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| Sultan Rahi: who started his career as an extra, remained the uncrowned king of the Pakistani film world for a quarter of a century |
This text was first posted on January 9, 2021, and is being reproduced today on the occasion of Sultan Rahi's 27th loss of life anniversary.
Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi might now not have any illusions that his fiction 'Gandasa' becomes the identification of the Pakistani film industry. A drama based totally on this legend changed into aired by Pakistan television in the early 70s with Manwar Saeed playing the lead function.
Then the identical legend changed into transferred to the display screen via the director Hasan Askari inside the shape of 'Wahshi Jat'. The film now, not handiest proved to be a trending Punjabi language film but also gave a brand new beginning to the film's hero Sultan Rahi.
Sultan Rahi's authentic name changed to Sultan Muhammad and he became born in 1934 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. After the establishment of Pakistan, his own family settled in Rawalpindi. It was a religious family and Sultan Rahi examine the Holy Quran with statements as an infant.
Sultan Rahi turned keen on performing in movies from an early age. Due to this ardor, he moved from Rawalpindi to Lahore and started his artistic lifestyle with level plays.
Consistent with Sultan Rahi's biographer Zahid Afkari, his first play changed into 'Shabnam Roti Rahi' in which he played the lead position.
Arif Waqar, the previous manufacturer of Pakistan television and renowned broadcaster, says that he had seen Sultan Rahi acting in a play in the open-air theater throughout his pupil days. Nobody should have imagined that this younger guy, who speaks Nastaliq Urdu with a correct Shen Qaf, will sooner or later end up a movie star of Punjabi films full of fights and fights with blood-stained goons and Kalashnikovs shooting bullets.'
After this drama, he commenced getting extra roles in movies. It became a time when the film enterprise was ruled by using Santosh Kumar, Darpan, Lala Sudhir, Mazhar Shah, and Ilyas Kashmiri. Those had been the huge artists and Sultan Rahi turned into simply a further, who normally played the function of a fighter.
Sultan Rahi struggled to get the correct roles. In this kind of state of affairs, when he met the director Ashfaq Malik, he instructed Sultan Rahi truly that you can by no means become an actor, but Sultan Rahi did no longer lose heart.
After playing extras in Baaghi, Hersyal, and some different movies, he was invited by M Saleem to play a small role in his Punjabi film 'Imam Deen Guhavia'. At the identical time, some of his different films had been additionally released, which include Juma Janj Naal, Chacha Ji, Hatim Tai, Bhaiyaan Baaj Na Jodi, Jango, Sarva Sain, Zindagi Ke Mele, Heera, and so forth. Were minor and relatively unimportant. In 1971, director Iqbal Kashmiri gave him a secondary position of a gangster in his movie 'Babal' which released his reputation and he by no means looked returned.
In 1972, director Aslam Dar presented him with the lead role in his Punjabi movie 'Bashira'. Aslam Dar desired to solid Saawan, who had played the lead function in the equal yr's super hit film 'Khan Chacha', for the lead function.
Its miles said that Saawan requested Aslam Dar for a massive rate to play the role, so Aslam Dar determined to provide the role to Yeh Sultan Rahi. The movie Bashira is said to be a trending Punjabi language movie. The fulfillment of this film opened up new avenues of achievement for Sultan Rahi, his person turned into written memories and he remained the uncrowned king of Punjabi films for the next zone of the century.
In 1975, Hasan Askari was introduced to make the film 'Wahshi Jat' primarily based on Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi's tale 'Gandara'. He eyed Sultan Rahi for the lead position in the film. This film absolutely modified the style of Punjabi films.
Eminent film historian Arif Iqbal has written that before 1972 Punjabi language films were generally made on social themes and their names have been additionally very appropriate. According to him, the movie blouse Te Qanun' become the primary film that became named after the relationship between crime and punishment.
The fashion of Punjabi films changed from Savash Jat, which became known as the Gundasa tradition. Now social and romantic films were replaced by way of violent action films and gangsters had been portrayed as villainous heroes.
1979 saw every other revolution in Pakistani films whilst filmmaker Sarwar Bhatti and director Younis Malik's film 'Mola Jat' launched on 11 February 1979 broke all previous box office records.
The film turned into screened at a time when widespread Zia-ul-Haq's martial law turned into at its peak and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's case changed occurring within the ultimate courtroom. In this movie, Sultan Rahi played the position of a virtuous person and Mustafa Qureshi played the position of a demonic person.
Dr. Amjad Ayub Mirza in his book 'faux show of lifestyle in Pakistani Cinema' has written that in the film Moolah Jat, Sultan Rahi, and Mustafa Qureshi continued to change big sharp sentences. Within the film, Noori Nath's tone become 'like Zia-ul-Haq's insidiousness', even as Mola Jat's sarcastic and disturbing tone of justice turned into like that of the hanged high Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. This movie turned into a metaphor for the USA's political state of affairs at that point.
Zia-ul-Haq tried to ban the screening of this film, but Sarwar Bhatti by some means managed to get a live order from the court docket.
This movie was such a hit at the box office that it was launched continuously for 2 and a 1/2 years
Endured till in the meantime, lots of humans visited the theaters repeatedly to observe this movie. Zia-ul-Haq remained in energy for the subsequent 9 years, throughout which the pair of Sultan Rahi and Mustafa Qureshi became the protagonists of loads of movies in which violence and cruelty were exaggerated to such an extent that visitors had been left with a brutal military dictatorship. The abuses performed on him commenced to appear insignificant. Pakistani cinema was now ruled using Punjabi films.
Now Sultan Rahi has ended up this kind of diamond for filmmakers that everyone seems to be busy trying to get at the best possible fee. With the aid of imparting Sultan Rahi in an unnatural position in the films, the filmmakers crammed their pockets, however, they did now not pay any interest to highlighting the high and high-quality aspects of the artistic abilities hidden inside an artist but felt the want to it. Did not even do it.
Famend story writer Nasir Adeeb says that for 25 years he handiest wrote films that revolved around the word 'Mein Trio Chhdaan Ga Nain' and this turned into because Sultan Rahi had to mention this word in each film he made. It used to be.
Sultan Rahi acted in masses of films, most of them had been monotonous but there were few movies in which he performed stunning roles.
Amongst those movies, the names of Choru Qutb, Kalia, Tofan, and Mafaror are at the pinnacle. In the course of this time, many movies of Sultan Rahi were successful, consisting of Vashish Gujjar, Sher Khan, Sala Sahib, Chandoriyam, Athraptra, Raaka, Lawers, Sholay, Keidi, last struggle, Maula Bakhsh, Kaale Chor, Majhu, Bala Pere Da and The names of the beneficent king are protected.
Sultan Rahi as a filmmaker also made a film 'Taqdeer Kahn Lai Ai'. This Urdu movie launched in 1976 failed miserably. After that, he did now not make any movies again however furnished monetary assistance to many filmmakers in making movies. He became a beneficent and benevolent character. The hearts of many gifted humans' houses had been burning due to their generosity.
He also built a mosque in Evernew Studio which is the most effective mosque of its type. He turned into also a great reciter, while he recited the Holy Qur'an, the sky changed closed. Sultan Rahi was a very easy man and woman. He discovered in an interview given to Anwar Maqsood that he also eats meals sitting on the ground and sleeps on the ground.
He said that 'i love the earth very plenty, I always decide upon the earth because I realize that I need to cross below it.'
Sultan Rahi acted in a complete of 804 movies out of which 756 films were screened, including 538 Punjabi language movies and 157 Urdu language films, 5 Pashto, and one Sindhi film.
Greater than 50 of his films had been double variations, of which 430 have been films with Sultan Rahi gambling the title role. At the time of his murder, he had fifty-four films underneath the final touch. Amongst those extra than 800 films of Sultan Rahi, 28 films have been Diamond Jubilee, fifty-four Platinum Jubilee movies, and 156 Silver Jubilee films.
At one time Sultan Rahi's recognition was such that on August 12, 1981, five of his films Shere Khan, Milega Zalam Da Badla, Athraputra, Chan Variyam, and Sala Sahib were released on an identical day, placing records of fulfillment. Had carried out
The assassination of Sultan Rahi
It became on January 9, 1996, Sultan Rahi became returning to Lahore from GT road once you have his US visa in Islamabad, observed by way of his driver Haji Ahsan. The tire of his car burst at the Gujranwala skip. Haji Ahsan changed into engaged in jacking and changing the tire when masked robbers tried to search Sultan Rahi.
Sultan Rahi got involved with bandits. The bandits panicked and opened the fireplace, so the bullet went through Sultan Rahi's brain, tearing his jaw. The robbers fled and Haji Ahsan stored signaling various vehicles to stop but none of them stopped. Haji Ahsan by some means reached the nearby petrol pump and suggested the incident to the police. The useless frame of Sultan Rahi turned into taken to the Divisional Headquarters clinic.
The information of Sultan Rahi's murder unfolds like wildfire within the town of Gujranwala and his fanatics commenced rushing to Juq Tijuq sanatorium. After the postmortem, Sultan Rahi's body became shifted to Lahore. His circle of relatives was in the united states, anticipating his arrival, and on January 14, 1996, he became laid to relaxation in the compound of Shah Shams Qadri's mausoleum in Lahore.
In 2013, filmmaker Bilal Lashari introduced the sequel of Sultan Rahi's Moolah Jat because the Legend of Moolah Jat and the trailer of the film changed into released in 2018.
The movie was completed and turned into purported to be released on the event of Eid-ul-Fitr in 2020, but due to covid-19, the film continues to be anticipating the launch.
Be aware: on the time of guide, Sultan Rahi's birth date and region of delivery were wrong in this text, which has been corrected.