Declan Walsh | The Observer | April 23, 2006
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1759395,00.html
By day Ali Salim has stubble, scruffy jeans and a taste for
cigarettes. But at night he pulls on a sequinned sari and high heels
to become Begum Nawazish Ali - catty chatshow queen and South Asia's
first cross-dressing TV presenter.
'She's every woman's inspiration and every man's fancy,' smiles 27-
year-old actor Salim, his nails painted gold and his eyebrows
plucked after filming the latest episode of Late Night with Begum
Nawazish Ali, Pakistan's answer to Dame Edna Everage.
His creation - a snobby, gossipy, middle-aged woman who flirts with
her guests and flashes her dead husband's jewels - has captivated a
young audience eager for satire of Pakistan's staid politicians and
unafraid of sexual ambivalence. Politicians, showbusiness people and
even Islamic leaders crowd on to her velveteen couch for
conversation that veers from sympathetic to smutty to downright
bitchy.
The show pushes the boundaries of the acceptable - and, critics say,
the tasteful - in conservative Pakistani society. In one recent
episode Ali sneered at the lipstick worn by an actress, then turned
to Aitzaz Ehsan, a well-known Supreme Court lawyer. 'Would you mind
if I call you "easy"?' she purred, batting her eyelids. 'It's so
much easier on the tongue.'
Another guest was Naimatullah Khan, a former Karachi mayor and
member of the Jamaat Islami party. The white-bearded Islamist
appeared on the show seated beside a leading model. 'I'm trying to
show that we can all connect,' says Salim at the Aaj television
studios in Karachi, Pakistan's bustling largest city. 'At the end of
the day it's like a threesome - it's an awesome time.'
The show is at the cutting edge of a heady television boom that
started with deregulation under Pakistan's military leader, General
Pervez Musharraf, about four years ago. More than 40 channels have
sprouted, of which the larger ones now wield clout in news and
politics.
A recent report on the biggest private channel, Geo TV, about two
teenage boys who had been unjustly imprisoned, caused the country's
chief justice to intervene. 'I've never seen so much freedom of
_expression_,' said Azhar Abbas, head of news at Geo.
Even conservative clerics have taken to the airwaves on programmes
debating the finer points of the Koran. Some have even learnt the
value of being telegenic. 'You see the religious people coming on
screen with better haircuts and trimmed beards,' said Abbas.
But the concept of a man in drag presenting a one-hour Saturday
night show has challenged even the best intentions. Fans say the
show is a breath of fresh air amid a schedule cluttered with dross,
but admit the pun-driven humour sometimes wears thin. 'The fact it
exists is worthy of celebration but what it does is not that hot,'
said Ali Dayan Hasan, a human rights activist.
Salim says that the show gives a light, fun face to Pakistan in
contrast with the dark and dour image that dominates the Western
media. 'Every time I turn on BBC or Fox News there are bombs going
off in Pakistan. It's so pathetic. But we are a people with a rich
culture and a rich tradition. And we are people who just want to
have fun,' he says.
The son of an army colonel, Salim started off with impersonations of
Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister now living in exile in
Dubai. He admits he is flattered by comparisons with Dame Edna but
he has only seen Barry Humphries's character on the internet. 'From
what I know we are not the same. Her show is loud and brash; mine is
more soft and sober. It's not about a guy in drag, it's about the
woman in me.'
--
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