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The chosen two
The show of the year on Karachi’s entertainment and social calendar was a keenly awaited affair by a lot of people. However, it did not live up to its immense billing and people left the area disappointed with the ‘Face of the Year’ competition.
Co-hosted and sponsored by Indus Music and B&H International, the show started late (don’t they always!) Tucked away within the secure surroundings of the Marina Club, the show finally kicked off at half past ten. On stage, the hosts of the evening were Ali Salman and ex-model Neera. These two were later assisted by IM VJs, Anushe and Dino. A panel of six judges were present to decide which boy and girl was going to be the Face of Year, for the next one year. The six judges were Tapu Javeri, Tariq Amin, Maheen Khan, Deepak Parwani, Freiha Altaf and Atiqa Odho! Though not controversial, the panel could definitely have been more stronger.
The show kicked off as the 3500 strong audience was introduced to the final twenty contestants, ten boys and ten girls. These were the twenty lucky applicants, out of the approximately 27,000 who had applied for a chance to be crowned. All the ten dainty damsels came swishing onto the stage, all dressed in red. However, when it was the turn of the boys to ride onto the stage, there was no uniformity about their get up. Some were shinning in leather trousers while others were chirpy in designer shalwar kameezes.
Besides the main prize, there were three other sub-categories which were up for grabs. There was the Best Smile, Best Photogenic and Best Hair awards.
However, the comedy of errors began when it was time for the judges to question each of the contestants. One felt that the models could at least have been given an orientation as to what type of questions to expect from the judges. Either the high-flown English of the judges, who by the way ignored calls to put their queries in Urdu, was too complicated to comprehend by the contestants. Or the questions themselves were incredibly unique for the poor larkas and laarkis to answer. There was definitely more beauty and very little brain on the stage that day. But it wasn’t just the contestants who were feeling the heat. Though the evening was quite pleasant, things got a little hot for at least Ms Atiqa and Tapu Javeri. Atiqa stumbled when a contestant picked her name and she couldn’t come up with a question to ask. It was only after Tariq, who was sitting next to her, intervened and ‘suggested’ a question, that Atiqa managed to get herself out of the mess. Then there was Tapu and the way he reacted to the smart-Alec answer of another contestant. He wasn’t at all happy with the thought of being outsmarted by a nobody on the stage.
It was the musical performance of the evening that proved to be the major turn-off of the event. Hardly any of the performances were live. Singers like Junaid Jamshed, Faakhir and Schezad Mughal all came and did their best to lip sync their songs. Even wonder boy, Ahmed Jehanzeb was more busy swaying on the stage than singing his present hit Tu jo nahin. Maybe that was the reason why the crowd wasn’t inspired enough and at the end, all that was left were a few cases of half-hearted claps. Too bad there wasn’t a swimsuit concept! That would certainly have fired up the audience.
When the results were announced, it was an expatriate Pakistani from Australia, Faisal Naveed who took away the Best Male Face award. His female following within the crowd was ecstatic, the most noise any section of the audience made during the whole show. The Best Female Face of the Year was a mademoiselle called Saadia. Besides the top honours, the two also made off with one more award each, Faisal with the Best Smile, while Saadia’s was Ms Photogenic award.
In the end, the show was a good wholesome family affair. No crowd trouble or unnecessary hiccups at the heavily manned entry gate. However, if rumour mills are to be believed, then all was not well, especially during the selection process. Apparently, Faisal, the same chap who took away the grand prize, had a tiff with one of the organizers who in return had him kicked out of the competition. It was only after a senior delegate intervened that Faisal was given another chance — not only to participate, but take home the prize. When contacted, an official at B&H International rebuffed the reports as bogus. But then, what is a high-profile show without any hearsay?
For Zoheb Hassan, it was a personal triumph. It was his concept and idea that got turned into a Face of the Year competition. The whole event was indeed quite unique. But if Zoheb and the others who were concerned in the whole thing, want to organize this event next year as well and want it to grow into something big and worthwhile, they will have to add a bit more spice to the proceedings.
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