Sohail Ahmed
Encyclopedia
Sohail Ahmed is a Pakistani comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

, and stage
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...

 and TV actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

. He is most notable for comedy stage dramas based in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

.

Early Life

He was born in Gujranwala, went to school at Millat High Gujranwala, graduated from Government College Gujranwala. His father Mian Muhammad Akram Butt was a senior Police Officer (Deputy Superintendent of Police). He is third in line of four brothers. The oldest brother Javid Akram is a journalist, the other older brother Mian Aurang Zaib Akram is an Educationist like the younger brother Muhammad Junaid Akram.

Career

He is famous for using improvised dialogue during stage plays. He is an outspoken opponent of vulgarity and obscenity in stage dramas. He is also the writer and director of many stage plays. Recently Mr. Sohail Ahmed has proved himself to be an outstanding director when he produced and directed his second Drama Serial SHAAM, which was written by Mr. Iqbal Hasan Khan, a known playwright and short story writer of Pakistan. This play went on air in January 2011.

Azizi

Azizi is the persona Sohail Ahmed walks into when he appears on the DUNYA TV Hasb-e-HAAL
Hasb-e-Haal
Hasb-e-Haal is a comedy show that airs on Dunya TV at 11:05 pm from Thursday to Sunday. It stars Sohail Ahmed, Junaid Saleem and Najia Baig....

. The character over time has come to symbolize the voice of sanity over the apparent apathy in the society. He mocks the flagrant disregard for law, lack of policy architecture by the government and equally blatant lack of incentive from the civil society to change the squalid they occupy. The popularity of the character is understandable in a society which has lost its relevance and looks at reality through half open conduits. Where scruples are sham and morals mostly a facade to impose upon each other one's perceived dominance: Azizi brings the freshness of being unabashedly pedestrian.
He got lifetime achievement award this year in 2010.
Azizi is one of the funniest character he has ever done.

Television career

The show Hasb e Haal airs on Dunya TV and then is downloaded on the internet through various media portals and distributed via social media websites. It has a viewership of 100,000 viewers on the internet ( mostly in Americas and Europe). The numbers are picked from youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

 and www.pakistantime.net, there are surely ten times as many ( unaccounted in this study) viewers watching the show on cable TV. However if the internet numbers are seen as a sample study and a proportionate approximation is made about the larger viewer population - the raw data-points indicate that the character and the show has the highest hitrate count in the west for any show on air currently. In November 2010 Sohail got his life-time achievement award from Pakistan Television.

Research subject for Linguistics

One of the abilities in Azizi's repertoire is his particular knack for coining novel words—words that are novel even at the atomic level i.e. he frequently introduces novel morphemes with surprising facility. He remains a subject for language researchers especially for those investigating whether languages evolve in punctuated bursts. The idea of punctuated evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

 was first proposed by Niles Eldredge
Niles Eldredge
Niles Eldredge is an American paleontologist, who, along with Stephen Jay Gould, proposed the theory of punctuated equilibrium in 1972.-Education:...

 and Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation....

 in the context of biological evolution. Recently Atkinson et al. have demonstrated an interesting parallel in the evolution of languages, but in a forensic fashion by analyzing the vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...

 bursts in the histories of languages. Characters like Azizi help language researchers in pinning down the underlying engines that feed such vocabulary bursts.

Moreover, Azizi's character is a fodder for cognitive scientists interested in finding the neural basis of word formation. Not surprisingly, Azizi is also a trope
Trope (literature)
A literary trope is the usage of figurative language in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...

 -churning machine, constantly rejigging existing idioms and metaphors by skillful juxtapositions, transpositions, and more interestingly, generating new meaning by portmanteauing apparently disconnected tropes
Trope (literature)
A literary trope is the usage of figurative language in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...

.

A Case Study for Students of Performing Arts

Considering the extent of credibility Azizi enjoys among his audience raises a fundamental question for students of performing arts—how to handle the pressures of responsibility that such a stature of credibility demands. Azizi is a living case study of how performers may handle a role that catapults them to a pedestal of credibility.

Stage career

Most stage-drama fans know Sohail Ahmed as a comedian, however, most of his TV appearances, specially on Pakistan Television, have been in serious and often negative characters. He has played many diverse characters on TV which vary from a professional killer to a feudal lord.

Stage dramas

  1. Ik Jhoot Aur SahÁi
  2. Deewane Mastane
  3. Topi Drama
  4. Aashiqo Gam Na Karo
  5. Sooey Laal
  6. Shabash Begum
  7. Double Swari
  8. Swaa Ser
  9. Wonderful
  10. No Tension
  11. Fika In Amrika
  12. Ketchup
  13. Andaz Apna Apna
  14. Mian Biwi Aur Chor
  15. Nizam Saqa
  16. Shartia Mithay
  17. Kali Chaadar
  18. Kotha
  19. Ik Tera Sanam Khana
  20. Bara Maza Aye Gaa 1
  21. Bara Maza Aye Gaa 2
  22. Methi Baryani
  23. Nawab ZadA
  24. Jab Daag Nazar Aaya 1
  25. Jab Daag Nazar Aaya 2
  26. kuch na kaho 1
  27. kuch na kaho 2
  28. Love Spot
  29. Roti khol dayo 1
  30. Roti khol dayo 2
  31. Tetlee
  32. Garam Garam
  33. Ishq Hua Chori Chori
  34. Hot Pot
  35. Sohni Lag Di
  36. Allah Waris
  37. Baran Masalay
  38. Darbaar Lagao-Part 2
  39. Kuriyan Munday Chalbaaz
  40. Teray Piyar Main Jani
  41. Wailey Masroof
  42. Fiqa in America
  43. Bajaay Waloun Ki Baraat-Part 2
  44. Chabian
  45. Kaali Chadar-Part 2
  46. Baba Cable
  47. Dam Damadam

Pakistan Television dramas

  • Andleeb (PTV Drama)
  • Fishar
  • Shab Deg
  • Kiran
  • Qasmi Kahaniyaan (Permeshar Singh)
  • Kajal Ghar
  • Dukh Sukh
  • Hawaili
  • Din
  • Reza Reza
  • Man Chale Ka Suada
  • Ranjish
  • Garib-e Shehar
  • Piya Ki Diwani
  • Susar-in-Law (Comedy Drama PTV)
  • Regzar
  • Malangi (PTV)
  • Juda
  • Cchotey
  • Mashwra Muft Hai
  • Sohail Clinic (Comedy Drama ATV)
  • Saray Gamay (Comedy Drama PTV)
  • Shaam (ATV)
  • Chuban (PTV)
  • Khuda Gava (ATV Drama)
  • Khawaja Online (ATV Drama)
  • Qabza (Geo TV)
  • Home Sweet Home (PTV)
  • Hasb-e-Hal (Dunya)
  • No. 1 (Comedy Drama PTV)

See also

  • Abid Khan
  • Babu Baral
    Babu Baral
    Babu Baral was a Pakistani stage actor and comedian. Babu Baral started his career as a comedian from Gujranwala in 1982....

  • Amanullah (actor)
  • Iftikhar Thakur
    Iftikhar Thakur
    Iftikhar Thakur is a Pakistani stage actor. He originally hails from Mian Channu. Thakur worked there in a Motor Work Shop. He has starred in many stage dramas/telefilms in different languages such as Urdu, Punjabi, Pothwari/Mirpuri etc...

  • Mastana (actor)
  • Shoki Khan
  • Nasir Chinyoti
    Nasir Chinyoti
    Nasir Chinyoti is a Pakistani actor. He is a comedian, stage, and TV actor. He is from Chiniot.He started his acting at Multan Stage. He has starred in many stage dramas/telefilms in various languages, including Urdu and Punjabi. He is most notable for comedy stage dramas based in Lahore...

  • Tariq Teddy
    Tariq Teddy
    Tariq Teddy is one of Pakistan's popular theatre comedians, known for his quick, sharp replies. He performs in Punjabi stage dramas and has acted in the movie Salakhein. He is from Faisalabad...

  • Naseem Vicky
  • Sardar Kamal
  • Zaferi Khan
  • Asif Iqbal (actor)
  • Sakhawat Naz
    Sakhawat Naz
    Sakhawat Naz is a Pakistani actor. He has starred in stage dramas and telefilms in various languages including Urdu and Punjabi. He has performed alongside comedy actors Sohail Ahmad, Nasir Chinyoti, Tariq Teddy, Naseem Vicky, Amanat Chan, Nawaz Anjum and Akram Udas...

  • Sajan Abbas
  • Nawaz Anjum

External links

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