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instep
review
Announcing Coke Studio
The disastrous launch of a sublime project
When Coke Studio goes on air, you will be mesmerized by it. But
don't forget to thank your lucky stars that you weren't there
at the launch!
By Muniba
Kamal
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| The
Coke Studio promos running on television channels are preparing us
for the most ambitious musical project to be taken on in Pakistan.
A bit of what Coke Studio is has seen its way into print already,
but for the serious music aficionado, nothing will compare to seeing
this phenomenon on television, or better yet, holding the Coke Studio
Sessions CD in their hands. This brainchild of Rohail Hyatt uses the
musical talents of people as diverse our pop artistes like Strings
and Ali Zafar, rock stars like Ali Azmat and alternative acts like
Sajid and Zeeshan, rock stalwarts like Gumby on drums, Omran Shafique
on lead guitars and Mannu on bass and throws them together with maestros
like Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Ustad Hussain Bakhsh Gullo and Tufail
Shaikh. And these sessions were recorded live with back up from Baloch
lewa musicians, Abdul Lateef and company. It's the first time I think
in Pakistan that someone has managed to bring these influences together
on such a mammoth scale. Rohail Hyatt had the vision to do it and
Coke had the muscle to back him. And in doing so, one can see the
makings of an event that has a similar kind of hold over the public
imagination that the Lux Style Awards have come to exercise ever since
they were conceived at the turn of the millennium. |
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| The brilliance
of the Coke Studio concept is similar to the brilliance of the Lux
Style Awards. It is about a corporation using its muscle to give to
the industry a strong platform that while helping with brand building
goes well beyond the publicizing of a soft drink. The Lux Style Awards
have given Pakistan's entertainment industry its only credible awards
show that gets written about, talked about, dissected, analysed and
so has millions across the country tune in to the grand night. Every
controversy makes the LSAs bigger and with every year, they have grown,
both in the scope of the show and more importantly the evolution of
the jury and process of deciding the nominees and winners. Coke Studio
is not about winners or competition, it is about an experience - the
live music recording - and it has the potential to get bigger and
bigger as the years roll by. |
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| I was lucky
enough to witness Coke Studio in the making at Studio 146. Beginning
with a rehearsal of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Ali Azmat, which the
latter had invited me to, the experience had me hooked. I went there
every day for over a week, sometimes with colleagues and other times
alone. There was the feeling of greatness in the making and though
one was not an intrinsic part of it, there was a thrill to witnessing
the process that remains embedded in memory. I remember... Rohail
Hyatt manning the controls, working through sound with Zeeshan Parwez,
Omran Shafique and Gumby who formed the core music group. Selina and
Saba, the backing vocal girls trying valiantly to make their vocal
parts heard over Rahat's massive voice. Strings redoing 'Sar Kiye
Yeh Pahar' with the lewa beat played by Abdul Lateef and
gang and Faisal Kapadia rehearsing with Ustad Gullo with both him
and Bilal grinning from ear to ear as the maestro took 'Duur' where
no untrained vocalist is capable of taking it. The surprisingly easy
energy between Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Ali Azmat and noticing how
when they spoke, it was Ali's who was loud and Rahat had such hushed
tones and then when they sang, how Rahat could eclipse even the defeaning
sound that is Gumby on drums. I remember getting goosebumps when Ali
Zafar performed 'Allah Hoo' with Tufail stunned at how controlled
and melodic Ali Zafar is when he's not being the pop prince. And I
remember pure pleasure as I grooved to both the funked up version
of 'Channo' and most of all to Ali Azmat's 'Main Challa' that saw
Omaran Shafique and Zeeshan Parwez go manic in the best possible way.
Coke Studio was an unforgettable experience that one is looking forward
to reliving via television. |
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And
this wave of nostalgia unfortunately brings me to the launch. With
a corporate evening followed by a party, the Coke Studio launch did
no justice to the project whatsoever. Looking at the red carpet pictures,
one can see that all the world was there and when that happens, it's
perceived to be a successful launch. That is simply not the case.
A successful launch is one that accurately portrays the project to
the invitees. In this case, it was the press. A short segment of Sanam
Saeed explaining Coke Studio in English, inviting Rohail Hyatt to
say a few words and calling on the Coke Studio core music team to
just say hi to the audience didn't do anything to convey the scope
or spirit of the project.
Looking back, I remember the Pakistan Fashion Week media launch, cleverly
conceived by IMG as a talk show where by inviting a series of fashion
people on stage, Simon Lock managed to convey the gist of fashion
week to the media present. Coke Studio needed to be launched in a
similar way, to convey what it was about. Had I not attended the making
of Coke Studio itself, I would have walked out of the launch saying:
"What are they trying to do?" |
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| Frieha Altaf
was roped in to handle the event which she did as she does most
launches. Here it must be said that Frieha is one of the most efficient
organisers of fashion shows and parties. The problem with Coke Studio
is that the project is neither. It needed to have a sophisticated
launch tailored to give the invitees a feel of the event. Instead,
what one saw was a bad press conference, conducted in English with
a media catering to an Urdu speaking nation. No questions were asked,
nothing was explained. And this was followed by an influx of the
party crowd of Karachi. A group of boys did numbers on the dance
floor and slowly, some people around joined in. The dance floor
was sleazy, packed with people who one didn't know. It was the Karachi
that has just learned to party. It seemed to that everybody there
had somehow managed to get a hold of a ticket, because one could
see no reason on earth why they would be invited to the launch of
Coke Studio or indeed why they would want to come. And so the launch
of one of my most sublime experiences in covering the local music
scene turned into a free for all for the party animals of the city…
and believe me when I say, it's a jungle out there!
The climax, which is when one decided to leave was when the dance
floor turned onto a stage setting for a disco mujra, when a well
known model followed by a dancer made some really raunchy moves
on stage, as a crowd around them clapped and egged them on and rolling
cameras captured it all on tape. The launch of Coke Studio was as
awful as the Coke Studio experience was memorable.
Strings left soon after the party had begun. I saw a bemused Tufail
sitting with a friend. Rahat was hanging on the fringes of the evening
when he disappeared. Omran, Gumby and Zeeshan were at wit's ends.
Rohail Hyatt's children were sitting with their friends laughing
at the scenario before them. And while, the evening was funny in
a "What the hell is going" on kind of a way, ultimately
it was no laughing matter.
When a project that attempts to bring together the classical and
folk traditions of Pakistan together with the best pop and rock
acts this country has to offer is launched by an event that shows
no regard for the talent, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Coke
Studio is a mind blowing concept that deserves better. Here hoping
Coke, Rohail Hyatt and Frieha Altaf live and learn. |
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