A number of veteran television artists today were initially given recognition by Radio Pakistan and Qazi Wajid is one such artist. He fostered radio drama and was an important part in its initial years.
Qazi Abdul Wajid Ansari, commonly known as Qazi Wajid, has lived in Karachi since his childhood when his family migrated from India in 1947. As a child, his interest always leaned towards performing arts, which eventually led him to the world of radio in 1956.
Talking to The News, Qazi said that after his very first children’s drama on radio, he felt that his career had taken off. His career in radio began with a children’s play, Naunehal, broadcasted by Radio Pakistan in 1956. “While I was working on radio, I was offered a role in a children’s movie called Baidar by Rattan Kamal in which I had the role of a stuttering kid. It worked and won immense respect as an artist,” he said.
Since he had joined the radio when he was very young, most of his early work had been for children. Later, Qazi’s character in Qazi ji ka Qaida became very popular among the youth.
Therefore, for Qazi, his career in radio and films started at the same time. During the time that he was working at Radio Pakistan, Qazi also started working for the theatre in 1965. He said, that “there were a number of theatre plays going on at that time as it was the era of war. Khawaja Moiuddin then selected me for his theatrical play Taleem-e-Balghan which became an instant hit all over. It was later dramatised for TV also.”
Remembering the good old days of theatre and radio, Qazi said that back then, these were the only sources of entertainment for the people and they enjoyed them immensely. Even the artists were dedicated to the core. “I still remember when we performed in Mirza Ghalib Bandar Road parr. After the show finished there was a break of hardly a few minutes after which we started Taleem-e-Balghan,” recalls Qazi. He added that there was so much love and appreciation for the theatre that there were hardly ever any empty seats in these shows.
From live music to live drama acts, Radio Pakistan had it all. Since there weren’t too many outlets of entertainment available to the people in those times, radio drama was taken very seriously and nearly all issues were dealt in them. “Often people attach the failure of radio to the advent of TV, but I feel that radio handed over its key players to the popular medium itself so that they could enjoy better opportunities. As you can see, all the big names in TV have been polished and produced by the radio,” he remarks.
Qazi Wajid has done more than 1,200 dramas as a staff artist for Radio Pakistan since 1977, and more than 500 dramas for TV. He also won the Pride of Performance Award in 1988.
He was one of the few artists privileged enough to work for Pakistani television in its golden years, when it was in its prime. His TV career began in 1966, and he has some of the best plays of PTV to his credit such as Khuda ki Basti, Tanhaaiyan, Unkahi and Dhoop Kinaray. From PTV Karachi, Qazi holds the record of doing the most plays while actor Qavi Khan holds the same record from Lahore.
So why don’t we see such dramas on television these days? To this he said, “It is all because of extensive commercialism. Now one has to search for a few minutes of drama in 50 minutes of ads. Moreover, for many newcomers, drama and acting is more about fame and glamour than pure passion. Thus the quality has gone down,” he said.
