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Red-hot diva
Shazia is cute — a tiny frame topped with a heart-shaped face framed by short, straight, brown locks. It’s hard to picture her in the shoes of a public relations manager at a reputed hotel in Karachi until you register the office tucked away behind some secret winding corridor. It’s also hard to ignore a nonchalant Iraj Manzoor playing a somewhat mute witness to the conversation that is about to follow.
After a round of introductions and a benign “just pretend I’m invisible” from Iraj, we settle down to business — the controversy surrounding Shazia’s (or Schaz which she prefers) first music video, Jalan. A local music channel recently banned the video, alleging that the content was unfit for broadcast. The video. however, continues to be aired regularly from yet another music channel.
Schaz has been singing for over a decade now, performing in local hotels as well as a bar in Singapore. “When I made Jalan, Ayesha Alam wanted to play it on City FM89. Once it went on air, I realized I’d made a fan following and people wanted a video for it.”
So where does the crick come into the picture? “It came as a rude shock when a private TV music channel stopped playing my song. When I called them up, the reason they gave me was (mildly put) it had unacceptable carnal connotations. I didn’t know what to say as the allegation was absolutely so ridiculous.”
The Jalan video is, in fact, rather abstract what with fleeting images in black and white. It seemed imperative to inquire about the concept behind it. Apparently, Schaz writes and composes her own songs. “It’s not a typical song. I wrote it in a different mood and it is about the sad part of life. We (Iraj included) wanted to make an unusual video to go with it, so we came up with split personality disorders while making the story board.
“It’s about a working woman in Pakistan who is frustrated with life. She has an argument with her boss and gets fired. The video shows that when you are stressed out you do weird things, and likewise, the woman is too depressed to care about what is going on around her.” In that morose state of mind, she meets a person who happens to be quite her opposite, both in looks and demeanour.”
‘Jalan is not a typical song. I wrote it in a different mood and it is about the sad part of life. We (Iraj included) wanted to make an unusual video to go with it, so we came up with split personality disorders while making the story board,’ says Schaz
According to Schaz, Iraj was the only girl for the job because of their stark differences. “Look at me and look at her,” she says obviously referring to her own short height and Iraj’s tall frame. “We show them doing unusual things that you don’t generally see girls doing in videos such as playing basketball, going for a drive, playing around in a shopping mall. When next you see me walking down those very places with my friend, I am, in fact, walking all alone. Iraj is now only an imaginary friend. That is so easy to comprehend, because her image fades away.”
The song had been running on that particular channel for two months before the ban. “I think people just needed something to talk about. I asked a 10-year-old what he figured out from the video and he said yes, you’re roaming around with your imaginary friend. I believe the director, Wajahat Rauf, has done a great job and the message has been conveyed very nicely. She wakes up the next morning to discover that she is going crazy and none of what happened was real. It has a sad end to it,” she says.
One wonders if it was wise to venture into such abstract territory at all. Why not play it safe to begin with? “Firstly, I am an individual with my own concepts, and I would never want to sing Jalan in a khait wearing a lachcha like you see in bhangra videos every day. And secondly, I believe the concept has been delivered to perfection by the director,” says Schaz.It is only then that Iraj snorts her approval in the background. “Wajahat Rauf called the music channel and tried to convince them otherwise but to no avail. Surely there is something seriously wrong there.”
So what it a case of the wrong channel at the wrong time? “I have received great feedback from other channels, and they have no issues with Jalan whatsoever. Besides, few people understand my music so I don’t need to have a mass following to make me happy. I am not willing to entertain everybody and I cannot move my backside to the beat. I am satisfied with my niche market,” she says.
Apparently some feathers have certainly been ruffled here. “It’s okay for me if people say they don’t know Schaz. I’m not expecting much more. But this episode was a bit disappointing because being the first music channel they claim they support upcoming female recording artistes. As it is, there are so few female singers that people are always complaining. The disappointing bit was coming up with something good and having to face the ban for no concrete reason. My advice is to practice what you preach, and if you can’t do it, don’t make tall claims at all.”
In any case, it seems the encounter has had a humbling effect on Schaz’s defying demeanour. “I’m thinking of taking a guy in my next music video,” she jokes. “But seriously though, this video prepared me for a lot of things I could never have foreseen. I am definitely going to keep my individuality. I am looking for support from music channels, not negative publicity. Because of them, I had people approaching me from a section of the press with all kinds of wild assumptions and allegations.”
Iraj appears to have taken things in stride. “To me, this incident made the Jalan video all the more better,” she says unperturbed. “People are perceiving it in so many different ways that it’s not simply funny; it is already larger than life. I’m happy about it.”
Schaz plans to release her debut album in April, and one of her singles does sound worthy of being a sitter-upper with Aamir Zaki on the guitar. With the kind of songs she plans to churn out, it still may be a bit too soon to assume the exact flavour of her music. “People should get a life and open their eyes. I want to talk about realities, and love is not the only reality of life,” she says.
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