Sheikh Mukhtar

Sheikh Mukhtar was a film actor active in India and later in Pakistan.
A tall and manly figure, who stood slightly under, Sheikh Mukhtar played a variety of film roles, from leading roles in many of Mehboob Khan's productions to characters roles later on, mostly the roles of villains.

Early life

Sheikh Mukhtar was the son of Chaudhry Ashfaq Ahmed, who was a railway police inspector and was born in Karachi, British India; now Pakistan. Chaudhary Ashfaq Ahmed intentionally got transferred and migrated to Delhi. Sheikh Mukhtar was born on 24 December 1914 in Delhi.
He had spent his childhood years in Choodi Waalan Gali and received education at an Anglo-Arabic school, Ajmeri Gate, Delhi. His father wanted his son to join the Police or Army, but Sheikh Mukhtar was keenly interested in theatre. One of his neighbours from his area started working in a theatre company, so Sheikh Mukhtar also moved to Kolkata and joined the company.

Career

India

Sheikh Mukhtar got his break with Mehboob Khan's Ek Hi Raasta, earning a lead role in his first movie, and would play the lead in numerous later Mehboob Khan movies. He starred in several lead roles throughout the 1940s, and by the 1950s, he expanded his contributions to cinema by founding his own production company, Mukhtar Films; among his box-office successes was the film Mr. Lambu.

Pakistan

Mukhtar had produced Noor Jehan, a Hindi movie, with hopes for it to be a 'hit' like Mughal-e-Azam, but his movie flopped badly in India, which in turn disappointed him and he was heartbroken and probably this made him leave India for Pakistan. And along with him, he took the original prints of film Noor Jehan, which was released in Pakistan twelve days after his death in 1980, and became a 'hit' film there, becoming a hit film there and earning approximately Rs. 1 crore. In the movie he played the supporting role of Sher Afghan Quli Khan, the first husband of Queen Nur Jahan.

Final years and death

After migrating from India to Pakistan in the late 1960s, he settled in Karachi, Pakistan. After some years there, he suffered a cardiac arrest on his flight from Lahore to Karachi and died in Karachi on 12 May 1980.