Ali Azmat joined Hijrat director Farooq Mengal and actors Rabia Butt & Asad Zaman onstage and shared his experience of singing two songs for the soundtrack. While one song is a club number, the second track also features Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.
Ali Azmat and Jamal Shah inject celebrity power and life into Hijrat’s press meet and greet session.
Karachi: Several years into the revival of cinema, a number of films across multiple genres are being produced in Pakistan. Among those that make up the quota for this year’s releases is Hijrat, a film which has been written and directed by Farooq Mengal and features a star cast consisting of fresh faces (Asad Zaman, Rabia Butt and Rubab Ali) and veteran actors (Nadeem, Ayub Khoso, Durdana Butt, Jamal Shah, Mahjabeen, Saima Baloch and Noman Ijaz).
To mark the film’s music release, a meet-and-greet session with the cast of the film was held in Karachi this past weekend and it proved to be a somewhat ironic, slightly engaging, albeit amusing evening.
Though the proceedings began with the film’s lead cast (Zaman, Butt and Ali) and director Mengal, it truly picked up when musician Ali Azmat and actor Jamal Shah joined the rest of the team onstage.
Actors Rabia Butt and Rubab Ali, who essay the role of the two female protagonists in this drama, sang each other’s praises as the press conference began. Rabia Butt described Rubab Ali as her younger sister and reiterated that it was a pleasure working with everyone, a sentiment that was echoed by both her co-stars.
Actor-model Asad Zaman opened his monologue by thanking everyone, from the press to the guests to the production house backing the film to his director (yawn) and followed it up by describing the journey of the film, which included shooting in extreme temperatures, excessive cold, sudden rainfall, et al.
The bizarre moment arrived when Zaman who, unfortunately looks stiff and constipated as the lead hero in the film’s official trailer, asked critics and members of the print media to not be harsh to Pakistani films and to curtail negative reactions on social media.
Veteran actor Jamal Shah is essaying the role of an out-of-thebox music composer in Hijrat.
His reasoning was that Pakistani cinema is restarting again so the critique should be positive only. This argument obviously doesn’t fly because constructive criticism requires honesty even if it means pointing out mistakes. Add that to the fact that we’ve been steadily producing movies for three years now and talking about the revival for close to a decade, this argument wears a bit thin.
Moving on, as Zaman ended his monologue, Ali Azmat, turned on the charm as he made his way through the press conference. Arriving slightly later, Azmat joined the film’s team onstage and added a much-needed doze of celebrity firepower and a layer of sobriety and humour to this presser.
Azmat spoke about how Mengal had invited him from Lahore and spoke about the struggle that comes with migration and displacement – themes around which the film is based. He also spoke about the technology that went into making this film, before reflecting on his involvement in the film’s music.
“Sahir Ali Bagga sahib invited me to sing this song; Rahat (Fateh Ali Khan) had already recorded his vocals. His vocal performance was fantastic. I told them that I cannot match Rahat’s vocal performance in any way, he’s a legend,” said Azmat. “But you know it worked out and that the song is a masterpiece. After listening to the song, I insisted that I will sing it even if takes six months. But thank God it happened in one take. It’s a brilliant song and credit goes to Sahir Ali Bagga who made such a beautiful song.”
Azmat noted that lyricist Asim Raza had managed to capture the plight of the Baloch and added: “Films that are coming out today are a dialogue, an expression, a way back. If there is development in Lahore, it should also happen in Balochistan. It’s a way of saying we will overcome.”
Adding some humour to the seriousness, Azmat went back to the music and explained that the second song he has sung for Hijrat is a controversial, club number. With a self-deprecating attitude, Azmat praised his co-singers on the soundtrack and added, “They said you have to sing an item song. I asked them if I also had to wear a bikini and they said ‘no, god keep anyway from seeing you in a bikini’ so thankfully I didn’t have to do that.”
Also making his presence felt during the proceedings was actor-director Jamal Shah.
“It feels like time for a political party,” smiled Shah and added, “In which Ali Azmat should be inducted. If Imran Khan can make a party so why can’t we make one? Thank you, Ali for supporting people living on the fringe, many of whom have been living in dire straits for decades.”
Shah not only spoke about his own role in the film – that of an out-of-the-book music composer – as well as shooting in Turkey but also the new wave of cinema in Pakistan as well.
Now for some awkward reality
The idea behind Farooq Mengal’s debut film, Hijrat, is laudable. The film centers on a love story set against the backdrop of the “exodus of millions of people” following the Afghan war. Issues of displacement, loss and longing are themes that are incredibly relevant to this country and should definitely be explored and challenged via cinema.
The problem, however, is that the idea seems lost in execution. While the presence of veteran stars lends the film authenticity to some degree, the three main stars of the film cannot camouflage their lack of acting skills and that lack of ability has made the film’s prospects somewhat weak. Watch the trailer, its palpable in every frame. The presence of an item song also makes no sense whatsoever. It does very little for the identity of Pakistani cinema and makes you wonder if it’s not just a shameless gimmick to market a film that deals with a tough subject. How this film fares, time will tell.
Courtesy : The News
