KARACHI, Sept 13: Lehri, one of the most unique Pakistani comedians and a man with razor-sharp wit, died after a long illness at a private hospital here on Thursday. He was 83.

Lehri was suffering from diabetes and cardiac ailments. He is survived by his wife, five sons and two daughters.

Lehri was born in Kanpur, India, in 1929 (according to one account, he was born in 1931). He migrated to Pakistan in 1947 and settled in Karachi. He learned to use the typewriter and initially did a government job.

In 1956, an actor friend took Lehri to the sets of a film titled ‘Anokhi’. Both gave auditions for the movie and Lehri got a part to perform, while the friend was not selected.

Lehri’s real name was Safirullah Siddiqui. He began his film career as a comedian in the mid-1950s. Although his first movie didn’t do wonders at the box office, his straight-faced punch-lines and the remarkable ability to use comedy not as a scene-filler but as part of the story’s progression didn’t take him long to get noticed.

He went on to do countless films and his work in movies like ‘Insaaf’, ‘Saheli’, ‘Susral’, ‘Nai Laila Naya Majnun’, ‘Road to Swat’, ‘Faisla’ and ‘Raat Ke Rahi’ was received with critical acclaim and commercial success.

There were a handful of films, including ‘Aabshaar’ (with Shabnam), in which Lehri played villain. In 1986, while shooting a scene for a film Lehri fell ill and from then on his health deteriorated.

Later, he worked in Zeba Bakhtiar’s ‘Babu’, but ill-health allowed him only to do a few scenes. ‘Babu’ turned out to be the last film of his illustrious career. His Namaz-i-Janaza was held at Masjid Baitul Mukarram, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, after Asr prayers and he was buried in the Yasinabad graveyard.