When stars fall from the heavens

The audience of Karachi was recently witness to a concert that was déjà vu for some and history–in–the–making for all. Courtesy of The Musik and with a band consisting of the perfect line-up: Shallum on lead, Khalid on bass, Immu on keyboards and Gumby on drums, Alamgir performed some of his classics, to a fully-packed auditorium, coupled with a flavour of rock that breathed new life into his songs and made them all the more enjoyable to young and old fans alike.

With a set design inspired by Andy Warhaul’s Pop Art, the show was opened by Aaroh who had the crowd rocking to songs such as Sawal, Na Kaho (one of their more popular songs, dedicated to Alamgir), Yaara (off their new upcoming album) and a rock rendition of Abida Parveen’s Yaad Gadoli. One would think that any adaptation of an Abida Parveen song would end up a complete mess, but Aaroh pulled it off well enough to have people singing along and somewhat head-banging to a rocked up Sufi-song.

Alamgir came in the midst of resonating cheers and in direct contrast to the pumped-up energy Aaroh had left off, launched into a soulful harmonica solo which became the beginning of his song, Shaam sey pehlay ghar aajana. This was followed by Dil key sab rastey, teray hi wastey which found Shallum give into his first guitar solo of the evening, affecting Alamgir enough to have him drop on stage. In the words of Alamgir “It’s like the music of the seventies and eighties meeting with the music of 2006”

Amongst all of the songs that he performed, the most memorable were the Spanish rendition of Gauntanamera (Albela Rahi to those unaware of the source of Alamgir’s inspiration for his first ever televised song), the up-beat Sansoon Mein which had the crowd singing along, Dekha na tha in which he left the stage and joined the audience and the heart-felt rendition of his Bengali song, Aamay Bhashaili Rey during which he mimicked movements made by sailors onboard boats, and which reduced both fans and non-fans alike to tears.

Entertainer to the core, it was amazing to watch that even after all these years, Alamgir could belt out song after song, jump around the stage and feel his music with almost limit-less energy. He is one of those rare entertainers who completely shed their inhibitions and throw themselves into their songs whole-heartedly. At the end of it all, he received a standing ovation while he and his band-members bowed a final goodbye to the audience. If this writer wasn’t an Alamgir fan before, she is now.

Credits: Photo by Fayyaz Ahmed.

First Published:
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August 13th, 2006