I always heard my father praising Pakistani artists. Since my childhood, I have listened to a lot of praise for Pakistani comedy shows, Ads, stage plays. Let it be the famous advertisements of 50-50, acts of late Munawwar Zareef, Alif Noon and Loose Talk etc. I recently had the honor of watching a lot of these plays and T.V shows. Hence, writing about one of the show I really enjoyed.
Loose Talk is a Pakistani Comedy Show aired in 2005-06 on Ary Digital. It was written by Anwer Maqsood who is one of Pakistan’s most celebrated writer, host and a living legend. Anwer Maqsood once told in an interview that the show was inspired by famous “Hard Talk”- A prime time talk show of BBC. Anwer Maqsood also played as the host in the show.
Loose Talk aired one of the most prominent artist, humorist, actor, producer and singer Moin Akhter (late). He is considered as one of the finest comedians Pakistan has ever produced. Moin Akhter always appeared as a guest in the show. He used to impersonate different characters. Some of the famous characters he played were Manmohan Singh (Ex-Prime Minister of India), Javed Miandad, a harmonium player and a single mother etc.
The show was basically a discussion based commentary on various social and political issues filled with a lot of humor. The show “Loose Talk” got immense fame in India and Pakistan recently as some of it’s clips went viral on the social media. These clips were mainly from the episode where Moin Akhter plays the character of a harmonium player. Anwer Maqsood once told in an interview that the show was also presented to P.T.V but he himself was quite reluctant in giving it to state’s news channel. He said he hate censorship and the kind of critique he was sweeping under the rug of humor could have been easily censored therefore a private news channel was preferred. The show is available on Youtube and its channel has more than a million subscribers and a few of its episodes reaching more than 20 million views.
While this show may portray important meanings, most talk shows in Pakistan engage in derogatory speech esp with women and it pisses me off
I was particularly amazed by Anwar Maqsood's intelligence and Moin Akhtar's brilliant intelligence. How can someone impersonate so many characters and with such conviction? Therefore, this masterpiece makes me appreciate the artists among us, whose creative imaginations deliver commentary on our social lives in a way that many can identify with, topics that we're aware of but lack the ability to convey them to others.
Nice read. I also watched this show once, and they delivered important messages in a fun way.