KARACHI: As the nation was celebrating Eid­ul Azha on Thur­sday, the news of the death of disting­­­u­ished actor Shak­­eel in Kara­chi saddened his countless admi­rers all over the world. He was 78. He leaves behind his wife, a son and a daughter.

Shakeel was Yousuf Kamal’s showbiz name. Born on May 29, 1945, in Bhopal, undivided India, his family came to Pakistan a few years after the partition of the subcontinent. He had a penchant for acting from his salad days, and his clean Urdu diction and good looks landed him in the film industry in the latter half of the 1960s.

He got to work in films such as Nakhuda, Papi and Dastaan. But his foray into the movie business wasn’t a successful one. There could be many reasons for it, one of which was his sensitive disposition and gentle demeanour. Movies required roughness and toughness of a different kind.

It didn’t take him long, though, to be recognised as one of Pakistan’s finest actors when he played the titular role in the television drama serial Uncle Urfi, penned by Haseena Moin. Shakeel delivered Haseena’s witty and meaningful lines in a way that could be both understood and enjoyed by the viewers. Television at the time had become the most powerful medium of communication for the creative lot to put their messages across. Shakeel’s performance had turned him into a household name.

His second memorable feat in the field of acting came in the shape of the character Ali played in the drama Afshan written by Fatima Surayya Bajia in the early 1980s. By then, he was one of the most sought-after performing artists in the country, which is perhaps why he was given the extremely important role of Taimur in Haseena Moin’s iconic serial Ankahi (1982).

His true-to-life portrayal of a no-nonsense head of a company confronted with serious issues at home proved the perfect foil for Shehnaz Shaikh’s beautiful and somewhat jumpy character, Sana, who begins working for his company initially to his chagrin and later to his subtle fondness.

Arguably, the high point of Shakeel’s acting career came a couple of years later with writer Anwar Maqsood’s popular and category-defying Angan Terha (1984). While all three principal characters — Akbar (played by the late Salim Nasir), Jahan Ara (Bushra Ansari) and Mehboob (Shakeel, essaying the role of Jahan Ara’s husband) — were superbly crafted, it was Shakeel’s part that demanded discipline and measured dialogue delivery.

Akbar’s quirkiness and Jahan Ara’s churlishness allowed them to sometimes do a bit more than required, but it was Shakeel whose calculating but intelligent retired civil servant held the play seamlessly together.

Shakeel wasn’t one of those artists who would sit on their laurels. By the second decade of the 21st century, the world of television had changed drastically, not necessarily to his liking.

The theatre was undergoing a revival of sorts in Karachi. In 2012, Shakeel appeared at the Arts Council with a notable solo performance in Sarmad Sehbai’s Us Gali Na Jaween.

It was an extremely demanding role, which needed him to be on stage for an hour or so, expressing the grief of a lonely man looking for a missing bird, and, while doing so, comments on the socio-political situation in society, including on the media’s newfound in-your-face function. Shakeel did it with poise and grace.

It wouldn’t be wrong to suggest that Shakeel was one of those actors who helped build a formidable reputation for Pakistan’s showbiz industry all across the globe by virtue of their extraordinary work on television and cinema. He will be sorely missed.

Shakeel was laid to rest on Friday in the Defence Phase VIII Graveyard.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2023