NATURAL HIGHS

The eleven days of plays, puppets, dance, comedy and music — every last dreg was needed to drown away the blues that Pakistan is going through. This realisation hit me when I was standing in front of the stage on the rock night.

The brilliance of the World Performing Arts Festival was and always will be that it provides an array of entertainment which appeals to a large range of audience. Ghazal, pop, rock, classical, world music; all these nights provided ample opportunity for everyone to dress up, sit in the open-air theatre at Alhamra, and for three hours forget that there were problems to be dealt with.

The interesting thing about memories is that they are strongly linked with the sense of smell. Each of these nights had a distinct odour — the ghazal and folk nights smelt of paan mingled with the overpowering smell of excitement; rock night was visited by the perfume of Mary Jane and world music night tantalised the teetotalers with the sweet overripe smell of sugar whisky.

The most iconic moment of the festival in terms of music was Abida Parveen bowing to a standing ovation on the mystic night. The euphoria that often follows charged sermons by great figures was reflected everywhere — Abida’s control of the crowd with a drop of her voice in the middle of Mast Qalandar, the stupor that overtook everyone during the crescendo of her songs and the way everyone greeted her post-performance backstage. It was a performance that in retrospect overshadowed the explosions and the memory will be held precious for a long time to come.

Saieen Zahoor, who performed on the folk and mystic nights is always noteworthy. Even though his repertoire of songs is now slightly frayed and threadbare, his vocal range and timbre are worth catching at every performance.

The ghazal and pop nights were confusing this year. The family of Amanat Ali Khan and Hamid Ali Khan was all over the place with performances on both nights. Some would say that the pop night presented them with a commercially viable option, though both nights seemed to pander to similar aims. The night was saved from abject repetition by the graceful performance of Tina Sani. Paying homage to poet Faraz Ahmad, she reflected what can be termed a “complete product” as her musicians were colour-coordinated, the orchestration was very pleasing to the ear and the entire performance was an ode to smart business moves.

Contrary to the rock night, the pop night was a parallel universe where bad music was good, where ‘live’ meant ‘playback’ and where comic attire was confused with couture and fashion. Up close and personal, the person behind the lens can observe more than the artistes imagine and Circle of Trust seemed to be singing or talking into a mike that was switched off.

Aaroh from Karachi performed for the first time at the festival and their performance was defined by the energy of the lead singer. Farooq was all over the stage, bouncing like a pogo stick, leaving no corner ignored. His act was in stark contrast to Strings’ who were supposed to be the highlight of the night.

Faisal Kapadia and Bilal Maqsood are certainly a well-turned-out duo, which is recognised on an international level and they have won many an award. Yet watching them live on stage felt more like coming across them on television as it seemed recorded, complete with post-production and camera moves. Not that they sounded anything less than what is expected of them. Sadly Mekaal Hasan’s performance on the fusion night was cancelled on account of the explosions; otherwise the audience would have had an opportunity to see the difference between a live performance and a great live performance.

The second world music night hosted two very noteworthy performances. The improvised instrumental between Shallum Xavier, Ingrid Kindem, Farhan Ali and a flutist was by far one of the noteworthy fusions heard this year. It had great underlying potential, yet was too short to reach even a buildup.

The other act that everyone should have heard was the group of Argentinean musicians from France. Manosanta was literally the “magic hand of the shaman” that soothes troubles away. At the festival with an awesome session bassist, Marco Jabea who had double-jointed hips in addition to his groovy bass, Manosanta consisted of Louis Pousa as the earnest songwriter and vocalist Thomas Huet, the very sweet drummer and Eddy Homassi, the percussion player with a wry sense of humour. Their music inspired from Tango and Cumbia was perfect for dancing, yet had lyrics that stemmed from the pain of immigrants and real-life tragedies.

Published in Images, Dawn on November 30th 2008 in the article "Festival report"