Tim the Dim

She was called the Queen of Melancholy. Roohi Bano. Born 10 August 1951, Karachi. Daughter of the tabla maestro Ustad Alla Rakha. Half-sister of Zakir Hussain. She studied psychology at Government College, Lahore, and completed her master’s degree. She was still a student when she was spotted on a quiz show and stepped into television. Her breakthrough came in 1973 as the cheerful Kiran in Haseena Moin’s Kiran Kahani. What followed was a career of rare intensity. Nearly 150 television dramas across the 1970s and 1980s. A handful of films. She specialised in complex, often tragic women and made them unforgettable. In 1981 the President awarded her the Pride of Performance. She also received PTV Awards, the Nigar Award, the Graduate Award and a Lux Lifetime Achievement Award. She married twice. Both marriages failed. She had one son, Ali. In 2005 Ali was shot dead near their home in Gulberg, Lahore. He was in his early twenties. The loss broke something that never fully healed. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She spent time at Fountain House. In later years she lived largely alone, sometimes carrying a doll she said was her son. In 2015 she survived a violent attack linked to a property dispute. On 25 January 2019 she died in Istanbul, where she had been living with her sister Rubina Yasmeen. Kidney failure. She had been on a ventilator for ten days. She was sixty-seven. She witnessed the birth of Pakistani television and became one of its finest serious actresses. The screen remembered her long after the industry moved on. A trendsetter, a fighter, a survivor, Queen of Melancholy on television and real life. In 2021 on August 16 the Government of Pakistan named a street and intersection after her in Lahore. Roohi Bano. Pakistan Zindabad. 🇵🇰