16/05/2021
"فاروق قیصر (انکل سرگم) کی یاد میں"
Obituary
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Assalam-o-Alaikum! Dear Friends, Students & Wellwishers.
Farooq Qaisar, the master of Pakistani Puppeteering Art is no more with us. In this Obituary Video, Professor Ghazi Muhammad Abdullah has shared his sentiments and thoughts about the contributions of the legend. He tells us that:
Farooq Qaiser was a graduate of the National College of Arts (NCA). Salima and Shoaib Hashmi recognized his creative potential. Qaiser’s first assignment was to make a desi (local) version of the legendry Big Bird. Without any prior knowledge of how to develop muppets, after four days Farooq was at the studio with a life-sized duck suite made of sticks, hardboard, and lots of yellow paper. This was the beginning of a lifelong affair with muppets, as he kept producing new and more complex characters for Akkar Bakkar.
Puppetry as art is diverse in shapes, forms, and techniques across cultures. There are over two dozen different types of puppetry techniques from a simple finger, a glove, human arm puppets, and the carnival or body muppets. Play of light is often used in shadow puppets, blacklight puppets, and light curtain puppetry. Qaiser’s love affairs with muppets never left him. He received a master's degree in Graphic Arts from Romania where he also trained in puppetry. As soon as he returned, he started Kaliyan (Sprouts), his own puppet show on Pakistan Television. Kaliyan became an instantly popular hit and marked the birth of the now-iconic Uncle Sargam, the inimitable Haiga, and the curious Maasi Museebte.
He created the character of 'Uncle Sargam' with a resemblance to his teacher Mohan Lal from Romania by lending his own voice to Uncle. Uncle Sargam symbolizes your typical Pakistani. He has the same strengths, weaknesses, and personality traits that all of us in Pakistan share. He may always be dressed in a suite with a tie trying hard to fit in, but he has the same insecurities and fears as every middle-class Pakistani. That is perhaps the reason for the popularity of Uncle Sargam, and the goodwill that he has enjoyed for decades with young and old alike. He could say things that a common man wanted to express but could not say. This was only possible through the medium of puppetry.
In the meanwhile, Farooq received another master's degree in Mass Communication from the United States and also became a reputable newspaper columnist, TV show scriptwriter and director, comic book writer, and voice actor. His puppet characters kept growing along the way, incorporating more popular oddballs to the ensemble, such as Rola, Bonga Bakheel, Sharmeeli, and Gora Saab, becoming household names through series such as Daak Time (1993), Sargam Sargam (1995), Siyasi Kaliyan (2010) and Sargam Back Home (2016). In 1993 Farooq Qaiser was honored with the President’s Pride of Performance Award, Pakistan’s highest civil award for his contribution to the field of literature, art, sports, science, and education.
The popularity of Uncle Sargam and his friends kept growing as new viewers kept getting introduced to them. Qaisar added music, poetry, celebrity guests, and social commentary in his shows. From a hand muppet, Uncle became a full-body muppet who always unconditionally loved his people and his country. Then Qaisar took the show to all parts of the country to promote health, education, and other issues of social relevance. In the age of life-like animation and increasingly sophisticated computer graphics, some believe that puppetry is no longer a viable form of entertainment. If puppetry still has relevance to the modern day? Qaiser's example has made a valid rebuttal. Walt Disney was considered a pioneer of animation and held the record for most Academy Awards, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. Yet, he also started his career with full-body muppets of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Pluto. This gave the characters life beyond years and dimensions, and even the best animation technology had not been able to make the use of muppets irrelevant.
Today, Puppetry remains important to the arts not only because it is an ancient and highly technical tradition of storytelling, but also because it has the ability to tell the stories of our lives through a lens of wonder and fun. If there is one thing that has ensured the popularity and longevity of both Qaiser and his alter ego Uncle Sargam, it is the commitment with which the muppet and the man served Pakistan and its people. With his demise, Pakistan has lost one of its gems! Allah bless his soul rest in peace, Aameen! You will always be remembered, Dear Farooq Qaisar. You will remain in our hearts!
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(Team Istoria TV اساطیر.)
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You can watch complete video at this link:
The Puppeteer... Muppets Now. Uncle Sargum...Farooq Qaisar, the legend of Pakistan. Obituary, in the Memory of. By Ghazi Muhammad Abdullah. فاروق قیصر کی یاد...
