He's The Chat Show Queen Of Pakistan

Guardian

April 23, 2006

Begum Ali is the Dame Edna Everage of the Islamic world, thanks to a television revolution

Declan Walsh in Karachi

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.'

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006