At was the last week of November 1979. Silence ruled the tarmac of an airport in Pakistan as a passenger plane, supposed to take off almost an hour earlier, remained stationary.

Till then, the eleventh month of the year had been anything but peaceful for the Muslim community worldwide, as pro-Khomeini students from Iran had taken over a hundred people hostage at Tehran’s US embassy on November 4, the Holy Mosque in Makkah was under siege since November 20, the American embassy in Islamabad was burnt to the ground the next day in reaction to a fake news regarding the terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, and a PIA flight enroute to Karachi had crashed near Taif on the 26th of the same month, killing all those on board.

Amid such chaos, a static airplane aroused doubts of hijacking and bomb scare in the minds of many of those watching.

Finally, the plane did take off and, hours later, a news item clarified the confusion: the pilots were said to have refused to enter the cockpit until they had finished watching the episode of the drama Waaris, on air on PTV.

One had heard about traffic being suspended on roads during popular PTV shows in the ’70s and the ’80s, but disruption in air traffic was something totally new. But such was the popularity of Waaris, and the credit goes to its writer Amjad Islam Amjad.

Celebrated poet and lyricist Amjad Islam Amjad, who passed away on February 10 in Lahore, also was a celebrated dramatist whose Waaris shot him to the heights of unprecedented fame

Amjad Islam Amjad, 78, who passed away in Lahore on February 10, was a man of innumerable qualities: poet, columnist, educationist and playwright, besides being an excellent cricketer as well.

Destined for greatness in whatever he undertook, he negated the popular Urdu saying ‘Parrho gey likho gay bano gey nawab; khelo gey koodo gey hogay kharaab’ [You will become rich by gaining education and spoilt if you indulge in too much recreation].

On the one hand, Amjad was hailed as a future prospect for the national cricket team during his college days, while on the other he became the editor of magazines at every educational institute he ever attended.

Known as ‘Kahaniyoon ki Machine’ [Story-churning Machine] in school, a scholarship offer made him bid farewell to sports and landed him at Punjab University for a Masters in Urdu. He topped the Punjab University exam, received a gold medal and ended up as a lecturer at MAO College. Cricket’s loss became literature’s ultimate gain.

This was around the time actor/poet/playwright Athar Shah Khan aka Uncle Jedi was penning his famous comedy serial Lakhoon Mein Teen for PTV. Jedi’s paths crossed with Amjad’s who, until then, was a once-in-a-while writer who mostly relied on dramayi tashkeel [dramatisation] for TV plays.

Jedi insisted that he write a drama and Amjad Islam Amjad complied and Aakhri Khwaab became his first-ever television play, aired from PTV Rawalpindi centre in 1973. The hilarious Ya Naseeb Clinic, a comedy TV serial earned him further accolades, helping a serious Saleem Nasir to emerge as a comedian.

Newcomers Sarwat Atiq and Samina Ahmed were also praised for their roles in it but it was Rumana, an upcoming actress, who stole the limelight with her dialogue, “Kya aap ke kamray mein koi hari chaadar hai? [Do you have a green bedsheet in your room?].”

Waaris brought to fore the marvellous writer in Amjad Islam Amjad. Aired during turbulent times in Pakistan, Amjad Islam Amjad, along with his team, had to counter the TV signals from Amritsar, the influx of the VCR and pirated Bollywood films.

Waaris grabbed the attention of the masses as well as the rulers. It portrayed a feudal lord’s fight against the government and his own family, as well as portraying politicians and jagirdaars (landlords) in a bad light. People still remember the phenomenal characters from Waaris, so much so that the poor actor Mehboob Alam was branded for life as Chaudhary Hashmat, a menacing character he played in Waaris.

Not even popular roles such as the falcon-carrying Rafiq in the film Dehleez (1981) or the shrewd Shahbaz Khan in Samundar (1983) could help him shake off the image of the diabolical Chaudhry. With an ensemble cast comprising the brilliant Uzma Gilani, Abid Ali, Munawwar Saeed, Waseem Abbas, Shujaat Hashmi, Samina Ahmed, Aurangzeb Leghari and Tahira Naqvi, Waaris was a hit both within and outside Pakistan.

Actors such as Firdous Jamal and Agha Sikandar (Waaris), Khayyam Sarhadi and Tauqeer Nasir (Dehleez), Mehmood Aslam and Arifa Siddiqi (Samundar), Sohail Ahmed aka Azizi (Fishaar) and coincidentally Mehmood sahib’s partner-in-crime from Bulbulay, Nabeel (Din) owe their careers to Amjad Islam Amjad, who was influential in the early days of their careers.

Amjad Islam Amjad received over a dozen Graduate and PTV awards for the best writer over the years, but ceased to write after Sherdil in 2006.

The romantic poet briefly ventured into Lollywood during the ’80s. He was invited by director Pervez Malik to write dialogues for Qurbani, featuring Nadeem and Shabnam. Inspired by the Jon Voight-Faye Dunaway starrer The Champ (1979), Qurbani was produced in the days when the entire Pakistan film industry was at a standstill owing to strict government policies, with chances of a revival remaining quite bleak.

Producers and cinema owners began to leave the country while cinema houses were turned into shopping malls. Qurbani managed to change the scenario as the powerful courtroom scenes, penned by Amjad Islam Amjad, helped in making the film celebrate a Golden Jubilee, earning Amjad Islam Amjad the first of his two Nigar Awards.

It also initiated a revival for the down-in-the-dumps film industry and attracted the audience grown weary of Sultan Rahi’s gandaasa culture films. Amjad Islam Amjad also penned the script for the Punjabi film Haq Mehar (1985), itself a sensitive topic. Jo Darr Gaya Woh Marr Gaya (1995) was the last film he wrote the screenplay for, before returning to his roots: television.

An acclaimed poet, many versatile singers lent their voice to Amjad’s poems. Among them, the most famous being Mein tere sungg kaisay by Madam Noor Jehan, Dil ke darya ko by Iqbal Bano, Jo bhi kuchh hai by Dr Amjad Pervez, Guzar gaya jo zamana by Hamid Ali Khan, Kahan aa ke ruknay thay raastay by Ghulam Ali, Chand ke saath kayee dard puranay niklay by Jagjit Singh, Kisi ki aankh jo purnam nahin hai by Abida Parveen and Jo na mil saka ussay bhool ja by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s Lagan laagi tum se for Bollywood’s Paap (2003) and Naina tere masti bharay (Sonu Nigam) for Lollywood’s Salakhain (2004) also became chartbusters.

Amjad Islam Amjad died on Feb 10, a few days after returning from his trip to Makkah and Medina. With quality films and meaningful dramas seldom being produced in Pakistan, mushairas becoming defunct due to Covid-19, bookreading becoming a thing of the past and royalties for songs being unheard of, Amjad Islam Amjad may just as well have died of heartbreak instead of a heart attack.

Published in Dawn, ICON, February 19th, 2023