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Ramazan is almost over and in a few months Muharram will be upon us. Meanwhile, the entertainment industry has been planning to make the most of the next few months before both the Islamic and Gregorian year end.
Music acts such as Strings, Ali Zafar and Jal are already (or soon will be) working on projects in India that are due to be released in the very near future. Fresh off the release of Jee Dhoondta Hai from Jhoom, Ali Zafar stars opposite Katrina Kaif and Imran Khan in the Bollywood film, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, and is expecting his song Madhubala to be a big hit on both sides of the border when the film releases on September 9. Supposedly Katrina Kaif has also promised to do a music video with AZ on the condition that the film makes over 600 million at the box office — not sure if that is the least gold digger deal she could have made.
Jal, too, has found its way to Tinsel Town and is going to begin filming for Kasam Se starring Sanjay Dutt, next month. The band had already recorded the song, College Ki Woh Meethi Baatein, in Delhi in February when the film’s producers came calling, saying they just had to have Jal in the video for the song.
When asked what fans back home could expect from the band, the amiable Goher Mumtaz commented on how every band needs to do something for its fans and Jal doesn’t aim to disappoint. An album is in the works as are concerts in Lahore and Islamabad (also Bahrain, Dubai and India). On Karachi, the musician expressed his dismay at the state of security in the city.
In his words, “Jal had a great time performing at the Royal Rodale in June”, and said that everyone is waiting for Karachi to return to the days when concerts were the norm.
Rock’s biggest rebel, Ali Azmat, is working with a cellular service provider company to hold concerts in colleges and universities all across Pakistan shortly after Eid-ul-Fitr, as soon as the dotted lines are signed. “It is the same old song and dance in Karachi,” he complained. Ali is planning a number of things besides concerts, including a talk show on a private TV channel where he invites politicians and bigwigs to his experience. Word has it there is also a film named Waar which Ali is working dedicatedly on, but at the request of both the business manager and the film’s publicist, all information from that will have to be withheld by this author until it is ready to hatch.
Shallum Xavier should expect to be in the news as well over the course of the season: Fuzon will be collaborating with a 60-piece symphony orchestra over a period of three weeks in Norway and also working with the famed Ari Roland Jazz Quartet in a concert scheduled to be held at the Rock Musicarium in Islamabad towards the end of September. Shallum has had a good year so far; he has been nominated for Payam at the 2011 Lux Style Awards and is currently celebrating 10 years of making music with Fuzon by touring globally. Locally he is working on a competition to find rare talent.
Of course, no mention of the Pakistan’s music scene would be complete without Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, and the maestro plans to perform in Karachi on September 18. A first-time concert had also been planned in Sialkot but had to be cancelled (to quote the organiser on Facebook: “Sialkotis having no taste in music” hence the reason for plans falling through). The organisers for the Karachi event, Miradore Productions plan to hold a similar concert in Islamabad in response to demands from the city.
For the Karachi event, the location will be disclosed closer to the date of the show, due to security concerns. The tickets are priced at a staggering Rs4,000, and patrons are reminded to come sparing lots of time to the event as RFK is known for a great show, but not punctuality.
Besides these big names, other artistes too are taking advantage of the post-Ramazan boom. After roosting for an eternity, Bilal Khan, the boy with arguably one of the coolest songs at Coke Studio this season, is getting ready to release his album.
Looking at a post-Eid release, Bilal has been busy with concerts in Malaysia and Dubai, and plans to continue with local and international dates for the rest of the year.
In conversation with Hamza Quddusi of the band famous for raspy vocals, Base Rock Cafe performances and YouTube videos, The Cheapmunks will have a concert aired from ARY Musik on the second day of Eid. Concerts might come few and far in between since one of the singers will be going back to school in the UK, but December should see the band doing a number of covers and singles on their page.
Another singer following a similar idea is the ubiquitous Komal Rizvi. Busy working with drama serials and other TV projects, the singer doesn’t expect to have many, or any, concerts the rest of the season. But she does plan on releasing a couple of songs and an album by the year’s end. Nothing has been set in stone yet, but Komal has her fingers crossed, she says.
And while releases such as Shehzad Roy’s new song Kya Darta Hai, and Nadia Ali’s When it Rains are already making waves with listeners, for those interested in live alternative to albums and single releases there are other options. Nida Butt of the MAD School plans to launch her play on October 31, after having planned and led rehearsals for the better part of the year.
“It’s a full blown musical,” she says. “It’s possibly Pakistan’s first original with a full score of 12 original songs that have been composed by Hamza Jafri and written by Faraz Lodhi — a script writer hired by Made for Stage Productions.”
Besides this, for those in Islamabad or planning a visit there, two new bands seem to have made a mark on the concert circuit.
Bumbu Sauce, who made the cult hit Mojambo, What is the Scene? and Malang Party with their Bob Marley aesthetics are the cream of the underground these days (fortunately, after it seemed Pakistan’s underground scene was dying a slow death with the disappearance of bands such as Snake 8 and others). Neither band has much to offer in terms of an album — Bumbu Sauce has an EP — but both might be making some of the best funk rock music Pakistan has seen since... well, ever. This ain’t no sufi or pop rock. The music is as edgy, funky and pop cultured as truck art. Concert dates are advertised on Facebook, sporadically, but if you can catch them, it’s a treat you might not get to enjoy elsewhere — in the words of Zeeshan Mansur from Malang Party: “We aren’t about the albums or anything like that, we’re just doing what we do, what we like, non-commercial. We’re making music for the fun of it.”
It might translate into low earnings, but at least you won’t get an album with a combo meal!
