Biographic Literature: Original and Translated
By Syed Afsar Sajid
- ‘One Man Show’ (Urdu) — by Moin Akhtar
- ‘Return to Punjab’ (English) – by Prakash Tandon
3. ‘Punjab May Wapasi’ (Urdu) – by M. Athar Masood
Biographic literature comprises autobiographies and biographies that narrate life stories of men of eminence — their happy and unhappy experiences, achievements and losses, longings and frustrations, and fears and fantasies etc. — intended to inform, amuse, and instruct the reader empathetically. Poet Henry Longfellow’s lines aptly endorse the notion: ‘Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time.’ Famed biographer Lytton Strachey introduced ‘a new kind of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit’.
‘One Man Show’
Moin Akhtar (1950-2011) was a versatile genius in the realm of showbiz. He was an accomplished compeer, a seasoned actor, and a mimic par excellence. The book in view is his autobiography broadly divided into eight parts preceded by a detailed self-introduction, family life, and a description of his friends in Radio and TV. His style in the book is concise, graceful, and anecdotal.
In the first part, the author portrays the profiles of leading film actors/TV anchors like Lehri, Muhammad Ai, Nadim, Zia Mohyuddin, Nirala, Tariq Aziz, Qavi Khan, Nanna, and Javed Sheikh. In the second portion of the book popular TV actors of the calibre of Salam Nasir, Talat Hussain, Subhani Bayunus, Adeeb, Habib, Jamshed Ansari, Rangila and Umar Sharif. The portraits graphically delineated, present a picture gallery of men belonging to the entertainment media.
The third and fourth parts relate to noted singers/music maestros Mehdi Hassan, Lata, Ahmad Rushdi, Mujeeb Alam, Muneer Hussain, Akhlaq Ahmed, Junaid Jamshed, Ali Haider, Nisar Bazmi, Noor Jahan, Naheed Akhtar besides the famous business magnate Sadruddin Hashwani.
In the fifth part, the reader is introduced to Jamiluddin Aali, Fatima Surayya Bajia, Anwar Maqsood, Shoaib Mansoor, Sahira Kazmi, and Bushra Ansari followed by Dilip Kumar, Deo Anand, Shatrughan Sinha, Mithun Chakraborty, Akshay Kumar, and Rekha, in the sixth.
In the seventh portion of the book, the writer presents well known political figures named Gen. Ziaul Haq, Gen. Pervez Musharaf, Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Dr. Ishrat-uI-Ebad Khan, and Syed Mustafa Kamal. The final part deals with some personal friends including Agha Sarwar, Amjad Pervez, and Asif Qazi as well as Veera and Vinod, Manzoor Jamal, Shafqat Dara and Liaquat Bhai.
The character portrayals by Moin Akhtar reflect his penchant for camaraderie as also empathy for others. The narrative is fairly revelatory and engaging, too.
‘Punjab May Wapasi’
Prakash Tandon (1911-2004) was an influential Indian business leader who earned fame for his classical account of Punjabi life in the autobiographical book ‘Punjabi Saga’ (a book trilogy comprising ‘Punjabi Century’, ‘Beyond Punjab’, and ‘Return to Punjab (1961-1975)’. The first two books were translated into Urdu by late Rashid Malik (1923-2007), a connoisseur of literature and an iconic musicologist.
The third part namely ‘Return to Punjab’ which is the subject of this review pertains to its author’s return to his native province. It has been translated into Urdu by (Dr.) Muhammad Athar Masood, a renowned scholar of Persian who also happens to be a distinguished member of the Provincial Management Service in Punjab.
The book contains nineteen chapters followed by a detailed epilogue, in addition to the translator’s foreword and a select glossary. The ‘Punjabi Saga’ stipulates a time span of some 143 years from 1857 to 2000 although its third part is purported to dwell in the chronological bracket of 1961-1975. Perhaps the epilogue cursorily covers the remainder of the years! It is a fascinating blend of autobiography and national history.
In the first part, the author narrates the history of the region and its customs and socio-cultural practices whereas in the second and third parts, he speaks about his personal life, its daily routine, upper-middle-class specific wider societal issues, and a vivid description of the business houses including his life-long professional association with (Hindustan) Unilever that he was connected with in those days.
The translator has commendably rendered the theme and verbiage of the original in the Urdu version. The flow of narration coupled with its phraseology serve to keep the account in close parallelism to its prototype in English. Thus the work left unconcluded by late Rashid Malik has come to its full circle at the consummate hands of (Dr.) Athar Masood.
A ‘Fiction House’ valued publication, the book is likely to engage the readers who are interested in history, culture, trade and commerce, and the paradigm of nativism in relation to the sub-continent in general and the Punjab (both East and West) in particular.
