RANGEELA NO MORE

Rangeela, who died at age 74 late Tuesday, has left behind three widows, six sons and eight daughters, and an acting legacy spanning over four decades. Rangeela was suffering from a kidney ailment.

He had been on a regular dialysis for the last few months and went into coma in the small hours of Tuesday. He could not regain consciousness. He was buried in Lahore.

Sheer determination coupled with anger at the world which he used as a driving force brought a simple young man from Nangarhar, Afghanistan, first to Peshawar and then to Lahore to become an actor.

Wherever he went, he was taunted by some for his "unique" face. He absorbed it all, but could not take it anymore when the mother of a girl he loved taunted him about his face.

This sent Saeed Khan on a journey to become Rangeela, the man who ultimately became one of the giants of the silver screen in Pakistan. His first introduction in the film industry was Dilip Kumar's movie Jugnoo which inspired him. He decided to become an actor.

Saeed Khan came to Lahore and sought shelter in a mosque at Circular Road, as he was the son of a mosque prayer leader. He was taken in. He would call for prayers in the mosque.

Despite being a destitute young man without any money and nowhere to go, Saeed Khan's faith and strong will to "become something" never wavered. He set on a mission with zeal. The prayer leader he was staying with suggested to him to earn his living by selling copies of the Holy Qur'an.

He did that for some time, then Kale Khan, a hoodlum from Peshawar, met him in Lahore. Kale Khan, who lived near Ratan Cinema, took Saeed Khan to a painter at McLeaod Road.

This was the start of a new career which lasted two years. During these years Saeed Khan started his own shop in Shad Bagh area and it fared very well.

During this time he found a new interest: Body Building. He participated in a few wrestling competitions, and even won some matches. But fate had something else in store for him. One day he was thrown out of the ring by a strong opponent. This was the end of his wrestling career, but this was not the end of the story.

Saeed Khan kept his body building passion alive and in a competition at Capital cinema he was for the first time shown the way to transform himself into Rangeela.

During the competition, people started laughing at him. He got angry and when he complained about the behaviour of the crowd to a friend, he advised him to take up comedy as a profession because he could make people laugh.

Saeed Khan gave it a very serious thought and started efforts to get into the film industry. He knew the renowned film director, M J Rana, and asked him to give him a chance in his films.

At about this time a new TV system was introduced in the trains in Pakistan and Saeed Khan started working on this. Later, the same system was installed at Manto Park in an industrial exhibition where Saeed would present comic skits.

This made him popular and helped him enter Lollywood where he became 'Rangeela'.

From then on he never looked back.

His first movie was Jutti with Musarrat Nazeer and Sudheer in leading roles.

Rangeela worked in over 300 movies and was also awarded the Pride of Performance. He also produced and directed his own movies and sang songs too for his movies. His famous productions include Diya aur Tufan, Dou Rangeele, Rangeela, Sona Chandi, Duniya, Raja Rani and Kubra Aashiq.

He also worked with the top heroines of his times including Nisho, Sangeeta, Aasia, and Chun Chun. He worked with the great comedians like Munawar Zareef, Nannah, Zulfi and others.

The boy, who started his journey from Peshawar to Lahore without a ticket, channelled his anger and used it as a great tool to reach his ultimate destination.

Rangeela had three wives, and perhaps he was one of the very few who had all their children and wives together in one place. All his children are qualified professionals.

One of his daughters is a doctor, one is a barrister and yet another is a councillor. His son Salman Saeed appeared in a movie Khubsoorat Shaitan in the leading role.

The death of Rangeela has created a void in Pakistani film industry and brought to an end a brilliant chapter of comedy. A large number of people from the film industry attended his funeral. - Internews