Afshan Qureshi

Some talented people, who join a discipline very early in their lives, are not fully appreciated immediately. But, later in life, when their repertoire is revealed to the world, it is a fuller picture of approval than for those who get recognition early in their careers. In this category, you can take the names of such masters as Irfan Khoosat, Ali Ejaz, Atiya Sharaf, Saiqa, Albela, Sultan Rahi, Rozina, Badar Munir and even, to some extent, Rani and Firdaus. Amongst such celebrated artistes, Afshan Qureshi’s name will also certainly figure. She began her trek in films more than three decades ago, in Sindhi dramas and films, but later in her career, she was found out to be a most resilient denizen of the industry and did many roles that stay in the memory of the cine goers till today. Afshan, the mother of our primary film and TV lead, Faisal Qureshi, is a charming artiste, not only on the screen, but off the screen too. Like Durdana Rehman and Nimmo, she also started from smaller roles, but rose to the level of good performances like the one in Parvez Malik’s superhit film, Sachchai in the 1970s, or a policeman’s wife in the supremely famous TV series, Andhera Ujala. Of course, she is much senior to the two above mentioned film artistes, and her roles have been much more versatile portrayals.

Afshan Qureshi began her trek with some famous Sindhi TV serials, namely Lurkan Bhari Moorat and Preen Ja Musafir, which had the primary artistes of television in the lead, Qurban Jilani and Mehmood Siddiqui. Those were the leading productions she did early in her career, and she showed such talent that she was immediately inducted in the leading roles in the Sindhi films, which were making a good headway those days. She entered the film industry in the early 1970s, with the Sindhi films like Noori Jam Tamachi (1970) and Soorath (1973), opposite such top artistes as Mushtaq Changezi and Mehboob Alam, when she was looking for a way of expression on the big screen. Like all the starry eyed youngsters, Afshan also wanted to emerge as a leading character on the local celluloid. But, it happens in the film industry that an artiste gets relegated to a secondary role, which also happened with Afshan Qureshi. Nonetheless, it is also a fact that today, being a hero or a heroine has no scope for showing your artistic potential, and character acting has much more expressive footage, if you have enough scenes to deliver such roles properly.

Afshan worked in her first Urdu film in 1972, which was titled Janwar, and Badar Munir and Chakori were in the lead. It was one of those action packed jungle films that were being made in that period. In Parvez Malik’s superhit Sachchai, in 1976, when Afshan was still quite young, she had to play the role of a middle aged vamp, where she was one of the trouble makers in the happy family union of Saiqa and Aurangzeb. It was too early for a goodlooking, young artistes to be wearing whitener, but then that’s how fates work. In our industry, talents are not realized and good artistes are wasted very early.

Later, Afshan Oureishi worked in films and TV serials side by side. She had shifted to Lahore, meanwhile, where she was getting some major films. Khalifa Saeed, who mostly made Punjabi films, gave her a role in his thrilling Urdu movie, Mohabbat Aur Dosti, which was liked for its oomph and vigour. In 1979, she did Aslam Dar’s Ab Ghar Janey Do, which was a comedy, with Shahid, Rani and Nannha doing the key roles. Shabab Kiranvi, who was a mentor to so many artistes, also gave Afshan some chances in his films like Awaz and Anmol Mohabbat, which were quite appreciated at the box office. Despite such hit films, Afshan a received a fuller applause for her role of a police officer’s wife, in that brilliant series ever, Andhera Ujala. In this series, she played the ever emotional wife of the most controversial officer of the police force, Jaffer Hussain, which was so brilliantly portrayed by Jamil Fakhri.

“I have now shifted to Karachi, almost after thirty years,” Afshan Oureshi told me, when I contacted her on the phone. “But, that doesn’t mean I am not doing films. I am doing Rauf Khalid’s film, Laaj, where I am the mother of Zara Sheikh, while Syed Noor has given me the role of Saima’s mother in his well publicized movie, Larki Punjaban. Apart from that, I am also doing television serials.”