Sarmad Sehbai is renowned for his telefilm Fankaar Gali and stage play The Dark Room, but has also published four collections of poems, including the critically acclaimed Neeli Ke Sau Rang and Pal Bhar Ki Bahisht. He also wrote the film Mah-i-Mir based on the life of classical Urdu poet Mir Taqi Mir. More than anything else, however, he revels in being a contrarian. What book are you reading nowadays?
Ghar Baithay Cheeni Zubaan Seekhiay [Learn Chinese At Home].

What book have you been wanting to read for a long time, but haven’t yet got your hands on it?
Reham Khan’s book. PDF available, but wanting to feel it in ‘my hands’.

What is the most overrated book?
Divan-i-Ghalib.

What is the most underrated book?
Divan-i-Chirkeen.
Ghulam Bagh or Bahao?
Kajal Kotha by Yahya Khan.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz or N.M. Rashid?
Jaffar Zattali.

Modernism or Postmodernism?
Post-ism.

Arundhati Roy the novelist or Arundhati Roy the activist?
Arundhati Roy!

What novel should be made into a film?
The Imran Series.

What film based on a novel should never have been made?
Lolita.

A dead writer who deserved the Nobel Prize for literature but didn’t get it?
Ustad Imam Din Gujarati.

The one living writer who deserves the Nobel Prize for literature?
Clearly the tie is between Mustansar Hussain Tarrar and Mirza Athar Baig.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, July 15th, 2018