Written by: Muhammad Suhayb
Posted on: January 13, 2023 | 
| 中文
(L to R) Ismail Tara and Majid Jehangir
It was somewhere in the mid-90s when the popular TV show ‘Lollywood Top Ten’ aired Zubaida Khanum’s yesteryear hit song from Sarfarosh (1956), ‘Mera Nishaana Dekhay Zamana’. Composed by Rasheed Attre, the song from Sabiha Khanum-Santosh Kumar starrer was filmed on the latest import from Bollywood, the ‘lara lappa girl’ Meena Shoorey. For an entire generation raised in the 80s, the song was associated with the actor/comedian Majid Jehangir, whose addition of ‘Bhai sahab’ changed the connotation of the song. ‘Mera Nishaana Bhai sahab dekhay zamana Bhai sahab’, became as popular as the original, and the catchphrase stuck with Majid Jahangir during his life time.
Majid Jehangir
Majid Jahangir was one of the many performers who attained fame with Fifty Fifty, the satirical skit show that began airing on Pakistan Television (PTV) in 1979. Majid was born in Lahore in 1948 to a Punjabi father and a mother who belonged to Hyderabad Deccan. By the age of 13, he had trained as a singer, but with a feminine voice, got famous for rendering songs of Madam Noor Jehan, Lata Mangeshkar, Shamshad Begum and Mala. Before turning twenty, he had joined the troupe of accomplished singers, Mehdi Hasan and Ahmed Rushdi. Majid used to sing ‘duet’ songs with them in concerts, but mimicking a woman’s voice. Being talented though, he wasted five years of his life in trying to gain access to PTV, and when he did, was not able to go beyond singing in the chorus of these famous singers. He found solace in acting and appeared in Sindhi television plays from the Karachi Centre. However, it was with Moin Akhtar’s show Saat Rang, where he managed to rub shoulders with Fareed Khan and veteran comedian Nirala.
All was to change for good, when Fifty Fifty began in 1979. Along with Ismail Tara, they became a necessity for the show that continued till 1985 but under different producers. Picked by Shoaib Mansoor, Majid was an equal to Tara, be it appearing as Manva/Babva, the ‘Aray Jawan hamaray saath scene part hogya’, or parodying poet Iftikhar Arif and scholar Obaidullah Baig from Kasauti, they were a hilarious pair. If Tara’s traffic constable was a legend, Majid was simply awesome as a random motorcyclist or a taxi driver, who would get in Uri Uri’s (the traffic constable’s catchphrase) way. Majid Jehangir could easily get in the skin of an accomplished news reader, a corrupt SHO, a talkative guide or an illiterate guy from the street, who would end his sentence with Hutt Paray Tu.
Ismail Tara and Majid Jehangir in Fifty Fifty as Manva and Babva (Picture credits to Ahmed Mansoor Khan)
Majid’s catchphrases also got equally popular; kanakay and waghera waghera became part of everyday language, students began addressing their teachers the way Majid did with a waving ‘Miss’, while his sinister laughs echoed in the minds of the viewers.
He also got a chance to exercise his vocal cords in the show. The segment when he sings ‘Roote hain cham cham nain’ is still famous, and like ‘mera nishaana’, is remembered because of him. He rendered many parody qawwalis in his own voice, and actually played the harmonium in these funny qawwalis.
Adil Wadia, the tall guy from the early days of Fifty Fifty, vouched for Majid’s flair of singing. Wadia said that ‘Like all of us, Majid became famous after doing skits. He loved singing and we listened to him regularly during the recording breaks. Creative ideas popped out from those sessions.’
The cast of Fifty Fifty
Zeba Shahnaz, Majid’s other colleague from those days, recalls the special bonding she shared with the artist. ‘Despite being a couple of years senior, Majid bhai used to call me phupoo out of respect in those days. He insisted on having me in his skits as we got along quite well’. Zeba and Majid’s pairing as news casters, who read comical lines with a straight face, was altogether a different kind of satire.
Famed comedian/host Hanif Raja recalls the days when he got to know Majid Jehangir well. "We shared the same neighborhood as we lived close to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in Nazimabad. An intelligent artiste, Majid bhai could converse in over ten languages. He was a master at playing a common person and had no trouble in playing a person with a Sindhi, Punjabi, Memoni, Gujraati or even Kathiawari dialect.’
Majid Jehangir also ventured into movies, and debuted alongside Ismail Tara in Muhammad Ali-Shabnam starrer Faaslay (1981). He was last seen in Syed Kamal’s Siasat (1986), before he left Pakistan. Majid’s decision to settle in the USA backfired, and despite living there for 19 years, never felt at home there. The more he was out of sight, the more he was forgotten.
Majid Jehangir with film star Muhammad Ali
He shifted back to Pakistan in 2005, and decided to resume a career from where he had left off two decades back. It was a different world and he was unable to cope with the commercialism of the television channels. The creativity and spontaneity of the ‘80s was gone, and Majid Jehangir had to struggle in order to make both ends meet. Despite appearing on Dawn News, Express TV and as a guest in Geo TV’s Khabarnaak, Majid was never able to settle down.
Ayaz Khan who appeared in Fifty Fifty in its early days, remembered the good days spent with Majid Jehnagir. ‘It was in 2018 that the entire team of Fifty Fifty, sans Ismail Tara, regrouped and did a couple of programs for PTV for Eid. I wrote the skits and Majid managed the parody songs. The proposal to revive Fifty Fifty was initiated, but it was impossible to cut through all the red tape.’
Majid Jehangir had a stroke in 2019 and his health worsened after that. Unable to bear his medical expenses, he was often seen appealing for funds. Majid’s wife died in 2020 and he was living a secluded life in Lahore, where Malik Riaz had provided him with accommodation. Finally, the man who got famous for spreading smiles in our lives, passed away after a prolonged illness on January 11, 2023.
Ailing Majid Jehangir
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