Now that’s interesting. On Oct 18, actor Imran Abbas was on a late-nite show on PTV hosted by poet and playwright Wasi Shah. The show is called Raat Gaye and usually has a man of letters, along with a singer, as guest.

Seeing Imran Abbas there took many people by surprise, particularly when they came to know that the actor tries his hand at Urdu poetry. He had brought pieces of paper on the programme on which ghazals and nazms by known verse-wielders and himself were scribbled. He narrated them, albeit in a rush smothering some of the words, on the show. Some of his own poems were not bad, and had the metrical balance that’s a prerequisite for poetry.

Imran triggered the debate that actors in Pakistan nowadays don’t like to read, which is why their efforts lack poignancy while acting (or something to that effect). Actress Saina Saeed also joined the show by phoning in, agreeing with Imran Abbas that since some of the stars acquire popularity at an early stage of their career without having a book-reading background, they don’t deem it fit to study literature to hone their skills.

Now the query that springs to mind like a Ghalib’s couplet: if Imran Abbas is into literature and stuff, what has he so far been doing on TV? Which one of his plays indicated that he’s a literature buff? It’s only when he appeared alongside Wasi Shah that we came to know the actor’s fondness for poetry.