He could encourage you to invest in a life insurance policy, glug an energy drink, purchase a consumer product or even shalwar kameez, and also coax you to contribute a share of your savings to a charitable cause, and all of it quite effortlessly. And more often than not, you’d do it, simply because you trusted him and his sincerity. On screen, he could get into the skin of his character with such ease that he would bring that person to life.

Such was Talat Hussain’s talent, the celebrated actor who breathed his last on May 26, after dedicating six decades of his life to the performing arts.

Actor, director, teacher and voice-over artist, Talat Hussain was born Talat Hussain Warsi to Altaf Hussain and Shaista Begum on September 18, 1940 in Delhi, India. After Partition, the family settled in Karachi. A young Talat entered the field of performing arts owing to his mother’s genes, herself a celebrated Radio Pakistan announcer.

In his 20s, Talat Hussain appeared in Fazl Karim Fazli’s feature film Chiragh Jalta Raha, as Deeba’s younger brother. The movie launched the careers of icons such as Muhammad Ali, Zeba, Deeba and Kamal Irani as well. Back then, before the advent of television, a news reel played before every film and many an old-timer still recall the ‘Tasveeri Khabarnama’ [Pictorial News Bulletin] with narration in Talat Hussain’s sonorous voice.

Talat Hussain, who passed away on May 26, was among the last of Pakistan’s great thespians, who inhabited his roles on television, theatre, radio and film with such an authenticity that viewers could not but suspend disbelief and be captivated

Talat played the lead in plays broadcast from Studio Number Nau [Nine] of Radio Pakistan. When Pakistan Television’s Karachi centre was established in the late ’60s, Talat was preferred for roles due to his polished voice and dialogue delivery. Simultaneously, he remained equally active in theatre. The most notable of his performances came in the PTV serial Insaan Aur Aadmi, which made both him and his now famous ‘pause’-laden dialogue delivery popular overnight.

In 1970, Talat was acting in a film of the same name , and was pitted against shahenshah-i-jazbaat [king of emotions] Muhammad Ali. Appearing as the estranged son of Zeba — who had been cast in a rare screen appearance as a mother — Talat equalled on all counts the talents of his co-stars who, coincidentally, had debuted with him eight years ago.

Soon after, Talat Hussain decided to hone his craft by learning from the masters. He enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (Lamda), where he did odd jobs to make ends meet. He worked for the BBC and was offered supporting roles in theatre plays after completing his courses. The days in London transformed his acting and, on his return to Pakistan, he emerged as an even more refined version of himself.

Talat Hussain’s rise on television began with PTV’s first colour drama serial, Parchhaiyaan, alongside Rahat Kazmi and Shakeel. Talat played one of the suitors for Sahira Kazmi in the play wonderfully written by Haseena Moin. The role, with shades of grey, marked the beginning of his illustrious career on TV.

Through more such varied roles, including a celebrated one in the early 1980s as a rustic farmer who refuses to give up his land for a highway development project in Khait Khait Haryali, Talat Hussain demonstrated his remarkable range and commitment to the art of acting. Unlike actors who strive to convince audiences of their believability, Hussain’s approach was inherently natural, allowing him to inhabit his roles with an authenticity that captivated viewers effortlessly.

His dedication to his craft and ability to immerse himself in a wide range of characters made Talat Hussain a respected and admired figure in Pakistani television and film. He had no qualms in playing father to Shabnam and Nadeem in Pervez Malik’s Gumnaam (1983) and Kamyaabi (1984), respectively.

Shabnam was almost of his age while Nadeem was a year junior to him in Islamia College, Karachi. Talat Hussain could also be seen throwing punches and fighting bad guys in Miss Bangkok (1986). His talent was recognised with multiple Nigar Awards nominations for supporting roles during the 1983-87 era.

By the 1990s, Talat had mostly stopped appearing in feature films, and concentrated on TV. Famous for his calculated pauses and stresses, he was exceptional in Hameed Kashmiri’s Kashkol as Aalijaah, as a mercurial lawyer in Rozan-i-Zindaan and a framed prisoner on death row in Asghar Nadeem Syed’s Hawaaein.

Aalijah, a mix of Mario Puzo’s Don Corleone and Muttaheda Qaumi Movement leader Altaf Hussain, was preceded at his entry on screen by a strange echo. For that role, Talat Hussain added huskiness to his already baritone voice. If Aalijah was a menace to peace, Irfan in Rozan-i-Zindaan, was something of an antidote to him.

The character of Meer Muhammad from Hawaaein was neither a menace nor a messiah, but a person wrongly framed for murder. Who can forget the bets placed by viewers during the episodes, where the eventual fate of Meer Muhammad’s character was at stake.

“It was at Talat Hussain’s insistence that we had to arrange for a night’s stay for the actor in a real death cell,” recalls veteran playwright Asghar Nadeem Syed, who was the man behind the script, to Icon. “He wanted to feel like a person who knew he was dying.

“The stay was arranged through the then home secretary, and the hanging scene was shot at the original location, around the same time when hangings are usually carried out. He wanted the scene to be the highlight of the serial, and surely it was,” says Syed.

The scene when Meer Muhammad’s wife and daughter — actress Ghazala Kaifi and Huma Nawab, respectively — come to visit him in his death cell, was strongly reminiscent of the reported last meeting between former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, his wife Nusrat Bhutto and his daughter Benazir Bhutto.

Famous for his pairing with notable actresses such as Khalida Riyasat and Roohi Bano in various TV serials and long plays, Talat became an estranged husband to a very young Fazila Qazi in the long play Achanak, written again by Asghar Nadeem Syed. Fazila’s husband and actor Kaisar Nizamani worked with Talat Hussain in a couple of episodes of Rozan-i-Zindaan as well as Hawaaein. Like others, he considered Talat Hussain ‘family’ but different from other actors.

Actor and director Manzoor Qureshi was also quite close to Talat Hussain, whose mother treated him like her own son. “I had the privilege of working alongside Shaista Begum [Talat’s mother] as a radio announcer, Talat sahib worked under my direction in a play, while recently Tazeen [Talat’s eldest daughter] acted as my daughter in the drama Yunhi,” he recalls. “I am thus privileged to have got love from each generation of the Hussains. Talat sahib was a gem of a person who can never be replaced.”

Talat Hussain was no stranger to international projects. He had worked as Polat in a Turkish movie titled Malkoçolu Ölüm Fedaileri back in 1971. He was also cast in Jamil Dehalvi’s Jinnah (1998) in a short but significant role, where he represented the Partition migrants who meet Jinnah by accident. The way he shouted ‘Pakistan zindabad’ [Long live Pakistan] in front of Christopher Lee’s Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, uplifted the mood of the migrants, indicating hope for the newly created Muslim nation.

He also acted in UK’s Channel Four’s TV series Family Pride and Traffik — where Jamal Shah and his then wife Faryal Gauhar also played significant roles. Rahat Kazmi and Behroze Sabzwari also starred in the latter series, but Talat’s chemistry with Behroze was more evident in the PTV long play titled Pohnchi Wahien Pe Khaak.

Talat Hussain played the role of a butcher-turned-influential person who, before Pakistan’s creation, apprenticed Behroze Sabzwari’s character. When the protégé becomes the secretary in the Livestock Division, his former teacher pleads to him for favours. The way he spoke in a typical Delhi dialect is still remembered by those who have seen the play, recorded in 1993.

“In those days, a cyclone was supposedly going to hit Karachi and we were busy recording the long play,” remembers Behroze Sabzwari. “All were busy evacuating homes, while we enjoyed ourselves. Talat sahib enacted the role of a qasai [butcher]from Delhi with perfection, and he never showed he was acting. The way he said ‘Kya karr riya hai bey, aur goss nikaal, goss!’ [What are you doing? Take out more meat!] never made us think that it was the Talat Hussain, whom we used to worship, in front of us.

“I also happened to have worked with him in the BBC TV series Traffik, where he played the role of a drug lord, again with conviction,” says Behroze, whose association with Talat Hussain spanned over five decades.

One of the most distinguished thespians of his generation, Talat Hussain was also quick in adapting to Anwar Maqsood’s comedy plays — sometimes playing a fake intellectual (Funoon-i-Lateefa), sometimes a hookah-wala nawab (Nadaan Nadia) and sometimes a duplicate Mughal-i-Azam, who could not keep himself for adding ‘jub’ [when] to Anarkali’s ‘Pyaar kiya to darna kya’ [Why be afraid, if you’ve loved].

He even turned to production and established a production company, Studio 9, in honour of the Studio Number 9 of Radio Pakistan, making serials for PTV and the erstwhile Shalimar Television Network, and even producing telefilms for Tapal Theatre. The most memorable of them was the hilarious Ooper Gori Ka Makaan, which featured himself and the late Shabbir Rana trying to woo their middle-aged neighbour, played by Rubina Ashraf.

The most prestigious award Talat Hussain received was the Amanda Award at the Norwegian International Film Festival for his supporting role of Allah Ditta in the Norwegian movie Import-eksport in 2006. This was the same time when Talat Hussain was playing the role of a patriarch in the TV drama Jo Baat Ghar Mein Hai, his last notable performance on TV (his last performances in films were in Nabeel Qureshi’s Actor In Law (2016) and Chhupan Chhupai (2017)). He then switched to teaching at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa), which kept him busy for a few years.

Talat Hussain was honoured by the Government of Pakistan with the Pride of Performance award in 1982 and the civil award Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 2021, for his outstanding contributions to radio, television and cinema. He also was the recipient of a Nigar Award, a National Film Award, two Lux Style awards and a Lifetime Achievement award from the Karachi International Film Festival (KaraFilm).

Talat Hussain’s ability to take on heroic and character roles with equal finesse has left a lasting legacy in Pakistani entertainment. He mesmerised listeners with his voice and they believed whatever he said. Even in his last appearance in a Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) ad, when he tells the cashier that he would not be coming back, the scene brings tears to one’s eyes.

The baton has been passed, but there will surely be no Talat Hussain for the generations to come. Rest in peace, Talat sahib.

Published in Dawn, ICON, June 2nd, 2024