JAMMU: Senior theatre director and Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Mushtaq Kak passed away at his residence here on Sunday, his family said. The 62-year-old Kak who has directed more than 100 plays and has acted in a number of Hindi movies breathed his last around 2.25 am, his daughter Ifra Kak said. She said her father was fighting a battle against cancer for the last one year but his condition started deteriorating in August. Kak was earlier associated with Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts, New Delhi as the artistic director and was selected for the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi award for 2015. ‘Andha Yug, Malika, Pratibimb’, ‘Maha Brahmin’ and ‘Alladad’ were among his major works. Kak’s ‘Nimaz-e-Jinazah’ (prayer after death) was held at Sidhra in the afternoon and he was laid to rest at a nearby graveyard. People from all walks of life, especially those associated with the arts and culture expressed their grief and sorrow over his death. “Mushtaq Kak was an excellent actor, theatre director of Shri Ram Centre, Delhi but he left the director’s job… In his departure I see the end of an era, especially in modern theatrical movement of Jammu & Kashmir,” former additional director general of Doordarshan and former secretary of J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages Rafeeq Masoodi wrote on X.
