A day in Meera’s life
GEO has this programme called Aik Din Geo Kay Saath. Many readers have probably seen or heard of it. The show’s host spends a day with a well-known person, a celebrity if you will. The show went on air some time before the October elections so initially they had politicians for a few months. These included people like Qazi Husain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Ajmal Khattak, Faisal Saleh Hayat, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Raja Zafarul Haq and Millat Party MNA and niece of the Nawab of Kalabagh Sumera Malik.
Most of these programmes were boring and unless one is interested in seeing hypocritical statements by people generally leading contradictory lives, there isn’t much of point to watching these episodes.
However, this week, the featured guest of the programme was film actress Meera.
Her day began at around 9 or so when the programme’s host, the drab Sohail Warraich, went to Meera’s house. She received him in a very bright pink gown, with a matching feather collar. She told the show that she had several ‘gauns’ (that’s the way she said) and ‘paink’ (not pink) was her favourite colour. The only problem was — and this comes far too often when we hear our actresses talk — is that she was constantly trying to talk in English.
Now that’s not really problem but two things came to mind to suggest that there was really no need for her to do that one, that the host was asking her everything in Urdu, and two, that her command over the alien tongue left a whole lot to be desired.
On the topic of actresses wearing too much make-up, Meera said that she had been told that she looked very pretty without make-up and that with make-up she looked even better. Wearing make-up, she said, brings out a woman’s beauty. Perhaps, it works well for her though so she assumes that it must be true of every woman. On what to wear for a particular occasion, Meera told the show - sitting in the home of designer of Lollywood’s stars, Beegee — that every event required a particular kind of outfit. She said her favourite was a sari or a ghagra although what she actually wore depended on the kind of event she was going to.
“You see first I have a detailed discussion (she pronounced it diss-kushion) with may designer. First we have a discussion and then I decide on what I will be wearing for a particular occasion.”
The actress, who originally comes from Sheikhupura just outside Lahore, was also asked about Indian actresses and why they were considered more professional. She said that just because someone spoke good English did not make them more intelligent or talented than those who couldn’t. Point taken, but then she proceeded to use a smattering of bad grammar and wrong diction in her sentences.
Sohail Warraich, for his part, asked quite a few unnecessary questions, especially the one where he asked Meera whether there was any truth in the public perception that many of our actresses had ‘other’ sources of income. Obviously, she wasn’t going to talk about herself, even if she had ‘other’ sources, and wisely she chose not to comment on the income sources of her colleagues in the film industry.
The actress was quite miffed at the way media treated her private life, saying (probably rhetorically) that she might have a boyfriend but that was no one’s business and that the press should be free to comment on her acting but not on who she liked or didn’t.
Unfortunately, who she likes or doesn’t like is everyone else’s business because, after all, Pakistanis wouldn’t be Pakistanis (at least not your typical ones) if they weren’t nosy and wanted to know everything about everyone else.
The press only feeds this interest and in any case as a well-known actress she should expect ordinary people to be interested about her private life.
However, what took the cake during the whole show was when she was asked by Mr Warraich why actresses tend to hide their real age. Her remark: “I know actresses tend to do this a lot but I am not the sort to hide my age at all. I am twenty-one”. Now this programme was being aired at around midnight and this remark of hers jolted me from my semi-slumber. Twenty-one! Which means that she probably began coming in films, being cast as a heroine, when she was 12 or 13. Definitely, one or the Guinness Records people to check.
The funny thing is that as she said this, she probably realized what a complete fool she had made of herself because right after telling her ‘age’ she kept saying towards the camera: ‘I know you all probably don’t believe me but I really am this old.
Just one more thing, not that the people at Geo would be reading this, but the show could do very well with a different host.— OMAR R. QURAISHI
she is an entertainer, just not in the conventional sense.