A large number of people including relatives, fans, senior artists and producers from the entertainment and television industry attended the funeral.
Iconic comedian and actor Moin Akhtar was 60. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and three sons.
Born in 1950, Moin Akhtar joined show business in the ’60s as a comedian. His remarkable impersonations and rib-tickling skits earned him recognition in no time. But it was in the ’70s that Moin Akhtar’s appearance on the Zia Mohyeddin Show as a standup act catapulted him to national fame.
Beginning with an episode of Angan Terha in which Moin Akhtar played the role of a poet looking for a place to live, the duo came up with one gem after another.
The combination resulted in classics like Studio 2½ and Studio Poney Teen in which Moin Akhtar did the part of one of the interviewees and Anwar Maqsood the interviewer.
Moin Akhtar didn’t confine his talent to comedy acts. He proved his versatility by playing the protagonist in a long-play Rozy written by Imran Aslam and directed by Sahira Kazmi.
Moin Akhtar did the part of a man who assumes the garb of a woman in order to find employment. His performance was not only appreciated in Pakistan but even across the border it earned him a great many fans. Rozy was an adaptation of a successful Hollywood film Tootsie.
On his inevitable comparison with Tootsie’s star Dustin Hoffman, Moin Akhtar often claimed that he never saw the film until after he’d done the play.
The late actor’s another outstanding performance was witnessed in a play Half Plate, written by Anwar Maqsood and directed by Mohsin Ali.
He portrayed the personality of a self-obsessed poet who had a past (and a nagging wife) that he seldom liked to remember. The acting was right out of the top drawer and intelligently complemented the script.
Moin Akhtar and Anwar Maqsood’s duo had become so inseparable that even after the advent of satellite TV they were asked by different channels to work together.