like tonal variations, expressions, timing — it’s a very delicate and difficult job. You disguise yourself in someone else’s character. There has to be synchronisation between the tone, tempo and physical gestures of the character — it is a blend of many things.
But perhaps the pinnacle of his theatrical excellence can best be witnessed in the talk-show Loose Talk, which began in 2005. He appeared as a different character in each episode, with a total of over 400 episodes, that spanned multiple seasons. It is certainly no mean feat for one actor to play so many different and distinct roles in one series.
In fact, his acting was so memorable that when Senator Mushahid Hussain met the famous film star Amir Khan while attending the First Asian Civilisation Dialogue hosted by the Chinese President, Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, Amir Khan revealed how he was a huge fan of the late Moin Akhter. Amir Khan went on to describe Akhtar as a supremely talented actor, and specifically mentioned Loose Talk as a classic.
Moin Akhtar and Anwar Maqsood
Rumor has it that the world-famous wax museum, Madame Tussauds, wished to include a waxwork of Moin Akhter posthumously in its London museum, but his family refused. Akhtar can be described paradoxically as a public figure with a very private off-screen life. But what made him a man of a thousand faces, and the bringer of a thousand smiles, was his acute sense of observation, boundless creativity, and his desire to craft the perfect character.
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