Roohi Bano

One of the best known icons of her time, actor Roohi Bano, passed away on Friday at the age of 67 years while on a ventilator in a hospital in Turkey. She had reportedly suffered kidney failure. But Roohi, a well-educated actor and winner of a presidential award in 2015, had essentially died well before she took her final breath. Her story is a sad one. It can be said death came to her in 2005, when after her only son, Ali, was shot under mysterious circumstances in Lahore, she slipped into a declining state of mental health and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Both her marriages had failed. She lived for years in a dilapidated, unkempt house in Gulberg on her own, with a few friends and well-wishers occasionally attempting to help her. Around 2015, she was confined to a mental-care institution, which while one of the best run in the country still has its share of grimness. Bano insisted at a press conference in 2016 during a brief release from the asylum that she had been forced to enter the institution by her relatives, and that her property in Karachi and other places had been grabbed. We do not know the truth behind these allegations.

What we do know is that Roohi Bano, as an actor with extraordinary talent and sensitivity, lit up our screens and our lives through the 1970s and 1980s with her roles in plays such as Qila Kahani, Kiran Kahani, Darwaza and a host of other dramas. It is unfortunate that this light faded away far too quickly from our lives. Mental health is a source of stigma in our country and often not taken seriously. Roohi was sometimes invited to appear on television shows during her final years, sometimes treated almost as a kind of freak.

This should never be allowed to happen in any country. Performers of all kinds need to be protected and honoured. It is also ironic that Roohi Bano was believed to be the half-sister of the world-famous table player, Zakir Hussain, the son of Ustad Allah Rakha; this connection never seems to have figured in her life, though. Certainly, she did not receive financial help as far as we know from any member of her extended family in India or other parts of the world. Most importantly, she received very little help at home. Her dignity was stripped away layer after layer. This has been the fate of too many artistes in a country that does not respect art, artists or their talent. Roohi Bano was a victim of the apathy of state and society. She was also a survivor, speaking up for herself till the end. May she rest in peace.