Condolence reference: Moin Akhtar - the friend, the actor - remembered

Friends reveal his intense appetite for research.

KARACHI:

Friends and colleagues shared memories of the iconic actor, Moin Akhtar, who passed away on April 22, at a condolence reference organised by the Karachi Press Club on Friday.

Director Iqbal Latif said that having Moin Akhtar as a friend was a blessing from God. “We were friends since childhood. When I went to his house on the news of his death, I saw hundreds of people there, most of whom had never visited his house before. They were attracted to Moin’s love and laughter,” he said.

He said that they are trying to add Akhtar’s name in the Guinness Book of World Records as he has more than 400 get-ups and mimicries in a single series under his belt.

Actor Mustafa Qureshi said, “He was not only a comedian. He was a complete actor. With Moin Akhtar’s death, writer Anwar Maqsood is now incomplete.” In his speech, Moin’s son, Mansoor, said that he would continue with his father’s mission of helping the needy. “When I leave this world, I want people to say, ‘That man did things differently,” he said, quoting his father.

Shahnaz Siddiqui gave a personal account of the veteran showman. She described how Moin Akhtar helped his colleagues get work and how he helped them selflessly in times of dire need.

“I never saw Akhtar fight with anyone. Whenever he came late for a shooting he would apologise to everyone.”

Anwar Ali Romi, another close friend, said that people were unaware of one aspect of Moin Akhtar which was his habit of doing research. He had a large collection of books of every kind. “I used to get embarrassed when he asked me about a book and I had no idea about it.” “I was told that people are not Moin Akhtar’s friends, rather Moin Akhtar is their friend,” said painter Mansoor Zuberi with a smile.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2011.