Simi Raheal
By Afia Mansoor
Simi Raheal is one of the most sought after actors in the Pakistani media today. She has been a part of television, theatre, radio and advertising since more than three decades and interestingly that’s not all about her. She is a teacher, a gender activist and the mother of super model Mehreen Raheal. Her charisma exudes from her genuine expressions and spirited conversation; it is reflected in her heightened aesthetic sense if you see her tastefully done house. Her close knit circle of friends in the media hold her in remarkable respect which is perhaps why she has worked with nearly everyone to their satisfaction. You meet Simi and realize that she is trying to live every second of her life to the fullest and radiates her energy onto you instantly.
HUMSAY had a tête-à-tête with her on what she has been up to recently.
Q: You and Mehreen make the most successful mother-daughter duo in the Pakistani media today. To what do you attribute this success?
A: (Laughs) Lots of blessings of Allah really. And then I think a lot of diligent hard work. We are extremely conscious of our commitments and of being punctual. I guess when you work like that your credibility follows you around. That’s pretty much the mainstay of our supposed success.
Q: You have been involved with television, radio, theatre, film, music videos and commercials. Which genre do you prefer the most?
A: I have been asked that before. And the answer remains the same. I can’t pinpoint which is better. Each genre of work for me, whether it is radio, television or advertising has its own energy and spirituality. I have loved doing theatre because of the instant gratification and adrenalin rush it gives you. I have loved radio because you could be talking to the world sitting in your pajamas and pretend you have the best ball gown on. Every genre has its own novelty and if you ask me that is perhaps the ingredient to success. If you keep feeling novelty in your work you enjoy it tremendously.
Q: You’re also a gender activist. Tell us what you are up to these days on that front.
A: I believe in gender balance within the limits of a social and religious framework. I teach Gender and Ethics at the Kinnaird College because I feel Media has a great responsibility in bringing this balance. Teaching is the love of my life. It’s the most exciting thing for me. I teach at an institute called South Asian Media School, which is being monitored by the South Asian Media Committee, where a contingent of students from SAARC countries is brought in every year and given intensive classes and workshops on various media issues. This year we have students from Srilanka, Afghanistan, Maldives and Pakistan and I teach Media and Development. On the Development side I teach Gender and Human Rights and conduct thrice a week workshops on applying the learning tools practically in media. I have also read papers internationally and done workshops locally.
Q: How did this media school come about?
A: In 2007, SAFMA a network of journalist and media practitioners from South Asia decided to start a teaching initiative which would cultivate a new generation of media persons in the region who would be aware of the socio political nuances of the region and would pitch in their share in it responsibly. The school is an initiative to equip participants with latest knowledge on media and the social responsibility that goes with it. It’s a great grooming platform for the region and we also have a theatre festival on feminism coming up in August.
Q: What have you been involved in with HUM TV recently?
A: I recently did a serial for Hum called Najia. It was based on Razia Butt’s novel. I acted as a motherly Anglo Indian housekeeper living in Mauritius. It was a really good experience. The cast was good the production was professional and Mauritius was fabulous needless to say. Another project with Hum is lined up but lets keep it as a surprise. It is also based on a Razia Butt novel though.
Q: Which has been your most enduring piece of performance till now?
A: It was one of the most popular plays of PTV called Khwahish that was aired in 1991. I played the part of a gypsy woman who had a deformed child. I also loved Asfhaque Ahmed’s ‘Na man milay na peeh’ in which I played the part of a spirit living in a grave. The experience was so profound it re invented me as a human being. I think that is what young actors need to realize. That you need to be selective with work. That a powerful script has to be simulated in the mind and soul and so the strengths of a character can have a profound impact on your life and so can its weaknesses.
Q: You worked in Shoaib Mansoor’s acclaimed Khuda Kay Liyay. How does it feel now that the film has made history?
A: I feel Blessed. I had always wanted to do a good film. I had never imagined that one day Shoaib Mansoor would himself come to me and say I want you to be part of this film. I never asked him a single question. Because that is the track record he carried with him. I feel proud that I became a small part of history with that film. It was a great experience.
The film was a very brave endeavor considering the times we are going through. It was a passionate journey of love and patriotism.
What would you like to see changed in the Media?
A: I would like the media to reflect the reality. I would like that media represents people as who they are versus what they are perceived to be. It should potry our laughter, our tears our emotions as they are. I must say that the new generation of talk shows being aired have a lot to learn about ethics. Journalists and actors need to go back to school to learn a thing or two about ethics and morality.
What do you want to say to the educated young women of Pakistan?
A: My favourite line has always been from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in the Wonderland’, “If you don’t know which way you’re going, any road will do’.
And as Shakespeare says in Hamlet:
‘This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man’.
I would say don’t put barriers to yourself. Open yourselves to education, enlightenment and allow yourself to learn.
This interview was published in HUMSAY; a magazine of HUM Television in September 2008
Showing posts with label Pakistani films. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pakistani films. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Interview of Zeba - The veteran film artiste
Till death do them part
The late veteran film actor, Muhammad Ali and his wife, actress Zeba’s marriage was the stuff that fairytales are made of. Together, they made quite a couple, with the tall and handsome Muhammad Ali falling in love with the young, beautiful Zeba at first sight and the two getting married and living happily ever after … that is until Muhammad Ali passed away this time last year. The two were married for four decades.
I meet Zeba at her residence, AliZeb, situated on a broad avenue of Lahore bearing the same name. Contrary to the image of a grieving widow I have in mind, I find Zeba dressed in a fetching ice-blue silk shalwar kameez with matching shoes worn over pedicured feet with painted toenails. With sparkling diamonds earrings and solitaires flashing in her slender fingers, she puts to shame women half her age with her captivating beauty.
The moment we start, she makes it absolutely clear: “I will talk only about Muhammad Ali sahib.” With her past obscure, and she has consciously kept it so during the length of our conversation, the reference point in her life remains her meeting with Muhammad Ali. “When he joined Radio Pakistan, his father who was a religious scholar, opposed his decision. But Ali told him: ‘I’ll never bring disgrace to your name in this profession’ and he proved it so.”
She also remembers how they ended up on screen together: “Our first film together was Chiragh Jalta Raha (released on March 9, 1962 and directed by Fazal Karim Fazli). Its first shot picturised us together. Ali sahib told the press much later that he had decided to marry me the day he first saw me.” Chiragh Jalta Raha also marked the big-screen debut of Deeba and Kamal Irani. Zeba and Mohammad Ali got married some four years later in 1966. Says she, “It took us a while as I am not the kind who trusts someone out rightly or falls in love at first sight.”
So what made her decide to marry him? “His integrity and goodness. He belonged to a deeply religious family and despite being good-looking, he was sharif and would shun the advances made by other women. Muhammad Ali sahib had a generous heart and treated everyone with nothing but respect. He treated me like a queen and loved fulfilling my whims. It was hard not to take the decision to marry him. He would hand over all his earnings to me without a question as to how I spent it.”
Zeba goes on to add that in the later part of his life, Muhammad Ali was actively involved in philanthropic pursuits, specially pertaining to the AliZeb Foundation which treats the underprivileged patients of hemophilia and thalesemia free of charge.
It is commonly perceived that Ali was immensely possessive about Zeba working with other heroes of the time. Zeba, however, has this to say about the issue: “Ali once asked me ‘Would you like it if I accompanied you on your shoots like you do on mine?’ and I thought to myself: What is the point of being married if your work keeps you away from each other? So I decided to act in films that only cast him opposite me. Also, I think our society does not accept a married actress working opposite men other than her husband. Today, I don’t have any regrets as we made super-hit films together. In fact, we worked in 75 films which is an unmatched world record, even in Hollywood and Bollywood.”
Says Zeba, “We always made it a point to have lunch and dinner together. Muhammad Ali sahib also loved to entertain guests at home and never went anywhere without me.” On being asked how Ali was as a father to her only daughter from her previous marriage (they did not have any children of their own), Zeba cuts me short. “I don’t remember anything prior to meeting Muhammad Ali. He was an exemplary father to not only our daughter but also our grandchildren. He would get them expensive gifts from abroad and where I would admonish my grandchildren at times, he would spoil and pamper them to no end.”
With tears in her eyes, she says that life without Muhammad Ali is difficult for her. “I cannot even begin to explain the anguish I have suffered with Ali’s passing away. I have tried to pull myself together with difficulty but I still feel incomplete. The shock of his death has been unbelievable and I still suffer from the stress of it all. I would visit his grave and it would just not register that he is in there. But one can’t do anything against the will of Allah. For four months after his death, I did not read a single newspaper carrying the coverage of his funeral or watch a single TV programme made in his memory. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. My grandchildren urged me to see the articles they had saved with them, saying I should see how he left this world in the grand manner that he had lived his life. I think it is only when you are so loved and admired by people that you receive the tremendous show of respect that Ali got on his last journey.”
Finally, Zeba says, “I ask Ali’s admirers to pray for his maghfirat and my forbearance to overcome the loss. I hope and pray that when my time comes, people will show me the same love and respect that they have shown to Muhammad Ali.”
Published for Images, Dawn Newspaper
The late veteran film actor, Muhammad Ali and his wife, actress Zeba’s marriage was the stuff that fairytales are made of. Together, they made quite a couple, with the tall and handsome Muhammad Ali falling in love with the young, beautiful Zeba at first sight and the two getting married and living happily ever after … that is until Muhammad Ali passed away this time last year. The two were married for four decades.
I meet Zeba at her residence, AliZeb, situated on a broad avenue of Lahore bearing the same name. Contrary to the image of a grieving widow I have in mind, I find Zeba dressed in a fetching ice-blue silk shalwar kameez with matching shoes worn over pedicured feet with painted toenails. With sparkling diamonds earrings and solitaires flashing in her slender fingers, she puts to shame women half her age with her captivating beauty.
The moment we start, she makes it absolutely clear: “I will talk only about Muhammad Ali sahib.” With her past obscure, and she has consciously kept it so during the length of our conversation, the reference point in her life remains her meeting with Muhammad Ali. “When he joined Radio Pakistan, his father who was a religious scholar, opposed his decision. But Ali told him: ‘I’ll never bring disgrace to your name in this profession’ and he proved it so.”
She also remembers how they ended up on screen together: “Our first film together was Chiragh Jalta Raha (released on March 9, 1962 and directed by Fazal Karim Fazli). Its first shot picturised us together. Ali sahib told the press much later that he had decided to marry me the day he first saw me.” Chiragh Jalta Raha also marked the big-screen debut of Deeba and Kamal Irani. Zeba and Mohammad Ali got married some four years later in 1966. Says she, “It took us a while as I am not the kind who trusts someone out rightly or falls in love at first sight.”
So what made her decide to marry him? “His integrity and goodness. He belonged to a deeply religious family and despite being good-looking, he was sharif and would shun the advances made by other women. Muhammad Ali sahib had a generous heart and treated everyone with nothing but respect. He treated me like a queen and loved fulfilling my whims. It was hard not to take the decision to marry him. He would hand over all his earnings to me without a question as to how I spent it.”
Zeba goes on to add that in the later part of his life, Muhammad Ali was actively involved in philanthropic pursuits, specially pertaining to the AliZeb Foundation which treats the underprivileged patients of hemophilia and thalesemia free of charge.
It is commonly perceived that Ali was immensely possessive about Zeba working with other heroes of the time. Zeba, however, has this to say about the issue: “Ali once asked me ‘Would you like it if I accompanied you on your shoots like you do on mine?’ and I thought to myself: What is the point of being married if your work keeps you away from each other? So I decided to act in films that only cast him opposite me. Also, I think our society does not accept a married actress working opposite men other than her husband. Today, I don’t have any regrets as we made super-hit films together. In fact, we worked in 75 films which is an unmatched world record, even in Hollywood and Bollywood.”
Says Zeba, “We always made it a point to have lunch and dinner together. Muhammad Ali sahib also loved to entertain guests at home and never went anywhere without me.” On being asked how Ali was as a father to her only daughter from her previous marriage (they did not have any children of their own), Zeba cuts me short. “I don’t remember anything prior to meeting Muhammad Ali. He was an exemplary father to not only our daughter but also our grandchildren. He would get them expensive gifts from abroad and where I would admonish my grandchildren at times, he would spoil and pamper them to no end.”
With tears in her eyes, she says that life without Muhammad Ali is difficult for her. “I cannot even begin to explain the anguish I have suffered with Ali’s passing away. I have tried to pull myself together with difficulty but I still feel incomplete. The shock of his death has been unbelievable and I still suffer from the stress of it all. I would visit his grave and it would just not register that he is in there. But one can’t do anything against the will of Allah. For four months after his death, I did not read a single newspaper carrying the coverage of his funeral or watch a single TV programme made in his memory. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. My grandchildren urged me to see the articles they had saved with them, saying I should see how he left this world in the grand manner that he had lived his life. I think it is only when you are so loved and admired by people that you receive the tremendous show of respect that Ali got on his last journey.”
Finally, Zeba says, “I ask Ali’s admirers to pray for his maghfirat and my forbearance to overcome the loss. I hope and pray that when my time comes, people will show me the same love and respect that they have shown to Muhammad Ali.”
Published for Images, Dawn Newspaper
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