“Ahed Raza” Comedy King of Kashmir

Nazir Josh, “Ahed Raza“or Comedy  King of Kashmir, performs at Delhi International Week of Justice Festival (2008).

The act here is a sharp satire of government machinery.

Nazir Josh, a man from Budgam first became a comic phenomena that swept Kashmir in the early 1980s thanks to a 52-episode serial called “Hazar Dastan” or “One Thousand Tales”. The serial directed by his cousin Bashir Budgami for the State Doordarshan channel. It proved to be an instant hit and Ahed Raza Nazir Josh became a household name.

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I was young and “Shae’hi Dokkur“, Royal Hammer, a phrase from that serial, was part of the vocab that I was building. And then I forgot all about it.

5 Replies to ““Ahed Raza” Comedy King of Kashmir”

  1. “Shae’hi Dokkur”, was an integral part of every episode. It was used when “Ahed Raza” would break into fits and a bang of Royal Hammer on his head would calm him down…… I still remember some old ladies of the household would rather be surprised as how “Ahed Raza” was surviving the bang of a hammer..under impression that everything happening in a TV Serial was real..

  2. haha…yes I also remember some really old ladies used to say ‘Urzu Uzru’ to Newsreaders of doordarshan whenever the reader said Namaskar at the beginning of the Samachar. Salma Sultan got lot of blessing in this way.

  3. i have visited almost 5,6 cassette shops for this hazaar dastaan. none of them had a trace. some are closed. i was suggested that doordarshan srinagar has it. i dont know if they can digitalize that or if they will do it.

    1. Doordarshan Srinagar does not have a great record of digitalizing their collection. I think they are waiting for all the material to rot away.

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