Safirullah Siddiqui (2 January 1929 – 13 September 2012), commonly known by his stage name Lehri, was a Pakistani comedian and an actor in the

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production company, production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre- ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. He is still considered as one of the most acclaimed comedians of

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

, and is known as the comedy king in the

Pakistan film industry The film industry of Pakistan, consisting of motion pictures, has had a large effect on Pakistani society and culture since the nation's independence. Pakistani cinema is made up of various sub-industries, including Lollywood, which mak ...

. In a film career spanning 38 years, he acted in 225 movies. He won 12

Nigar Award The Nigar Awards () were presented in an annual award show to recognize outstanding achievement in Pakistani cinema, after having been revived in 2017 following a 15-year absence. The honors are awarded by Nigar Magazine founded in 1948. The ...

s for "Best Comedian" from 1963 to 1982.

Early life

Lehri was born on 2 January 1929 in

Kanpur Kanpur (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ), originally named Kanhapur and formerly anglicized as Cawnpore, is the second largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh after Lucknow. It was the primary ...

, British India. After

independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

, he along with his family, migrated to

and settled in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

. As a teenager he worked as a stenotypist and hosiery salesman. He performed on radio and stage before entering the film industry.

Career

Lehri acted from the late 1950s until the 1980s. He won the

12 times for various films between 1963 and 1986; his first film, ''Anokhi'', was released in 1956, and his last production was ''Dhanak'' in 1986. The vast majority of his films have been in

, though he did perform in a few Punjabi productions. Lehri's forte was the quip and in his monotone, his audience became used to finding a brand of quiet, almost surreptitious humour. To critics and to his fans, his restrained style came to personify the 'decency' of times gone by. After the mid-1980s, Lehri was reduced to occasional appearances on television and newspaper columns. By the time private-sector television arrived, though, the film industry was struggling and all that it had once encompassed was looked upon both with a sense of loss and with fondness.

Death

Lehri retired in late 1986 after suffering a stroke; after his retirement, his health started deteriorating, then Prime Minister

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was also the first woman elected to head a democratic governmen ...

set up a monthly stipend for him of Rs. 2,500, which he continued to receive until his last days; however there was no increase in the amount until his death. He died on 13 September 2012 in

, aged 83, from lung, kidney disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart issues. He had been under treatment and was on a ventilator due to prolonged illness in a private hospital at the time of his death. Lehri’s funeral prayers took place on the same evening at ''Masjid-e-Baitul-Mukkaram'' in

Gulshan-e-Iqbal Gulshan-e-Iqbal () is a large middle-class to upper middle class (Block 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19) residential and commercial neighborhood in the Karachi East district of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It was previously adminis ...

, and he was buried at the ''Yasinabad Graveyard'',

Filmography

Awards and recognition

Lehri won 12 Nigar awards, which is considered one of the most prestigious awards in Urdu and Lollywood film industry in Pakistan.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lehri 1929 births 2012 deaths Muhajir people Entertainers from Kanpur Nigar Award winners Pakistani male comedians Pakistani male film actors Recipients of the Pride of Performance Male actors from Karachi