Syed Kamal Ahmed Rizvi (1 May 1930 – 17 December 2015) was a Pakistani television actor and playwright. He was born in

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

and died in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

, Pakistan. Rizvi wrote and starred in the comedy series ''

Alif Noon ''Alif Noon'' (Urdu: الف نون) is a 1965 comedy television series from Pakistan Television written by Kamal Ahmed Rizvi. The cast consisted of Rafi Khawar known as Nanha and Kamal Ahmed Rizvi known as ''Allan''. Plot Each episode follow ...

'' (1981-82 TV season), and won a Pride of Performance Award in 1989.

Early life and career

Kamal Ahmed Rizvi and his family had migrated to

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

from

after 1947. During his early days in

, he lived in an apartment in Arambagh area, before moving to

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

to meet his idol, the renowned short story writer

Saadat Hasan Manto Saadat Hasan Manto (; Punjabi, ur, , ; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author born in Ludhiana, who was active in British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan. Writing mai ...

with whom he spent a lot of precious time in Lahore in the early 1950s, and was influenced by him. Rizvi was generally impressed by the Progressive Writers' Movement people that he associated with in Lahore and Karachi. In Karachi,

Saddar Saddar ( ur, ), also known as Saddar Bazaar, is a neighbourhood in Karachi, Pakistan. The locality was developed as the primary commercial district during the period of British-era rule in Karachi. As a result, Saddar contains the large concentr ...

's Café George became his Pak Tea House (Lahore's famous hangout centre for leftist writers and intellectuals). Rizvi used to spend many hours here talking with then renowned writers like Ibrahim Jalees and Shaukat Siddiqui. At first, he tried his hand at editing some popular digests such as Tehzeeb and Shama. He also tried his luck with cinema but then decided not to pursue it and instead chose to be associated with

Radio Pakistan Radio Pakistan serves as the national public broadcaster for radio in Pakistan. Although some local stations predate Radio Pakistan's founding, it is the oldest existing broadcasting network in Pakistan. The network was established on 14 Augus ...

. Kamal Ahmed Rizvi got a chance for his first acting stint when renowned Pakistani actor

Zia Mohyeddin Zia Mohyeddin (; born 20 June 1931) is a British-Pakistani actor, producer, director and television broadcaster who has appeared in both Pakistani cinema and television as well as in British cinema and television throughout his career. Zia ...

staged Shakespeare's play 'Julius Caesar' for ''BBC Urdu Service''. This led him to take up numerous theatre ventures and subsequently, television. Rizvi was invited to come to TV by one of the pioneers of Pakistan television Aslam Azhar. Here, he met the Hardy (actor Nanha) to his Laurel (Laurel played by Kamal Ahmed Rizvi himself in their future TV shows). This stand-up comedy duo ruled

Pakistan Television Pakistan Television Corporation ( ur, ; reporting name: PTV) is the Pakistani state-owned broadcaster. Pakistan entered the television broadcasting age in 1964, with a pilot television station established at Lahore. Background Historical co ...

for many years in the 1980s with their popular TV comedy series. During his early days at

, Kamal Rizvi had also done a series of interviews with the common people of

which included a 'paan-seller' and a 'waiter' of a coffeehouse.

Death and legacy

Kamal Ahmed Rizvi, the man behind one of the most celebrated sitcoms of the country

died of a heart attack after a prolonged illness in

on 17 Dec 2015 at the age of 85. Before this, Kamal had survived a serious heart attack in 1993. He is survived by his only one son from his first wife, Nuzhat. This son has been living in the US for a long time. His marriage with the second wife Aamna lasted only for a short time because she wanted to go back and settle in India and he wanted to stay in Pakistan. His third wife was Ishrat Jehan who was with him until his death on 17 Dec 2015. Kamal Ahmed Rizvi was known to stay away from undue publicity and always kept a modest profile despite being a successful celebrity. He was considered to be one of the trendsetters of situation comedy TV dramas in Pakistan in the early 1980s. His work was widely acclaimed for exposing corruption in the society through comedy and satire,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rizvi, Kamal Ahmed 1930 births 2015 deaths Pakistani male television actors 20th-century Pakistani male actors Male actors from Bihar Pakistani male stage actors Pakistani dramatists and playwrights Recipients of the Pride of Performance Pakistani people of Bihari descent