Sugar 'n' Spice


They’re not your regular run-of-the-mill girls next door, although they may certainly look it. These ladies have a secret: they can sing! Not only that, but they can do it pretty darn well. To anyone who has an avid interest in the Pakistani music industry, Zeb and Haniya are no strangers: they’re the voices behind the radio and Internet hit, Chup.

Having just recorded their much-anticipated debut album, produced by music maestro Mekaal Hasan, recorded in Digital Fidelity Studio in Lahore and featuring the musical skills of popular drummer Gumby and guitarist Shallum (of Fuzon fame), Zeb and Haniya seem ready to take the music industry by storm. Considering that they have just the right ammunition — they ooze talent and have the support of some of the best in the industry — one can’t wait for this storm to arrive.

What comes as a welcome surprise is that Zeb and Haniya are refreshingly natural: they do not have any false airs about them and neither do they overdose on confidence. Zeb is the primary vocalist with Haniya also on vocals and the guitar. My first impression of Zeb was that she seemed shy, but as the interview progressed she displayed her more outgoing side. On the other hand Haniya, from the first moment onwards, seemed to want to make sure that everyone around her was comfortable enough.

Finding two very good female musicians — itself a rarity in this country — working together, I couldn’t help but wonder how far back do they go together and how did the band form? “I think I met her when I was three months old,” says Haniya seriously with a twinkle in her eyes. “Actually our mothers are sisters, so we are first cousins. And we were born exactly a month and three weeks apart.”

As one of the most popular songs downloaded on the Internet and having gotten generous airplay, the song Chup is one of Zeb and Haniya’s most popular songs. Written and composed during a break when they were in college, Haniya was visiting Zeb at college during one of their breaks and “we went down to the basement and we found an abandoned bookstore there. And over there Haniya got her guitar and started playing. That is the place where we made Chup for the first time,” said Zeb.

“We started writing songs and I had not written any before that. But by the time we finished college we had around four songs,” adds Haniya.

When did you guys decide to get into music professionally? “Mekaal (Hasan) was my friend’s friend. I met him randomly and was pleasantly surprised at how accessible and what a nice guy he is,” says Zeb. “He was kind enough to get us into the studio and record us two songs. I remember on our way back he handed us a CD and after listening to it we were really excited. It sounded like a real song! He really pushed us actually, always telling us that we should take our music further.

“The recordings that we got from Mekaal, we put them on the Internet to give it to our friends,” says Haniya. “About a year after that someone said that it is being played on the radio. I don’t know who put it there but someone heard it on the Internet, pulled it off and started airing it.”

About how they would describe their overall sound now, especially the one in their upcoming album, Zeb says, “It is more arranged as it has been six years now. And we really had a lot of time to think about where we wanted to go. Not to mention the fact that we had the country’s leading musician arranging and helping us shape up the songs. I think for a good three or four weeks we just jammed with them.”

“It is bluesy, in that the bass is there in most of the songs,” adds Haniya. “All the instruments are live. Gumby is great, he is not doing the straight four-by-four beat in any of the songs. Each song has come out very different.”

“And there is also a lot of folk touch to it along with a lot of jazz and blues,” says Zeb about the album. “We have at least two songs that are about women’s liberation and there are some romantic numbers too, a few naughty numbers and some playful ones. We also have kind of a fusion thing going on and a bit of classical in the album.”

With the kind of music that you have, have you considered performing live? “The kind of music we have isn’t a large crowd kind of a thing, very high-energy rock music usually does the trick,” says Haniya, adding, “our music is slightly more mellow, more intimate and so a medium-sized crowd would find it more suitable.”

“I don’t think that bigger crowds will be the problem. I think basically it would be the kind of crowd. I mean it is not bhangra,” says Zeb. “I know that we are probably not Atif Aslam for sure.” At this point I disagree with them as I am of the opinion that they do have what it takes to deliver a performance to a large crowd — all they need is a good set of back-up musicians and a decent sound system.

As women vocalists are extremely few and far between in the Pakistani pop industry, what do Zeb and Haniya have to say about it? “I think the whole scene for women musicians is so limited that sometimes I get thrown off by comparisons of this one and that one,” says Zeb quite seriously. “I think our categorical thing is that we are very excited about women and whether you are Arooj (Aftab) or not and whatever you are doing, it is so great to see so many people come up because it is part of the industry that has just not developed.”

“The more women come up, it will be easier for other girls to take to the field”, continues Haniya. “There are going to be more players, more role models.”

Having recently performed in both Islamabad and Karachi and wowed audiences in both cities, Zeb and Haniya are predicted to be the next big thing. Not only do they deliver a mesmerising live performance, but they have the right mix of talent and attitude to go. And more important, they also have the backing and the support of those who have been around in the industry for a long time.

-- Photography by Amean J.

First Published:
Images
August 26, 2007

Ishq-e-Laila

Considered a classic in Pakistani cinema, Ishq-i-Laila (1950), directed by J.C. Anand, centers around the legendary love story of Laila Mujnoon. Incidentally Mr Anand’s son and his family were also present at the time of the screening. He related how around that time, another movie, Laila Mujnoon, was rumoured to be in the making, and since it dealt with a similar subject matter, the production and shoot of Ishq-i-Laila was also hastened. The movie was made in 30 days and also premiered on the same day as Laila Mujnoon.

When the screening of the movie began, the hall was only half full. But by the time it finished, it was packed. The entire experience was punctuated by applause from the audience at dialogues and scenes that were most dramatic and sensational. Several scenes in the movie also invited laughter, especially some in the beginning which depicted a budding junior school romance between Laila and Qais. It was somewhat funny having two pre-pubescent children deliver romantic couplets more suitable for adults and share ‘loving’ looks that was completely unbecoming on them.

Another scene which was a huge hit with the audience, inviting a lot of hoots as well, came towards the ending in which, after having married Laila, the Prince of Iraq suddenly realises his mistake and declares that from that moment onwards, Laila is his sister.

The movie gave us an insight into the movie-making style predominant in the 1950s, as well as the fashion present during that time. Perhaps the story line and the movie itself will not be relatable to people in the present age, but it isn’t entirely unwatchable. It did drag on for a tad too long.

First Published:
Images
August 19, 2007

Closer Home

Screened on the third day of the Festival, Mark Tulley’s Face of India centered around the lifestyle that the ordinary people in India live, with a focus on the social infrastructure provided by the government to provide them with services and how much of these services are they really benefitting from. It is a look at the intensely bureaucratic system that the government offices in India are a victim of even today and seeks to find answers from various individuals working within them or in organisations related to or affected by them.

Face of India opens with a view of the condition in which the government offices are kept and maintained today, including a clip of an entire room full of land deeds contested by different owners. The sheer magnitude of the task at hand is displayed and the officer who also serves as our guide informs us that there aren’t enough resources to convert these files into a digital format and/or sort through them. Admitting that such antiquated methods of dealing with social and legal issues gives birth to corruption — its very easy for anybody to destroy or tamper with documents that have been there since time immemorial — the officer adds that it can be limited. Also, at times, the salaries of government officials are so meager that they have to rely on bribes just to make ends meet.

We are also taken into the villages and shown how an ordinary Dalit (literal meaning: broken) — a lower caste Hindu — lives his life. Reflecting the sheer poverty and lack of support they expect from the government also because they are poor — they hold no illusions regarding their place in the country and are fully aware that rights and privileges can be bought — we also see that they have been given political importance and that they constitute a significant place in Indian politics because of their sheer number.

Going from extreme poverty we are taken to the residence of Maharaja Amarinder Singh, from the royal Sikh family when they used to rule over Amritsar. We are shown how, unlike other Indian princes, Amarinder has managed to adapt to the current socio-political system and has chosen to assume power via politics (he is popular candidate amongst the Sikh community). He gives us an insight on his life and how he grew up and he differences that were predominant between the ruling class and the majority of the Indian population and so on.

An interesting point of view was presented by Laboni Jane, a health-care individual in India working in an NGO which directs its services towards mothers and children. Despite being a first-class graduate in Economics from a prestigious Indian university, Laboni has chosen to work for the welfare of the people. We see her take a two-hour journey to work — she is lucky if she finds a seat to sit on — and deal with the scores of mothers and children who come to the NGO premises seeking refuge from whatever ailment afflicts them.

We see her go out into the villages and talk to the people there, stressing that it is just as important to listen to them as it is to educate them, since you learn both ways. At the end of it, when questioned about the Indian government’s lack of effectiveness in implementing adequate health care, she defends the government and says that she considers her NGO as an enhancement of what it is trying to do for the people.

Despite covering issues predominant in India, one of the reasons why the screening of these documentaries was important was because they, to a larger extent, reflect upon similar issues predominant at home, in Pakistan.

First Published:
Images
August 19, 2007

Backstage Partition

In one of the documentaries being screened at the Shanaakht Festival, Beyond Partition was based on how South Asian film-makers view and have expressed what they think and felt about the division of India into two separate states. Film-makers such as Sabiha Sumar, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, M.S. Sathyu, Shyam Benegal, Chandra Prakash, Dwivedi and Indian film historians and archivists such as Prof Suresh Charia and P.K. Nair, spoke about different Indian moves where the Partition was talked about, albeit subtlety and on a handful of films that were made on the subject itself.

Notable movies mentioned in the documentary was M.S. Sathyu’s Garam Hawa (1971) which was considered a landmark film since it changed the way Muslims in the subcontinent were perceived in Indian cinema regarding Partition. Also, a movie titled Tamaas (1987) made by film-maker Govind, based the movie on the philosophy of the novel by the same name, showed the Sikh perception of Partition. Several clips from the movie were shown which included a particularly haunting scene in which an aged Sikh militant, standing in the middle of a burnt, deserted and completely destroyed street, looks around in shock and horror. With acting that was completely natural, the scene lacked the overdramatic acting predominant in most movies of that era. Another scene from the movie showed Sikh women walking towards a well behind their temple, intent on committing mass suicide with their children, while the men of their family fought on the other side — for them it was better to die than to have themselves compromised on the hands of the ‘enemies’. The sheer determination and single-mindedness with which we see the women first walk and then jump into the well is what both grabs and haunts the viewer (not to mention the background score which added to the intensity in the scene). Sabiha Sumar’s Khamosh Pani (2003) and the fact that it continues to remain under the scrutiny of the censor board in Pakistan, thereby not making it to theatres here, was a refreshing view on what the women went through both during and post-Partition. Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s Naseem (1995) was based on the Muslim viewpoint of the destruction of the Babri Mosque in India in 1992. According to the film-maker, he was never concerned with the mosque itself, he was more perturbed by “the sadness that surrounded it and the fact that it was allowed to happen.” According to Shyam Benegal, “The Babri Masjid destruction shook many beliefs of the Indians who believed that they were ‘naturally’ secular.”

Beyond Partition is one of those documentaries which one can see time and time again and still find something new to reflect upon. It’s an honest insight into the hearts and minds of those individuals who are responsible for communicating stories and their perception on Partition and the events that followed it, which some claim, haunt us to this day.

First Published:
Images
August 19, 2007

Veteran actors come together for Habib Mamoon

KARACHI Aug 16: Featuring a cast of seasoned actors who haven’t performed on stage for around 22 years, Habib Mamoon, an adaptation of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, will open at the Arts Council here on August 24.A tragicomedy, the play is directed and produced by Zia Mohyeddin and the adaptation has been done by Zahida Zaidi.

It is being presented by The Citizens Foundation (TCF) in collaboration with the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa).

Habib Mamoon is set in pre-partition Lucknow, which the organisers and the cast of the play believe will make it more relevant to local audiences.

The cast includes Rahat Kazmi who will be playing the lead role, Arshad Mahmud as the ailing professor Kalimuddin, Talat Hussain, Zaheen Tahira, Jehanara Hai and will feature the theatre debut of Aymen Ali.

Rahat Kazmi said that he considers Chekhov’s plays as having a universal appeal, transcending cultural and time-specific boundaries. He also stressed upon the fact that the story-line was very complex and would require serious attention while it is being performed.

The cast, all of whom are well-known television personalities and renowned for their theatrical skills, will be coming together on stage after a 22-year gap.

About performing after such a long time Rahat Kazmi said he was concerned about not being equipped with the same energy and memory as he was during his younger days.

Arshad Mahmud simply commented that after having spent a considerable period critiquing other peoples’ performances, they shouldn’t rob themselves of the pleasure of receiving some criticism in return.

Opening at the Arts Council on Aug 24, the play will run for a full 10 days with the final performance on September 2.

The proceeds from the play will go to TCF.

First Published:
The Metropolitan
August 17, 2007

Shanakht Festival concludes on a positive note

KARACHI, Aug 14: The fourth and final day of the Shanakht Festival on Tuesday was marked by the screening of a classic film, a storytelling session and a rock concert. The festival, organised by the Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP), was held at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi.

The 1950s classic film Ishq-i-Laila provided an interesting insight into the cinematic style predominant in the early stages of our film industry. The storyline and antiquated, exaggerated acting style invited a lot of laughter from the audience, even though it was not meant to be humorous.

Another interesting aspect of the day was the interactive ‘Meri Kahani Meri Zabani,’ event where speakers shared their stories about partition and where the audience asked them questions at the end of the session. The guests for Independence Day were Admiral (retd) Hasnain, one of founding fathers of the Pakistan Navy, and Nabi Ahmed Khan, police officer in pre-partition Delhi. They kept the audience captivated in a session which lasted roughly over an hour, as the audience was given a firsthand account of incidents revolving around partition and a personal insight to people responsible for giving us Pakistan, such as Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

The Shanakht Festival concluded with a concert titled ‘Rock Your Shanaakht,’ which saw performances by bands such as Taal Charisma and the Aunty Disco Project as well as Ali Alam and Islamabad-based Zeb and Haniya to a packed auditorium.

Meanwhile, the third day of the festival on Monday featured the screening of two documentaries: Mark Tully’s Face of India, in which he showed the remnants of the British colonial Raj in India, and Stones of the Raj, narrated by noted historian William Dalrymple. Tully’s film focused on India’s bureaucratic system while the second documentary was more focused on the monuments and the railroad system constructed during the Raj.

However the event that most marked the third day was the Anwar Maqsood and Moin Akhtar stage performance of Loose Talk, their popular television show. Using Pakistan and the diverse kind of individuals that inhabit it as a theme, the show was a huge hit, inviting laughter and applause from the audience in the fully-packed auditorium. On popular demand, Moin Akhtar was asked to do an encore performance, which he did, embodying the character of a Bengali man. They both received a standing ovation at the end of the performance.

They CAP team plan to make the Shanakht Festival an annual event around Independence Day.

First Published:
The Metropolitan
August 15, 2007

Festival seeks to discover identity

KARACHI, Aug 12: A play titled Jinnay Lahore Nahin Vakhya kicked off the four-day Shanaakht Festival at the Arts Council here on Saturday. The festival will conclude on Independence Day.

Organised by the Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP), the festival features photo and art exhibitions, documentaries, plays and talks centred on the theme of identity.

Jinnay Lahore Nahin Vakhya, performed by Sheema Kirmani and the Tehreek-i-Niswan group, played to a packed auditorium. The story centres on a real-life incident in post-partition Lahore of a family who migrates from Lucknow.

After having spent several months in refugee camps they are allotted a house, which they later discover is occupied by the matriarch of the previous Hindu family that lived there. She refuses to leave and while she is there, the ownership of the house cannot be transferred to the new occupants.

The play sees them adapting to an amicable life together, but they are confronted with trouble from the neighbourhood thugs who object to the old woman’s presence on the basis of her being a non-Muslim.

The play was well-received and the cast and crew were given a rather long standing ovation.

On Sunday, the second day of the festival, documentaries such as The Last Days of the Raj and Beyond Partition were screened in the auditorium. A storytelling session by Hameed Aliani (grandson of the Jam of Lasbela) and Haji Isa was also held in the courtyard.

But the event that marked the second day was a talk held by Ayesha Tammy Haq, in which she invited six other guests, out of which five showed up.

What was heartening, other than the personal accounts of the guests themselves, was the participation of the audience towards the discussion where some asked questions and others shared their opinions on partition as well as other aspects related to it.

During the remainder of the festival documentaries such as Mark Tully’s Face of India and Stones of the Raj will be aired, while a storytelling session by Anwar Maqsood and Moin Akhtar will also feature.

Founded by documentary film-maker and journalist Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, CAP consists of Sarah Taher Khan, Omar Rahim, Amean Jan Mohammad, Durriya Kazi, Minal Rahimtoola, Sabeen Mahmud and Altaf Qureshi.

First Published:
The Metropolitan
August 13, 2007

'I am Pakistani'

With her Mac on one side and a host of notebooks and papers on the table in front of her, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, journalist and independent film-maker (Reinventing the Taliban and the upcoming The Promise — A journey through Afghanistan) invites me to sit on her ‘see-saw’ sofa in the house she grew up in. She is energetic, loud, open and most importantly, she’s on a mission. Teaming up with a group of individuals, she’s formed the Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP) and they’re on a mission to do exactly that — archive the history of Pakistan in whatever way or form possible. And communicate it as well.

Sharmeen’s baby, CAP’s first project is the Shanakht Festival which has already gone underway from August 11 and will continue till August 14 — Pakistan’s Independence Day. The first of its kind, Shanakht aims to explore our identity as a nation collectively and individually as citizens of this country through a series of readings, photography and painting exhibitions, plays, interactive discussions, documentaries and performances. Some of the paintings on display include six life-sized murals based on every decade in Pakistan’s history; the photography is predominantly a contemporary look by prominent photographer on Pakistan itself. The documentaries includes those based on the last days of Lord Mountbatten as the viceroy of pre-Partition India, how different film-makers view Partition and also a documentary examining the social and political issues predominant such as poverty and inflation as well as the remnants of the British rule over South Asia: the bureaucracy.

Sheema Kirmani along with Tehreek-i-Niswan presented a play yesterday based on Lahore in 1947 on an immigrant family coming to stay at an allotted haveli, seemingly vacated, after Partition only to discover that the matriarch of the previous household continued to inhabit it. The dialogues had been taken from the poet, Nasir Kazmi’s original letters and writings and the story line itself was based on an actual incident that had taken place.

Talking about how the CAP formed, Sharmeen says, “Last year in the summers, I was having a discussion about Pakistan: its history, where we are and where we are headed. I realised that there was no place where you could absorb Pakistan’s history,” adding that there was a lack of national identity that the common Pakistani has, she mentioned that “we are lost as people.” Hence the idea of creating a platform through which one could know Pakistan, where it came from, who were the people who chose to support its formation along with the stages through which the country has progressed, both culturally and historically, took birth.

Realising that the project itself was too big for her to handle on her own, she brought together, in her own words, “a group of mad, creative but ambitious individuals.” These individuals happen to be Sarah Taher Khan (CEO Radio1 FM91), Omar Rahim, Amean Jan Muahmmad (photographer), Durriya Kazi (HoD Visual Arts, Karachi University), Minal Rahimtoola, Sabeen Mahmud (COO b.i.t.s.) and Altaf Qureshi (lawyer).

“We don’t give the general public any form of entertainment that requires them to use their brain cells,” says Sharmeen, talking about the content of the festival itself. “The partition of 1947 was a traumatic experience and remembering it gives a sense of how Pakistan came into existence. And who were the people who made it happen.” According to Sharmeen a lot of the photographs and material used in the festival had been donated to them by ‘like-minded indivduals’, also including some of the documentaries. “Looking at them you realise: we were civilised as a nation,” she says, observing thus after going through some of the photographs, “and now in some cases, it’s become so bad, it’s unrecognisable”. Talking about the murals exhibited in the festival, based on Pakistan’s history she say “that tidbit of history will be more alive than by just reading it in textbooks.”

An interesting aspect of the festival is that it is completely free of cost. From the exhibitions, plays, documentaries to the open discussions, street-theatre and musical performances, this is an event that costs the attendee nothing. At the minimum it requires that one simply to attend or as in the case of “closed events” pick their passes up early since they will be given out at a first-come, first-serve basis. It doesn’t end here, to ensure that people do not have a reason not to come, CAP has taken care of transporting interested individuals to the venue as well: “There will be free buses available on the 10^th and the 14^th — the two holidays — from 11am to 8pm, every two hours, back and forth from Nipa Chowrangi, Society Office near the Quaid’s Mausoleum and the Korangi Chowk,” says Sharmeen. “We don’t want to give people an excuse for not coming,” she adds.

Every person working for the festival has done so willingly and without expecting any monetary benefits in return. Perhaps a first in the history of the Karachi Arts Council, but they have provided the venue free-of-cost as well. Even the logo which had been designed by Khizra Munir from Interflow to the vocal booths provided by Radio1 FM91 has been done pro bono.

Speaking of the future of CAP and what it hopes to achieve, Sharmeen says: “A lot of this work will be electronically available on our websites. My hope is that next year we’ll be doing something different along those same lines. We’re hoping that old buildings in Karachi that we can either have donated to us or given to a trust so that we can build a museum. I imagine in 10 years’ time that this will be the place where people will give lectures and talks,” she adds about what they have currently collected so far that “everything that is being received is going to the museum. Till then we’ll look for a temporary place to house them.”

At the end of it all, more important than whatever goes on in the Shanakht Festival itself is what people will take home with them — a sense of renewed identity and a stronger sense of belonging and connection to the country they belong to as well as a desire to help bring it forward into the future. There aren’t many individuals willing to take time out and work for the enlightenment and betterment of the society itself, let alone doing it without expecting any materialistic benefit — CAP happen to be some of those ‘creative, mad but ambitious individuals’ who are doing precisely that. And it is important because: “We need to celebrate 60 years of Pakistan. I have walked across the border to Afghanistan and Iran and I have seen the other side,” says Sharmeen, adding that “while we have what we have, we need to learn to appreciate it and move forward.”

First Published:

Images

August 12, 2007