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Malahat Awan is a renowned name in the world of arts. Daughter of Shabnam Shakeel, a well-respected Urdu poet, Malahat had always been ensconced in an artistic environment. With well-known literary personalities regularly visiting her place she soon developed a liking, later on a

passion, for classical music.Malahat Awan is President of the Tehzeeb Foundation, a body that is helping literature, fine arts and traditional music attain their rightful place in the Pakistani society.Recently Tehzeeb Foundation launched ‘Indus Raag’ – a

prestigious music project and

Tehzeeb Festival 2012, which was a

massive hit. Pakistan Today caught

up with the beautiful Malahat and

found out more about her passion –

music. Here are the excerpts of the

interveiw.

The IndomitableMalahat Awan

Interview

By Sumeha Khalid

36 I January 06, 2013

Q: How and when did you come up with the idea of Tehzeeb Foundation?A: Literature, Fine Arts and traditional music in Pakistan are suffering from general apathy, neglect and indifference. Our musicians are exposed to all kinds of adversity. They usually belong to the most marginalized sections of the society. They normally don’t have any other means of livelihood except for their art. Classical music in Pakistan is not a commercial commodity and is rarely marketable. The artists throughout Pakistan are living in deplorable conditions and are trying to preserve their art and heritage. Classical musicians in Pakistan are not given due respect by the society and the music has suffered from a tragic lack of attention from the public. Musicians are exposed to poverty and adversity. Compared to their counterparts in other parts of the world, Pakistani artists are often forced to support themselves through menial labor. This was the background and need for setting up Tehzeeb Foundation. Tehzeeb Foundation through its projects is trying to create an enabling environment for art, literature and the artist in Pakistan.

Q: What are the objectives of Tehzeeb Foundation?A: Tehzeeb Foundation has been created with the mandate of preservation and archiving of classical music and arts in Pakistan. Tehzeeb Foundation through its projects is trying to create an enabling environment for art, literature and artists in Pakistan.

Q: What milestones has the foundation achieved so far?A: We have arranged music festivals attended by over

700 people each time for the past few years. The highest number of people attending our programmes

went up to 2500 (at Faiz Centenary Celebration 2012 in Karachi). All such programmes were aired on

different TV channels thereby exposing their talent to millions of people in our country.

Indus raag is one of our most prestigious projects completed over the last three years. It has been produced in the shape of an artistically designed box-set containing 12 high quality audio CDs and a booklet about classical music and musicians. It features 26 main performers (and a host of their accompanists) from all over the world. Over 50 tracks, spread over 13+ hours of quality music, have been selected out of high grade, edited, mastered and finalized recordings. It gives the listener’s a variety of raag-based genres – kheyal, tarana, thumri, dadra and kafi. We have also arranged literary sittings featuring famous intellectuals from Pakistan and India. We have sponsored our musicians and poets/men of letters to give public appearances in India. We have also facilitated Indian artistes and film-makers to explore Pakistani society and art.Tehzeeb Foundation has been archiving music including classical music produced in Pakistan, India and UK for reference purpose. We have also collected unpublished music and have digitalized it for archival purposes. Our music and other publications are widely distributed throughout Pakistan and abroad by Liberty Books - our distribution partners.

Q: Your favourite literary person and why?

Our festivals/recitals and others programmes have featured some of the leading musicians of Pakistan and rest of the world, including the following:

From India: Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (a Grammy Awards winner) , Ustad Raza Ali Khan, Kamal Sabri, late Ustad Asad Ali Khan, Mazhar Ali Khan and Jawwad Ali Khan, Sohail Rais Khan, Vidya Shah, Seema Sehgal and others.

From USA: Ustad Abdul Sattar Tari (Tabla), Shakeela Ahmed (vocal) and Akhlaque Hussain (Sitar)

From UK: Shahbazh Hussain – Tabla

From Germany: Ashraf Sharif Khan - Sitar

From France: Abaji

From Pakistan:

Ustad Fateh Ali Khan – Patiala gharana

Ustad Rais Khan – Sitar

Ustad Fateh Ali Khan – Hyderabad

Ustad Naseeruddin Saami - Karachi

Ustad Mubarik Ali Khan - Lahore

Ustad Bashir Khan - Karachi

Ustad Zafar Ali Khan (late) - Karachi

Javed Bashir & Akbar Ali - Lahore

Rustam Fateh Ali Khan - Lahore

Ustad Hamid Ali Khan – Lahore

Ustad Gulzar Ali khan - Sanghar

Ustad Altaf Hussain Tafoo (Tabla) – Lahore

Ustad Mehfooz Khokhar – Islamabad

Ustad Nazeer Khan – Hyderabad

Zulfiqar Ali & Mazhar Hussain – Hyderabad

and many others.

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A: My mother Shabnam Shakeel is a very established and well respected urdu Poet. I have been exposed to literature, fine arts and music at a very young age through her and for that I am grateful to her. We had people like Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Munir Niazi, Perveen Shakir, Iftikhar Arif, Zehra Nigha, Mushtaq Ahmed Yousafi, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi, to name some, visiting our house all the time and I would be like a sponge, eager to absorb what they had to say or recite.

Q: Who’s your favourite musician?A: I am really fond of Fateh Ali Khan/ Amanat Ali Khan (Patliawale) and Roshan Ara Begum. Q: Do you play any musical instrument?A: Unfortunately no. It requires a lot of time and with a full time profession and Tehzeeb’s work, I don’t have that time.

Q: Personally what sort of music

do you like?A: I listen to classical music a lot, but also like semi classical.

Q: Do you think classical music has any future in Pakistan?A: Yes it has and it must survive. The oral tradition of our music has developed through the ‘guru-shishya’ or ‘teacher-student’ system. Our literature and fine arts have survived and flourished despite socio-political turbulence. This music has roots in the cultural ethos and aesthetical consciousness of our sub continent and has limitless possibilities of future development, if given proper nurturing and an enabling environment.

Q: What else do you do besides being involved in the foundation?A: I work for the British Consulate in Karachi. I look after corporate services and Finance.

Q: A mother, wife and a working woman... how do you do it all?A: I saw my mother juggle a profession, family, create beautiful poetry and hold it all together. I am very lucky because Sharif is a very supporting husband and I have extremely understanding kids who encourage me. Our kids also share our love for arts; hence it is easier for me. At times it is difficult like once I was in China for a meeting and Sharif was in Islamabad and my youngest daughter had her sports day. She called me and she said, while other children showed their sport skills to their parents, I showed it to plants and trees as you both were not there!

Q: What do you think are the reasons you and Sharif Awan make a successful team?A: We have a common love and passion for arts. If only one of us was passionate and the other one was mildly interested in preservation of arts, then I feel that it would have impacted the way we deliver.

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College of Art and Design, University of the Punjab, in collaboration with the

Lahore Museum mounted an exhibition of paintings under the title of “Landscapes, Cityscapes and related Conceptual Paintings” at The Contemporary Painting Gallery of the Lahore Museum.

This exhibition was to honour the teachers and graduates of the College of Art

and Design, University ofthe Punjab for their

important role in the creation of the modern Pakistani Landscape Painting tradition.

The artists whose work has been displayed were: Ustad Alla Bakhsh, Muhammad Hussain Hanjra, Khalid Iqbal, Zulqarnain Haider, Mughees Riaz, Kaleem Khan, Ghulam Rasul, Shahid Jalal, Mian Ejaz ul Hasan, Anna Molka Ahmad, Naseem Hafeez Qazi, Ghulam Mustafa, Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi, Dr. Ajaz Anwar, Abd al-

Landscapes by the mastersLandscapes by the mastersThis assortment of paintings was the first and biggest ever collection of this genre, displayed under one roof.

Art

40 I January 06, 2013

Rehman Chughtai, Moyene Najmi, Musarrat Mirza, Zubeda Javed, Khalid Mahmud, Musarrat Hassan, Iqbal Hussain, Rahat Naveed Masud, Kehkashan Jafri, Maliha Azami Aga, Quddus Mirza, Durre Waseem, Naela Amir, Munawar Mohiudin, Amjad Naeem, Mirza Matloob Baig, Iqbal Khokhar, Muhammad Arshad and Anila Zulfiqar.

This exhibition was curated by Dr. Rahat Naveed Masud and Dr. Barabara Schmitz and was very unique,

as well as of historic value, as it presented a chronological and historical journey of the Landscape Painting in Pakistan, starting from 1947 to date. This assortment of painting was the first and biggest ever collection of this genre, displayed under one roof.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of the Punjab, Dr. Mujahid Kamran, was the chief guest at the occasion, and faculty members, dignitaries and artists were present at this event. He applauded this endeavour and appreciated the efforts of the curators.

The unique and historic exhibition came to its close amidst an aura of applause and appreciation on the last day of the previous year.

This exhibition was unique and of immeasurable historic value, as it presented a chronological and historical journey of the Landscape Painting in Pakistan, starting from 1947 to date.

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As a quick-fix lyrical device, Zandu balm is probably only a hop, skip and jump away from Fevicol adhesive. But the

move from Malaika Arora Khan to Kareena Kapoor is nothing less than a quantum leap.

The Dabangg item number had worked wonders for both Munni and the brand, but the bonding agent that the sensuous danseuse extols in the sequel does not quite stick.

So, the obvious question: is Dabangg 2 really twice as nice as the original action flick that made giant waves in 2010? Well, for one, the follow-up has been mounted on a far more lavish scale: its budget is nearly double that of the precursor.

This film might also end up raking in a much larger box office booty than Dabangg did. But assessed strictly as a pure entertainer designed for instant mass

grat i f icat ion, it isn’t half as successful.

But make no mistake. Dabangg 2 is every inch of the way the c r i t i c - p r o o f film that it is meant to be. No matter how many holes you might spot in its uncomplicated, w a f e r - t h i n n a r r a t i v e e d i f i c e , B o l l y w o o d ’ s most bankable m e g a s t a r ’ s onscreen deeds, at a bit of a stretch, would serve to paper over all of them.

T h e protagonist, as is well known, is a one-man demolition squad: enforcer, avenger and terminator all rolled into one. He fights and dances, swears and serenades, and delivers punchlines and punches without ever breaking into a sweat.

Among other things, he saves a little boy from a bunch of kidnappers, prevents a bride from being abducted by a stalker from the wedding podium and keeps a slimy politician on a tight leash.

When he emerges from these supercharged skirmishes, not a hair on his head is out of place. And neither is the Rayban that dangles daintily from the back of his shirt collar.

As you watch Dabangg 2, crammed as it is with an entire panoply of crowd-pleasing tropes, you see no reason to doubt its money-spinning potential. The folksy songs, robustly choreographed and lustily performed, add to the film’s LCD

(lowest common denominator) appeal.

Producer and actor Arbaaz Khan has stepped into director Abhinav Kashyap’s boots, Dabangg screenwriter Dilip Shukla has done the reload, and Salman Khan and Sonakshi Sinha are Chulbul Pandey and Rajjo (who is now happily domesticated) again.

But there is something amiss: Dabangg 2 lacks the infectious verve and delightfully pervasive spontaneity of the film that triggered Bollywood’s 100-crore craze a couple of years ago.

The cynical but golden-hearted supercop, both his swagger and bluster intact, is relocated in this film from rural Lalganj to an urban Kanpur setting and that instantly robs him off the likable earthy sheen that had set him apart in Dabangg.

Of course, the man is still in possession of a natural affinity for bizarre ways of resolving law and order issues -- one of his lackeys calls him Kung-fu Pandey.

Like he did two years ago, he tosses off insouciant repartee with customary aplomb. Trouble is he does not tickle the funny bone quite as much nor deliver thrills quite as regularly as he had done the first time around. The pace of Dabangg 2, even at its modest length (129 minutes), is uneven.

There can be no denying that Salman Khan is perfectly cut out for the carefree Robin Hood act that he has made his own. Unfortunately, the Dabangg 2 screenplay is devoid of any fresh ideas.

The one-liners are rather laboured and the heroic acts that Chulbul Pandey pulls off with an eye firmly on the gallery are all too predictable.

Prakash Raj is the principal antagonist, Bachcha Bhaiyya. What the consummate actor brings to the mix is perfect modulation and an air of chilling menace.

Films

Dabangg2

January 06, 2013 I 45

Faiz Ahmad Faiz – Chand Nai DaryaftaiN is the sixth book of the Lyallpur Kahani series authored by noted critic and literary chronicler

Prof. Ishfaq Bokhari Ishfaq Bokhari traces his

book’s source to the one day Faiz Seminar held in February 2008 at Government College University, Faisalabad where he read a paper on Faiz’s association with Lyallpur (now Faisalabad).

In an earlier review of the book, ‘Ariel’ (writer and critic Dr. Muhammad Ali Siddiqui’s nom de plume) remarked that ‘every town should have a gifted chronicler like Bokhari to help the future social scientists – in particular historians, to know which particular person or event connected with the city under discussion has to be taken into account for filling up the essential features of the area under discussion’, and that ‘how important it is to know a city’s past and present for the nation as a whole!’ Another reviewer of the book Altaf Hussain Asad viewed it as ‘a humble tribute by a son of Lyallpur to the great poet Faiz’.

The book comprises four chapters titled ‘Maqalay say kitab tak’, Khandan-e-Faiz Ahmad Faiz

aur Lyallpur’, Faiz kay jahan-e-aseeri ka pahla daur’, and ‘Pidram sultan bood’ besides an interesting but informative ‘interview’ of Faiz’s nephew Dr. Surgeon Aftab Ahmad Khan and some sixteen rare photographs mostly related to Faiz’s visits to Lyallpur.

F a i z ’ s connection with Lyallpur traces to his three brothers- in-law Ch. Najibullah, advocate (and later his son Prof. Saeed Ahmad), Ch. Abdul Hamid, a railway official, and Ch. M u h a m m a d Ashraf, a banker who lived in Lyallpur at various points of time ranging from 1930’s to 1960’s. His first visit to Lyallpur took place in 1922 when he came here

alongwith his mother and brothers for a family reunion with his sister

Faiz Ahmad Faiz – Chand Nai DaryaftaiNBy Ishfaq Bokhari

Publisher: Sanjh Publications, Book Street, Mozang Road, Lahore

Pages: 230; Price: Rs.360/-

Faiz and LyallpurThe book is viewed as ‘a humble tribute by a son of Lyallpur to the great poet Faiz’

By Syed Afsar Sajid

Books

46 I January 06, 2013

Bilqees Bano and her husband Ch. Najibullah. Faiz’s second and third visits with her at Lyallpur occurred successively in 1929 and 1933. Many years later in 1951, when as a sequel to his involvement in what is called the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case, Faiz had to be lodged at Lyallpur District Jail for some time, his nephew Prof. Saeed Ahmad already living in Lyallpur, facilitated his link with his family and the world outside. Faiz’s family connection with Lyallpur terminated in 1963 with the death of his youngest sister Salma Iqbal’s husband Ch. Muhammad Ashraf who was then serving in town as Manager of the State Bank of Pakistan.

The writer seems to have carried out a painstaking research on Faiz’s private and public life in the backdrop of his link with Lyallpur. He has also alluded to Faiz’s maiden amorous, albeit euphoric, association (1929) with a pretty Afghan damsel living in the neighbourhood of his sister Bilqees Bano in Lyallpur. Faiz’s first collection of verse Naqsh-e-Faryadi echoes with a tranquil recollection of the transient romantic episode, especially in the poems composed during 1929-35.

Faiz’s father expired in 1931. The same year he was able to attract Allama Iqbal’s attention as an up-and-coming poet at a mushaira held at Government College, Lahore which facilitated his access to litterateurs like Prof. Pitras Bokhari, Sufi Tabassum, and Dr. M.D. Taseer. The same year, Faiz came into contact with Khawaja Khurshid Anwar that soon developed into a

close relationship nurturing and refining his (Faiz’s) taste in music. The latter accompanied Faiz when in 1935, he came to Lyallpur from Amritsar to attend the marriage of Hameed Nasim’s elder brother Abdul Rashid Pahelwan. The same year Faiz met with Mahmood uz Zafar and Dr. Rasheed Jahan, the two leading pioneers of the Progressive Writers Movement in India.

Faiz’s next visit to Lyallpur relates to 1943 when he came here as a serving Major in the Public Relations Department of the Indian Army to participate in a mushaira attended among others by Hafeez Jullunduri, Shakil Badayuni, Ehsan Danish, Tilok Chand Mahroom, Jagan Nath Azad, Israr-ul-Haq Majaz, Saghar Nizami, Jigar Muradabadi, and Firaq Gorakhpuri. During his two month (1951) long solitary confinement at Lyallpur District Jail, Faiz composed some of his most popular early verse. In March 1971, Faiz attended the famous Kissan Conference held at Toba Tek Singh (then a sub-division of Lyallpur) and recited his poem ‘Phir barq farozaN hai sar-e-wadiyey Seena’. In February 1977, Faiz presided the launching ceremony of poet HazeeN Ludhianvi’s verse collection Lahu ki Sada at the Pakistan National Centre, Lyallpur. In November 1976 Faiz attended his 65th birth anniversary celebrations at Lyallpur. Late Prof. Rana Irshad Ahmad Khan, Faiz’s devout enthusiast and an intellectual par excellence, stage-managed the function. That was Faiz’s last journey to Faisalabad and coincidentally he breathed

his last at the ‘Lyallpur Ward’ of Mayo Hospital, Lahore on 20th November 1984.

The book also carries the poetic content with some translation purported to have been composed during the period of Faiz’s incarceration at Lyallpur. The last chapter is devoted to the memory of Faiz’s illustrious father Barrister Sultan Muhammad Khan who for a long time served as Secretary of State of Afghanistan, and later that country’s ambassador to Great Britain.

Thus the book enables the reader to have a look into the socio-cultural life of Lyallpur at various stages of its growth into a veritable metropolis. In the process, it also introduces him to some known political and cultural figures hailing from Lyallpur like Bhagat Singh, Prof. Khadim Mohyuddin (father of Zia Mohyuddin), Hameed Nasim, Major Ishaq Muhammad, Meem Hasan Lateefi, Mehr Muhammad Sadiq Pleader, Meer Abdul Qayyum, Mehr Muhammad Sadiq Pleader, Sh. Abdul Razzaq Bar-at-Law, Khawaja Ghulam Hussain, Ali Muhammad Khadim, Manzoor Hussain Shore, Saif Khalid, Ghulam Ishaq aka ‘Saqi’, Bai Fateh Muhammad (of Jahangir Murgh Pulao), Rai Abdul Razzaq, Sher Muhammad Khan, Hafiz Ludhianvi, HazeeN Ludhianvi, Prof. Rana Irshad Ahmad Khan, and Dr. Maqbool Akhtar.

‘Every town should have a gifted chronicler like Bokhari to help the future social scientists – in particular historians, to know which particular person or event connected with the city under discussion has to be taken into account for filling up the essential features of the area’

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