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Lahore awards its best
PTV deserves credit for organizing awards functions regularly, both on central and regional basis. Recently, PTV Lahore Centre organized its regional ceremony in which awards were given out in 25 different categories to artists and technicians.
The ceremony was held at the Noor Jehan Hall of the Lahore Arts Council. The best thing about the programme was the beautiful set, which had a colour scheme of blue and cream and almost everyone present appreciated it. Unfortunately, it was not properly lit up and the cameras weren’t able to capture the beauty of the set. Designer Mohammed Azim must have been rather disappointed.
The ceremony started off with Noor-ul-Hasan, who has now become a necessity for such events because not only does he do his job efficiently, the compere also tries to bear the burden of his co-hosts. But he was not the only compere of the evening as no less than ten artists, which included Asifa Khan, Soofia, Nadia Afghan, Mohammad Ali, Seemi Raheel, Rozina Nadeem, Yasir Qureshi, Nusrat Faraz and Alia Shah took turns compereing. There was no written script and all the comperes were using their own words for the introduction of award winners and guests. This experiment apparently failed to keep the momentum going. Most of the comperes did an average job and only Noor-ul-Hasan, Yasir Qureshi and Seemi Raheel were able to deliver to satisfaction. Mohammed Ali and Nadia Afghan made a mess of it on stage. The result would have been much better if a proper script had been used for the ceremony.
In the awards segment, Tauqir Nasir won the best actor award for his performance in Punjabi serial Pakhi Waas. He said, while receiving his award from Uzma Gillani, that after working for 25 years for PTV, it was the first time that he was considered for the award. He was obviously not amused at being ignored for so many years. Samina Khalid won the best actress award for the same serial. This was her highest achievement in her 20-year career in which she has done hundreds of plays.
Ghayoor Akhtar and Tasneem Kausar won best supporting actor and actress awards respectively. Hafeezullah Khan won best writer, independent play award for his Seraiki play Dithay. Jehanzeb Qamar won best writer’s award for Punjabi serial Tapdi Chaanh. Aslam Khawar Sial won the best producer award for drama serials and Aslam Qureshi won the same award for independent plays. The best singer award went to Samina Iqbal, a talented local singer and the duo of Jameel Mastana and Naseer Parwana were declared best folk singers for the year.
Other award winners were Karamat Mughal (producer children’s programmes), Mohammad Fayyaz (producer current affairs), Asif Qazi (producer general programmes), Basharat Khan (producer shows), Asad Jamil (producer music), Mohsin Raza (composer), Abdul Kareem Qudsi (lyricist), Irfan Jamil (newscaster), Dilnawaz Khan (cameraman), Ibrar Ahmed (technical excellence, audio), Zubair Mela (technical excellence, video), Akbar Ali (engineering) and Zulfiqar Ali (make-up).
The weakest part of the function was its entertainment segments. Almost all the singers failed to inject the necessary zest into the programme. Most of the songs sung were not melodious and their presentations were not at all impressive. The singers who participated in the ceremony included Adeel Burki, Humera Arshad, Jutt Brothers, Arif Lohar, Humera Channa, Saira Naseem, Shamsa Kanwal, Shahida Mini, Saima Jehan, Nooran Lal, Waris Beg, Zarqa and Jawad Ahmed. Only Jawad was able to turn this dull evening into something lively. Nooran Lal and Humera Channa’s song were also above average.
Last year the same regional awards were beautifully presented by the same team, headed by Farrukh Bashir, so it was surprising why this year’s presentation of the songs was so ordinary. One remembers how amazed everyone was to see the traditional horse dance on stage and other impressive performances. This year, perhaps PTV’s policy regarding dance performances has changed or perhaps a financial crisis was the reason behind the poor presentation. The good thing, though, was that PTV invited only those persons for award distribution who have some sort of cultural affiliation. Usually, such functions were dominated by politicians unfamiliar with any type of culture. Artists who distributed awards included Mustafa Qureshi, Rubina Qureshi, Qavi Khan, Uzma Gillani, Dr Arifa Syed, S. M. Zafar, Justice Nasira Javed Iqbal, Attaullah Isa Khelvi, Nayyar Ali Dada, Amjad Islam Amjad and Zakauddin. PTV’s General Manger, Moneeza Hashmi also gave a couple of awards.
One thing that was abjectly missing from the proceedings was spontaneity. All comperes looked stressed while making the announcements and left the stage as early as possible. Only Rubina Qureshi and Amjad Islam Amjad were invited on stage to say a few words. Attaullah Isa Khelvi was not looking happy when he was ignored by the compere and after giving the award, he instantly left the hall. Khalid Abbas Dar’s one-man show was interesting, but when he started criticizing the management, the organizers panicked and the compere present on stage failed to tackle the situation.
The awards ceremony seemed to reflect the inside story of PTV and one can somewhat assess what lies beneath the surface.
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