Ali Sethi live in Szabist Karachi

Concerts were never my thing.  To me, it was pretty much annoying to see people going gaga over their favorite band or musician when they spot them live. However, it is universally believed that opposite attracts, my fiancé loves going to gigs and he had been to a number of live concerts. Sadly, he could not make it to his favorite musician, Ali Sethi’s live show in London two months back since he was traveling to Pakistan. Lucky him, he got to know about the concert of Ali Sethi to be held in SZABIST Karachi on 3^rd December through a friend. He was super excited unlike me. I was reluctant to go there; conversely, he somehow managed to get tickets for the show. 

Hesitant, yet I along with my fiancé and his friends went to the campus. Also, this was Ali Sethi’s first live show in Karachi which was organized by the Students’ council of SZABIST. The show was thought to be started by 8 p.m (as mentioned on the tickets),  but Ali Sethi kept the crowd waiting forlornly till 10 p.m (by then the show was supposed to be over LOL). To my utmost surprise, it was worth waiting. As he showed up, the crowd was all geared up. 

Ali Sethi, live in SZABIST, Photo credits: Rawish Mandhan

The dusky, tall singer kept the crowd entertained with his vigorous performance and the occasional funny clever remarks. Ali performed some of his best-loved songs, including his most recent Coke Studio hits. And as if that weren't enough, he shared stories about his creative journey, his romance with the musical heritage of South Asia, and his view on what it means to be an artist in contemporary Pakistan.

 

The most enthusiastic crowd, Photo credits: Rawish Mandhan

He noticed the students wanted to party and classical music was not what they wanted to listen, he stood up and made the remark, 'I know y'all want to party, I am your slave for tonight. Lets dance !''. He kept the crowd lingering and dancing until the very end. What I most enjoyed about watching him was the pleasure that he took in his own performance. 

 In short, it was a good clean fun, we could not think of a better way to spend a Saturday evening. Thank you SZABIST for arranging such a great show. I hope they will continue to do so to revive the concert scene in the city.

Actor in Law- a trivial comedy or a bold move?

Lately, Pakistani cinema has been growing with immense success around the globe. One of its latest hit was ‘Actor in Law’ which was released two months back and is still running on screens across the country successfully. After listening to the hyped reviews by every single friend and relative I thought to give it a watch.

The highlight of the movie was that Om Puri, one of the Bollywood legends, was a part of the movie. Although he played a mediocre role, people admired and appreciated him for working with the Pakistani movie. I did not like the music much. I found it quite ordinary. Moreover, the movie has been set up in local areas of the country. Locations can be easily identified by the common people. The makers of the movie claimed that their movie is for the common people of Pakistan and certainly, every scene of the movie has been constructed in a way that it will influence the common people. If we talk about the genre, it is certainly a comedy film with some deep satirical pieces. They have been bold enough to target some serious problems of the common people in a humorous way that I was laughing at myself for doing such things shown in the movie. It was not only me but the whole audience enjoyed the movie thoroughly by hooting and clapping or laughing because we could relate ourselves to every scene shown in the movie.

Some movies make money because of its cast and their acting, I am neither a Fahad Mustafa (who played the lead role) fan nor a Mehwish Hayat’s fan (who played the role of a news reporter belonging to a minority sect) but honestly, their acting was just fine nothing extraordinary. I would say this one got super hit because of the setting of the movie. It has been directed in such an admirable way that some serious messages are being implied under the veil of a comedy.