Mustafa Qureshi


Mustafa Qureshi is a Pakistani film and television actor.
Born into a Sindhi family, despite his later prominence mainly in Punjabi cinema, he has acted in more than 600 movies, in Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi languages, best known for his role as the antagonist Noori Natt in the movie Maula Jatt, which became his trademark and he went on to adapt similar roles for many years to come.

Early life and career

Qureshi was born in Hyderabad, Sindh, on 11 May 1938, into an educated family, and got his primary education in Hyderabad, combining both modern and religious studies, later on doing master’s in Islamic history from the Sindh University, being particularly influenced by the scholars Imdad Ali Imam Ali Kazi and Pir Ali Muhammad Rashdi, while after his graduation he began his professional career as a host on Radio Pakistan's programme Ahsan Jo Pakistan, in 1957.
One day he went to see the shooting of the film Aag Ka Darya and was spotted by cameraman and future film director Raza Mir, who asked him to act as a villain in his upcoming film, Laakhon Mein Ek. Qureshi initially could not see himself becoming an actor, so he had to be convinced by Mir. Eventually Qureshi agreed to do the film, which became a box-office hit. As of 2016, his film career has spanned 45 years.

Politics

Having been associated with the Pakistan Peoples' Party since he met Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, describing himself as an "ideological worker" and at one point even becoming head of PPP’s culture wing, over the decades, like many Bhutto loyalists, he eventually became disillusioned with how the party evolved, and has since 2018 been associated with Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

Family

He met his wife, Rubeena, a Sindhi folk singer, while both were working for Radio Pakistan, as she was a prominent singer who "sang about 10,000 songs and the total recording time of her songs was more than 50 hours."
Actor and musician Aamir Qureshi is his son.

Filmography

Notable films