Atiya Sharaf

The movie business with its meretricious appeal lures an onslaught of hopefuls, seeking instant fame, glamour and stardom. So one wonders what keeps someone in the biz, after they have been unanimously denied stardom and been relegated to secondary, matronly roles. This particular un-sex appealing route was the fate of character actress Atiya Sharaf from the get-go of the lackluster career. Atiya’s first film, in which she played a second lead, was in 1962’s Parai Beti with one of the naughtiest’ most accomplished stars, Masood Akhter. Atiya got no response from her audience but instead received enormous flak from her critic, who deemed her an actress with no sex appeal; no future as a heroin or star; and as expressionless as a bottle of Listerine. But the unrelenting actress soldiered on, even if it was in the roles of the unmarried sister on the widowed mother.

One of the ripples in the Atiya’s career was her unpaired ‘sisterly’ role as Mohammad Ali’s sibling in the Anjaan with Zeba and Rozina also in the cast. Before the cinematic avalanche of the 70s, Atiya suddenly disappeared from the big screen. She married Khaiyyam Sarhadi, one of Lahore TV’s most outstanding and revered actors, and son of one India’s most celebrated thespians, Zia Sarhadi. After a neither acrimonious nor amicable divorce (one can only imagine Atiya to be complacent or no-nonsense), Atiya returned to the screen where there was always a need for ‘mother’ roles. The older actress had quixotically yet unflatteringly graduated! One of her most famous roles and the highlight of her career were as Mumtaz’s mother in the film Intezaar, from which this still is taken. Nadeem played Mumtaz’s love interest, while Babra Sharif played Nadeem’s sister for a change! Notice the slight smug expression on Atiya’s quite attractive face, (which resembles a mature Uzma Gilani). Prior to this movie, Atiya was perennially relegated to roles that depicted women from a lower middle class milieu. In Intezaar she played a glitzy socialite. Notice the mascara-laden eyes, the gold gilt eye-frames, and the matronly though sophisticated joora and the amethyst pendant. But the power kicker is the sleek cigarette holder which gave Atiya what she had always craved all along: presence and personality. As any veteran thespian will tell you, it takes spirit, passion and nerves of plutonium to remain under the arc lights…