Second time lucky?


With a career spanning over 17 years, Ali Haider has seen it all. Both his personal and professional lives have followed a similar pattern: he arrived with a bang in the early 1990s, stole people’s hearts with his shy smile and pop-tunes and he continued to do so until late in the decade. Enjoying one hit after another, he was the only local artiste to have released over 13 albums (10 of which went multi-platinum), until the release of his album Jadu.

Although critically acclaimed, Jadu — a trance album — did not do well with the masses and marked the beginning of the fall of his popularity. Around the same time, from having enjoyed a spotless reputation throughout his career, he was suddenly up against scandals that seemed to follow him everywhere. He retreated from the limelight and, after a while of reclusion, has now returned fresh with no qualms about his past.

In this exclusive interview to Images, Ali spills the beans on what he has been up to. With one single from his upcoming album, Jab Kabhi, already making rounds on the tube, he plans to release his 14th album, Janey Do, in September. Further elaborating upon how this album is going to be, he says, “I will be changing my sound in this album the way I did in Jadu. It’s not exactly trance, but it is something from Ali Haider.” With self-composed melodies and compositions, some of the songs in the album have been written by Anwar Maqsood, while Shahi, Shezi and Faraz Anwar (the latter no doubt with his guitar), have contributed to the music.

Ali is obviously excited with the prospect of his latest release. “My new album will surprise you. I’m practicing with Ustad Siddiqui saheb. Although this certainly doesn’t mean I’m going towards the classical side of music, I am training and refining my voice.” He smiles, elaborating upon how the album will reflect a more mature, darker side of his personality. He has left the Purani Jeans days behind; this album is a reflection of how he has evolved into the man that he is now. He states that the feedback on his album so far has been one of shock and surprise since he has sung completely different kinds of songs in it, but he reveals no further.

Speaking about music, he relates his experience of singing for the band Rushk. It must be mentioned here that Rushk embodies a sound which is very much inclined towards rock and metal, a genre of music that is not normally associated with Ali Haider. “I told them I needed to be alone for a while. I was with the sound engineer for about half-an-hour during which we practiced. The band members were very excited (with the end result) and said that the song couldn’t have been better.” So then, has he ever thought about switching to rock? “I do songs which I believe in and which I feel I can sing. If I were asked to make an album based on that kind of music, I may not be able to do so on my own. If someone else is producing the music and I just have to express my inner self, then I may do it. But on my own, I won’t be able to compile an album based entirely on that sound.”

And how was the experience of working with Rushk? “Excellent,” he says laughing. “In fact, I did a song with Uns, Goli Maar Zamanay Ko. That was one song which hasn’t been released yet, but is available on the Internet. It’s even more different than the song I did with Rushk: very funny, very serious and political. It’s for a series called Golimaar, which will be written and directed by Uns. I like singing all kinds of song, but when I sing for my album, I sing what defines me.” Ali is known for diversifying his career into acting. He started in this field when he was offered a role in a musical play by Anwar Maqsood, somewhere in the late ‘80s. Since then, he has worked in quite a few plays, tele films and Eid programmes. He has even tried his hand on the big screen, in his debut film with Meera that went unnoticed. In fact he was once offered a role in a film opposite Manisha Koirala, but the venture failed to materialise because of scheduling problems. He opines upon acting, “When you are doing a play, you are portraying a character, whereas in music, you are portraying who you really are. Acting is really tough, especially if you don’t believe in that role.”

His recent marriage came quite as a surprise to many because despite his boy-next-door looks, he has never really been associated with women before. In response to why he took so long to get married, he relates how he had been in a very serious relationship a couple of years ago which didn’t work out. Heartbroken, he decided not to get involved with anyone any time soon until he was introduced to Sabiqa through a friend. He left the matter to his mother, who instantly took a liking to her, and what followed after was that he finally got married.

On how he is finding married life, Ali responds happily, “She’s a lot of fun and it’s going great because she has adjusted wonderfully into my family. All my sisters live abroad and it’s difficult for my parents to live alone. The best part is that they love her and she loves being in the house with them. It’s such a filmi ending,” he adds with a laugh. With the video of the first single Jab kabhi —directed by Sohail Javed — from his upcoming album recently launched on television, it’s still a little too early to predict whether Ali will retake the world by storm and prove himself again.

Jadu, his past experiment with music, lacked appeal for a mass audience — a market that Ali is now targeting and hoping to recapture. Whereas the songs he recorded in Rushk are nothing short of brilliant, steering completely away from the typical Ali Haider sound, one feels he should still pursue with the same producer who worked on the Rushk tracks.

What with the impending launch of his album this coming September and his hands full with acting gigs, one wonders whether Ali has something he would like to tell his fans. He stresses upon the need to respect our musicians and artistes and expresses disappointment about how Pakistani artistes are looked down upon by Pakistanis themselves. “Don’t wait for Pakistani songs to come on MTV before beginning to appreciate them. Go out, grab the CD and listen to it. We need to start believing in our own people,” he says.

First Published:
Images
June 25th, 2006