Pakistani Cricket Players: Nadeem

Nadeem Biography

Nadeem (full name Nazeer Baig Mughal) is a famous Pakistani film actor, who has acted in several telefilms and TV drama serials and anchored a prize-winning quiz show on ARY Digital. He has played leading roles in more than 200 films and considered to be a legend in Pakistan film industry. Along with Waheed Murad and Mohammad Ali, he has ruled Pakistani cinema.

Early Life:

Nadeem was born in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh, British India. After partition, at the age of 5, he migrated with his father Mirza Abbas Baig from Hyderabad Deccan to Karachi. As a young adult he graduated from Islamia College, Karachi. At that time the Islamia Club was considered the centre of great film and radio artists. Different musical competitions were organised to unveil the talent of college students. Artists like Talat Hussein, M. Zaheer Khan, TV producer Iqbal Haider, Aftab Azeem and Saleem Jafry were all discovered from that Club, and Nadeem as well. He had a friends circle with Ameer Ahmed Khan and Qasim Siddiqui and together they had won several music competitions. At one of those musical competitions, he was noticed by then famous singer Firdousi Begum. She was impressed by his singing talent and encouraged him to try his luck in playback singing in Dhaka's film industry. Because of brilliant singing talent, he also got a chance to sing a song for an Urdu film Sehra, the music of which was composed by Nisar Bazmi, but unfortunately the film was never released.

He travelled to Dhaka in a cultural trip organised by Islamia Club. There he got a chance to sing a song in Captain Ehtisham's new film Chakori. Captain was making a low budget black and white film as his previous colour film Sagar was flopped. At the time of casting, he chose Shabana as heroine and East Pakistani (Bengali) film actor Azeem as hero. But Azeem refused to work in the film because he was offered a very low fee. So Ehtisham decided to cast Nadeem in his film as hero, which was contrary to his brother Mustafeez's will. The film was released on May 19, 1967, in both East and West Pakistan. The film became such a blockbuster that it made Nadeem a superstar overnight, and it also became the second 'Platinum Jubilee' film of Pakistan. The Presidential Award for Pride of Performance was awarded to Nadeem in 1991.

Nadeem shuttled between Karachi, Lahore and Dhaka to act in movies. In 1971 after the fall of Dhaka and formation of the Independent state of Bangladesh, he settled in Lahore which became his home. Now he shifted again from Lahore to Karachi.

Career

Nadeemâ��s film career spans over 42 years. In the presence of high class performers like Santosh Kumar, Muhammad Ali, Waheed Murad, Habib and Kamal he not only won Best Actorâ��s Nigar Award in his first film Chakori, but with consecutive super hit movies, namely Chotey Sahib and Sangdil, he created a record of success.

Even today, in 2008, Nadeem continues to be the No.1 actor of the Pakistani silver screen. In the 61 years long history of Pakistani films, only 25 films have the distinction of celebrating Diamond Jubilee (completing a run of 100 or more weeks). Nadeem alone figures in 10 out of these 25 movies. His Diamond Jubilee films include: Nadan (1973), Anari, Pechan (1975), Talashi (1976), Aina (1977), Hum Donon (1980), Lajawab, Qurbani (1981), Sangdil (1982) and Dehleez (1983).

Nadeem's Aina is the most successful movie ever made in Pakistan. A big hit all over the country, it ran continuously for more than five years in Karachi completing more than 400 weeks. It also won 12 Nigar Awards which remains the highest number of awards won by a single Urdu movie, so it may be termed as a record breaking and trend setting movie in many aspects.

In 1980, an Indian film, Noor Jahan, was granted special permission for exhibition in Pakistan. It acquired a sort of a challenge for Pakistan cinema. Mastermind Director Parvez Malik accepted the challenge and produced Hum Donoo, presenting Nadeem in double roles. Hum Donoo proved a blockbuster which ran for 165 weeks in Karachi, becoming the second most exhibited movie after Aina. Meanwhile Nadeemâ��s two more films Bandish and Saima also got released and won laurels in a neck to neck fight with Noor Jahan. Bandish was shown for 86 and 82 weeks in Lahore and Karachi respectively. Earlier in 1971, Nadeem became the first actor to play three different characters in his film Jaltey Suraj Key Nichey.

There was a time in 1990s when films in the national language Urdu had almost been abandoned. In these circumstances Nadeemâ��s film Insaniyat Ke Dushman, entirely in Urdu, was an unprecedented success which once again attracted film producers towards the production of Urdu movies.

Besides acting Nadeem has also sung many hit songs to his credit as a play back singer. In fact Nadeem, basically a singer, is the first actor in Pakistan to have sung for movies. Almost all of his two dozen songs have been popular. If, in 1967 his duet with Firdousi Begum â��Kahan ho tum ko dhoond rahi hain yeh baharain yeh samanâ�� was a super hit street song, in 1989, his duet with the melody queen Noor Jahan â��Mundia dupatta chad meraâ�� was a phenomenal hit.

In the years 2001 and 2002, Urdu films suffered from lack of purposeful topics. Nadeem found no point in acting in such type of movies and opted to return to Karachi, his native town, saying goodbye to the films. TV producers, however, wasted no time in casting Nadeem in their Drama Serials. Nadeem, therefore, appeared in 8 TV Serials, namely Bisaat, Chaltey Chaltey, Chehrey, Muhabbat Ka Ek Peher, Ambulance, Ek Safar Tanha He, Jaisey Jaante Nahin and Malika (2005). He also acted in 6 long and short plays, namely Haar Jeet, Rakh Mein Chingari, Fursat, Laws in Law, Wujood and Musafir Khaana (2005). He was co-producer in Bisaaat and Teri Yaad Aagai, a musical program in which Nadeem rendered his favourite songs. All these productions got popularity and applause from the viewers. Completing his 41 years on Pakistani Screen, Nadeem seems to have taken a fresh guard the release of movies namely Aatish, Tum Say Pyaar Hai and Khuley Aasman Ke Nichey are his notable coming movies.

Mohammed Nadeem is currently singing as a play back singer with Music Director Rehber Hussain in his up coming movie Zindagi Khoobsoorat Hai

Nadeem