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By Dr. Amjad Parvez
The Inimitable
Faakhir By Sumeha Khalid
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M
usic sensation F a a k h i r Mehmood is as busy as one can be. Concerts, tours and of course his latest album, Jee Chahay, are keeping him super busy. As soon as the album debuted, it was lapped up by the public at large. His single Allah Kare was especially popular
and carried a catchy tune that is central to most of Faakhir’s music. The song also featured Mahnoor Baloch and Meeka, giving it an added edge. Pakistan Today recently caught up with this indomitable musician and grilled him to come clean about all his musical ventures! Q: Ten years back, could you have imagined that you would become
this famous? How does it feel? A: I don’t consider being famous a big deal, to me it’s nothing special! On the contrary I consider being happy and being loved far to be far more important; perhaps that’s the reason I have never felt famous. Q: How and when did you decide to become a musician? A: My career as a musician just happened, it panned out itself - I had never planned to be a musician. I studied to get a degree in electrical engineering, which I eventually did receive. However, my life took an entirely different course when it came down to my career… classic case of fate I guess! Q: Who gave you your first break? A: Nothing h a p p e n e d overnight. I performed at a number of small events and total sum ofthose baby steps made me what I am today. Q: Like many other musicians did you ever want to do vocals for Indian movies? A: I came very close to playback singing twice; however, my plans didn’t materialize due to one situation or the other. Even so, two of my songs were plagiarized and used in a few Bollywood movies. Q: What’s keeping you busy currently? Tell us about your latest
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album? A: My last album was Jee Chaahay. Jee Chaahay is a reflective album; I have expressed my experiences in life with people – both good and not so good, my emotional highs and lows, my break-ups with the people I love or loved at some point in time, nostalgia, various situations; it depicts my state of mind at various junctures in life. I feel that everyone will find some relatable elements in this album. Besides that, concerts, tours and travel are keeping me busy at present and I continue to work on music and compositions for future releases. PT-Your hit number Allah Karey from Jee Chahay features Mahnoor Baloch as the main protagonist in the video. What made you choose Mahnoor out of the all the young and beautiful models around? FM-Mahnoor Baloch is gorgeous and there’s no doubt about that. We were not just looking for a pretty face; we also needed an actor who could deliver the message in a professional way while looking pretty. The decision was made by the whole team including the director which turned out to be the right choice in the end; familiar faces and established stars’ presence in a music video definitely helps. Q: Have you taken training in any art form? A: I have received some informal training in music. I am a case study for a self taught musician whether it’s playing an instrument, setting
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up and operating an audio studio or singing. Q: Do you ever feel insecure in life? If so what is your greatest insecurity/ fear? A: Strangely, nothing has ever made me feel insecure- perhaps it comes from my nature of taking things in my stride and accepting my fate sakoon hi sakoon! Q: How important is family to you
– which comes first work or family? A: Without a doubt, family comes ahead of anything else in life. Q: How ridiculous can fans get? A: True fans are always a real asset to any artist’s career. I’m blessed with an unending list of die hard, loyal fans. However, every once in awhile I come across some interesting characters that start to exhibit obsession - dangerous stuff - I try to avoid those games.
Q: What is a typical day for you like? A: There’s no such thing as a typical day and that makes life so interesting. My time is open ended – risks and uncertainties make my life extremely thrilling. Q: Something no one knows about you… A: I’m a very shy person; I actually fight this side of my personality to reach out to people so that they don’t misconstrue my shyness as arrogance Q: One person you could not have done without…and why? A: My wife, Mehreen! Not just because she supports me but also for the fact that she accepted me for as I am. Q: Are you surrounded by people when you go out?? A: Yes that h a p p e n s sometimes at events and concerts - and it’s a sweet feeling. I respect my admirers and try my best not to let them down. Q: How did you meet your wife? A: Socially. Q: What made you decide that she was the one? A: There are certain things in life that you can’t explain - I guess we were destined to be together. Q: Words of advice for our readers… A: There are no short cuts in life; success takes 15 years of hard work. So my advice would be to take the longer route of working hard towards whatever goal in life you have set for yourself.
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Amber Chughtai of Cranberry The fashion label, Cranberry, was established in 2011 with the vision of bringing together fashion, lifestyle and experience. Pakistan Today asks Amber Chughtai, Creative Director and Head of Design at Cranberry about her journey as a fashion designer.
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1. What inspired you to enter the field of fashion
design? Ans: My design aesthetic is all about delicacy and femininity. I inspire to make women look beautiful 2. What is the over-riding aesthetic in your design? Ans: Unique cuts and silhouettes with minimalist embellishments. 3. What is your educational and professional background and how did it prepare you for a career in fashion design? Ans: I have completed my bachelors from Karachi University and have been working with my sister, who is also a designer. Combining business education with practical experience has prepared me for a career in fashion design. 4. What drew you towards fashion and inspired you to start your own line? Ans: I was really inspired by the strength and beauty of women. I felt I had the all the ability, skills and knowledge to pursue a career in fashion and start my own line, “Cranberry”. 5. What is the best perk in being a fashion designer? Ans: The ability to synthesize your personal sense of style and creative aesthetic with your work. Also, being appreciated is a great reward. 6. What is the most difficult aspect of running your own business? Ans: Managing your team and meeting deadlines 7. What do you wish people would understand about working in the fashion industry? Ans: The fashion industry is cut-throat and a good designer needs to have a unique vision that is reflected in his/her collection. 8. What do you wish you had known before entering the fashion industry? Ans: I wish I had learnt how to deal with hypocrites.
9. Tell us about your process of designing a new collection. Ans: It starts from sketching a design followed by embroidery, printing (if required)and stitching and culminating with a photo shoot. 10. What excites you the most about your new collections? Ans: Obviously the response from the customers. 11. Where do you get your design inspirations from? Ans: I am inspired by nature and my culture. 12. Apart from designing outfits, what else do you enjoy designing? Ans: ladies handbags and shoes 13. What is the one city in the world that you would love to showcase your designs? Ans: Paris. 14. Has being a designer changed the way you buy outfits for yourself? Ans: Absolutely not. Pakistan has talented designers who make clothes that I enjoy wearing. 15. What fabric do you enjoy working with the most? Ans: Chiffons and charmeuse. 16. What are some major trends for 2013? Ans: For this season, lace and stripes in pastel shades are in vogue. The overall look is going to be classy and feminine. 17. What role do you think price points play in the success of a prêt line? Ans: Price points play an important role because customers want good quality at an affordable price.
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Books
Poetry of Meaning
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The book is a prized addition to the literature of English verse composed by the native poets ......................................................................................................................................... By Syed Afsar Sajid
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he Gift of Possession is the fifth collection of verse by Muhammad Athar Tahir, a noted Pakistani poet of English. Ayesha Fatima Barque’s comprehensive preface to the book simultaneously seeks to explore its contextual expanse as well as artistic finesse. Dwelling on ‘the polysemous range of words and images’ and their inherent contradictions vis-à-vis the eponymous part of the title featuring ‘gift’ and ‘possession’, as employed by the author in his verse, she concludes that ‘The Gift of Possession in its subtly modulated tone of letting go of things – releasing people and experiences from memory into art, casting verse in butterfly and other evocative images, releasing the alphabet from its sound, constantly converting ‘possession’ into ‘gift’ – leaves the binding page with its final paradox: All this will be here/Long after I am gone.’ The book in view carries some fifty-six poems, twenty-two of which have been split under titles like Epithalamiums, Andalusian Qasida, Mughal Triptych, The Quake Quartet, and Requiem Sonnets. Surveying Pakistani literature in English in his aptly-written ‘Prolegomena’, Alamgir Hashmi mentions M. Athar Tahir and some poets contemporaneous to him (conspicuously omitting Ejaz Rahim from the list!), to sustain his
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contention that ‘Pakistani English poetry remains a melange of Pakistani – or generally Asian – and Western poetic forms and language resources’. A close study of the text of these poems will partly substantiate this assertion. It would be easy to say what there was not in Tahir. Joy nay exultation was perhaps alien to his scheme of verse. The things that common men think of as practical and desirable tend to fade into insignificance in the gyratory expanse of his poetic vision. The Gift of Possession Many of his lines By M. Athar Tahir seem to evoke Publishers: TanaBana Publications, Lahore ‘a haunting & Department of English sense of the Language and Literature, Punjab University, Lahore inexpressible’ like Pages: 120 a child’s vacillation ‘between belief a resemblance, albeit remote, to and daring doubt’ in ‘the dust-swept plain, a place to Dylan Thomas who in the opinion of a critic regarded man as having dream’. Tahir views life from, as it were, a been locked in ‘a round of identities’ quasi-philosophic angle bearing – the first movement towards death
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being the beginning of growth; the beginning of love being the first move towards procreation, which in turn would move towards new growth, ‘and the only way out of time’s squirrelcage is to embrace the unity of man with nature, of the generations with each other, of the divine with the human, of life with death, to see the glory and the wonder of it’. Tahir’s poem captioned In (after Ted Hughes) illustrates the point, though ironically. The poems in this collection focus on reminiscences, filial bonds, elegy, glimpses of history, archaeology, nature in its soulful serenity, biography, events and locations. The poet’s style is couched in erudition, prosodic ingenuity, and elegance. He seems to write only when his perception is charged with deep feeling, and at the same with scholarly perfection (maybe fastidiousness!). He has a sense for the just word and its sound and verbal impact. Thus he looks like reviving the poet’s right ‘to mean more than he can say’ but at times not compassing the poet’s duty ‘to say what would help others towards his meaning’. The hollow in a new-born’s fist A clenched space pushing out to a whole A meeting of contrasts, a mix, a mist No scansion can patrol All said, the book is a prized addition to the literature of English verse composed by the native poets.
Of Fiction and Travel By Syed Afsar Sajid Jamal (Hossein) Mirsadeghi (b. 1933) is a popular Iranian fiction writer. He has to his credit a few novels, a fiction dictionary and numerous short stories. Jamal KahaniaN and Deewar are two lately published collections of his short stories rendered into Urdu by Muhammad Athar Masood (11), and Baseera Ambreen (3), Rashid Ahmad Qaisrani (1), Shoaib Ahmad (3), Uzma Aziz Khan (2), Faleeha Zehra Kazmi (3), Moeen Nizami (3) and Nayyar Masood (2), respectively. Tehzeeb ka Safar is noted writer/poet/voyager Qasim Khan’s travelogue focused on a thoughtful but explorative study of various civilizations, cultures, languages and tourist resorts in the continent of Europe. The three publications are being jointly reviewed in this column.
has reviewed the person and art of the author of the stories besides appending a chronological graph of his literary journey. Mirsadeghi’s stories generally focus on the proletarian urban life in his country and its problems. Generation gap is his favourite fictional theme. In terms of content and craft, these stories could be favourably compared to any selective work in the genre, around the world.
Jamal KahaniaN
It is a translated version of Jamal Mirsadeghi’s eleven short stories. Well known art critic and scholar of Persian (Dr.) Muhammad Athar Masood rendered the translation. The eponymous titles of the stories are: Kambakht Barf, Pahiyya zindagi ka, Mard, Qahwa Khana No 8, Shikasta shakhaiN, Parbat kay us paar, Qatl-e-nafs, Salgirah, Aainaywali pari, Jurm-e-gharibi and Zindagi ka theatre. In the epilogue, the translator
Jamal KahaniaN By Jamal Mirsadeghi; Translator: Muhammad Athar Masood Publisher: Ilqa Publications, 12-K, Main Boulevard, Gulberg II, Lahore Pages: 118; Price: Rs195/-
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Deewar (The Urdu version of seventeen short stories by Jamal Mirsadeghi) Compiler: Muhammad Athar Masood Publisher: Fiction House, Book Street, Mozang Road, Lahore Pages: 144; Price: Rs250/-
Deewar
The book carries Urdu translation of Mirsadeghi’s seventeen short stories by six Pakistani and an Indian scholar of the Persian language and literature besides a translated version of Mirsadeghi’s well-written essay on the art of storywriting by its compiler Muhammad Athar Masood that is meant to acquaint the reader with the salient features of his art as a short story writer. He has rightly dedicated the publication to his mentor, Ahmad Raza who is verily a man of parts --- a competent but scrupulous bureaucrat of yore, an erudite scholar, an excellent teacher, a veteran connoisseur of the arts and a specialist in homoeopathy. The titles of the stories partly explain their themes also like Deewar, Haray bharay ashjaar, Khauf-e-Khuda, Inqilab, Park may admi, Samundar ki bedari, Lamhae-aseeri, Parinday, Aurat nay apna hat utara, Do parinday, Dosti, Baichara, Bunder aur jugnu, Janaza, Siyah nadi, Hawa ki hook, and Concrete kay ambaaroN kay udhar. Admittedly translation is an
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exacting exercise, yet by and large, translators of these pieces seem to have done their job with due care and caution. The stories broadly represent the multidimensional range of their author’s art as a writer of fiction who is relevant nay faithful to his age and milieu in the line of what may be conveniently termed as the fictional contemporaneity. In Mirsadeghi’s own words, a short story is a dynamic image of life exciting curiosity, interest, and inspiration. The stories in the instant collection, as much as elsewhere, manifestly owe their genesis to this article of his literary creed.
Tehzeeb ka Safar
him (Munich, Frankfurt, Rome, the Vatican City, Florence, Milan, Naples, Venus, Barcelona, Athens, Paris, Salzburg, Istanbul, Ankara, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Sofia, Budapest, and Warsaw etc.) is very graphic albeit concise. He has freely mingled the objective with the subjective in the narrative that sustains it on the factual as well as artistic level. In some chapters of the book, he has ventured to philosophize on the outcome of his travel experiences in the backdrop of human history. All through his voyage(s), he seems to be preoccupied with a mental comparison of the East and the West with specific reference to his homeland in the Orient and the places visited by him in the Occident. Thus the book turns out to be a vintage travelogue serving to inform and educate the reader on the progressive journey of some notable western civilizations vis-àvis the cultural heritage of the East, more pertinently, that of the Indus civilization. His patriotic fervour tends to suffuse the narrative with an added meaning.
It is a travelogue with a difference as the author does not seek to fictionalize his ‘exotic exploits’ in the narrative; instead he seems to have brooded over his observations and experiences in alien lands and subsequently reproduced them in print for the benefit of his readers. Qasim Khan, the writer of this book, is a well-known poet, critic, translator, and a scion of an illustrious literary family hailing from Kundian in Mianwali district. His father was a noted scholar, poet and writer whereas his late brother Yahya Amjad was an eminent progressive poet, researcher and cultural historian. In the travelogue in view, the writer has recounted his eventful journeys across the continent of Europe, covering Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, France, Britain, Austria, Turkey, Jamal KahaniaN By Jamal Mirsadeghi; Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Translator: Muhammad Athar Masood Hungry, Czechoslovakia, Publisher: Ilqa Publications, 12-K, Main Boulevard, and Poland. The account Gulberg II, Lahore of the cities visited by Pages: 118; Price: Rs195/-
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Films
Chashme Baddoor A must watch for a laughing riot
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rz kia hai… Thus begins David Dhawan’s modern day tale of friendship, romance and kaminapanti. Filled with repartees, wittiness and caustic one-linersthis time around, “Chashme Badoor”, is one hell of a journey! If Farooq Sheikh and Deepti Naval’s love story back in the 1980s could have acquired a cult following, Ali Zafar and Taapsee Pannu’s is not very far behind on that ladder. The three friends – Jai (Siddharth Narayan), Sid (Ali Zafar) and Omi (Divyendu Sharma) – are collegegoing youngsters and excluding the innocent Sid, they carry a beenthere-done-that attitude. While Omi revels in creating cheesy poetry out of everyday happenings, Jai dreams of being cast as an actor someday – he just doesn’t know where to draw the line. The three friends live for each other, on food from Mr. Joseph’s (Rishi Kapoor) cafeteria and in Ms. Josephine’s (Lilette Dubey) house as tenants – on credit. When Seema (Taapsee Pannu) zooms into their neighborhood on a scooty, Jai and Omi begin dreaming their own dreams of winning her heart. In the midst tussle between friendship and feelings, the seedha-sadha Sid also falls in love with Seema. A madcap ride ensues involving the age-old debate between whether men in uniform are better than civilians
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or the other way round. There are tragedies to be taken note of – just that they come in the shape of comic disasters! For example, during a seemingly intense emotion-driven scene when Jai and Omi confess their mischief in front of Sid and forget to wipe their tears, the latter asks them to stop by saying that they look really bad while crying! Ali Zafar who plays the slow and steady lover deserves a hearty pat on the back for his performance. His Sid might not move you to tears – and the film is not meant to do so – but can definitely make you emotional for a wee bit – even in a David Dhawan comedy. Newbie Taapsee Pannu, gifted with a frsh face, brightens up the set. She is miles away from the Shastriya Sangeet-trainee, ‘Chamko’ washing powder-selling, Neha that Deepti Naval had brought to life in the original, but is lovable in her own special way. Siddharth steps into the shoes of the over-the-top, overacting filmy, Jai, with exceptional ease. As an actor, Siddharth has grown over the course of his films, from the brooding Karan Singhania of “Rang De Basanti” to the melodramatic Jai, and with every passing he is transforming into a star. Divyendu Sharma, whose debut in ‘Pyar Ka Punchnama’ had created created a buzz amongst the viewers, has once again proven his mettle with his role as Omi. He is brilliant as a new age shair who has says Arz kia hai.
At the drop of a hat. His dialogues are laced with equal amounts of wit and humour— Sharma doesn’t disappoint for a moment. The supporting cast consisting of Rishi Kapoor, Lilette Dubey, Anupam Kher and Bharti Achrekar is fabulous and Kapoor deserves extra credit for his tap dance! Rishi Kapoor, who flaunts his tattoos and twisted proverbs at every juncture, woos Dubey with ease – the two make for a beautiful couple and constantly challenge each other. David Dhawan’s version of ‘Chashme Baddoor’ draws inspiration from the original, but takes a more comical route than its predecessor. Sajid H-Farhad’s dialogues are extremely laudable and nearly every scene in the film holds of an underlying comic punch. Sai Paranjpye, who had scripted the original ‘Chashme Baddoor’, has made sure this one too is not one to be ignored. Sajid-Wajid’s music is catchy and situation-driven mostly. However, the film could have done with fewer item numbers. Sonu Nigam, Wajid, Ali Zafar and Shreya Ghoshal have produced quite n original soundtrack. In Hindi cinema, there is a reason David Dhawan enjoys the epithet of the King of Comedy – and coming from the King’s treasure chest, the film is surely a gem. Four stars for the re-loaded ‘Chashme Baddoor’ – not to be missed, this one!
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