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asifpk.5u.com |
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NAHEED SIDDIQUI She may be Pakistan's only Pride of Performance holder (1994) who is banned from showing her art on Pakistan Television. No wonder Naheed Siddiqui depicts herself as an isolated figure in her latest choreographed piece titled 'My Motherland?', which premiered in England this summer. The final part of the dance shows her straining to hear music, opening doors and finding them slammed shut in her face, becomeing entengled in a voluminous black shroud that eventully trails like an ominous shadow behind her as she walks away when the piece ends. She initially left the country in 1979 after being unable to practice her art here -- her Kathak programme on Television, Payal, was banned by the Zia regime after only five out of thirteen episodes had been aired. In the UK, she has been able to build up a formidable reputation for herself as a danser, and has been showered with awards like the prestigious Time Out (1990) and the Dance Umbrella (1991). Yet she has stubbornly persisted in tyring to build up interest and awareness about dance here, risking private performances even in the years when dance was strictly banned. She started her own company in 1990, and frequently gives performances in other countries. Her real interest, however, lies in Oakistan, and teaching dance at the French Cultural Centre in Lahore. Siddiqui wants to creat an awareness of "our real culture and heritage" with its harmony and peace, as opposed to the valgarity and gun violence that have become popular culture. Unassuming and passionately committed, her increasing expertise and international fame has only made her more determined to hold her ground in the motherland where her own standing as an artist and as a woman are questionable. NAJAM HUSSAIN SYED when Urdu became the medium of instruction in the Punjab, the educated Punjabis switched to Urdu and their monther tongue was reduced to being the language of the street as higher discourse wall conducted in either Urdu or English. Punjabi poetry too stoped to grow as most of the poets started to express themselves in Urdu. Poetry which was streetwise with sotck phrases and stock sentiments Contonued to be wrutten or recited orally in the villages and less educated sections of the urben population. The concerns which were ushered in the changing realities of colonialism and then freedom in a changed world remained outside the purview of Punjabi poetry. Najam Hussain Syed's Punjabi poetry is a departure from the stock imagery, metre and sensilility because it explores areas of experience which have evolved in a much larger context. The poet is actuly aware of his contemporary world and also is sensitive to the rich heritage and tradition of the last seven hundred years of poetry. The great divide imposed by language between the urban and rural, the illiterate and the highly educated has been addressed by his poetry. In the plays too important characters and events of punjabi histary have been treated in a manner as to represent the dilemma of commitment and authentic existence. NASEER BUNDA The man who heralded a golden era in Pakistan hockey with a flick of his wrist. Naseer Bunda scored the historic goal in the 1960 Rome Olympics. some idea of just how important the victory was for Pakistan, can be had from the fact that it was celebrated with the announcement of a national holiday. Initially a centre-forward, Bunda moved to the inside-left position only later in his career. And he proved the dicision right be joining the club of other famous left-ins like Aziz malik, Habibur Rahman and Shahnaz Sheikh, who followed him many years later. In the words of his contemporary Abdul Waheed Khan, who witnessed the unfolding of the Bunda magic at close range from his inside-right position, Naseer Bunda "was a very quick-footed player... difficult to be caught once he had beaten the defender." NASIR KAZMI, Born in Ambala (Indian Punjab) Nasir Kazmi migrated to Lahore after the partition. He worked for Radio Pakistan, Lahore and earned fame as a poet of ghazal (lyric) but lived in extreme poverty. Bearing the marks of Mir Taqi Mir, Nasir Kazmi developed Urdu ghazal into a modern art-form, transmuting the classical tradition into something modern and uinque. His lyrics transformed the traditional pessimism of the lyric into an expression of the sorrow, despair and anguish of the modern man. His poetry expresses the tragedly of the bloodshed and migration at the time of partition of the sub-continent. NAZIA HASSAN AND ZOHEB HASSAN In 1981, pakistan's clandestine video rental network was hit by Feroz Khan's Qurbani, made famous by a modernistis blend of Euro-Westren and South Asian style Aap Jesaa Koi. While this number set new records of popularity, just a few here knew that the voice behind belonged to Nazia Hasan, a fellow Pakistani. The songs was composed by Biddu. As Biddu continued to make music for them, their album 'Disco Dewanay' hit Pakistani music market with a bang. Their songs were popular not only in Pakistan but also in other parts of the worlds. Entirely based on electronic orchestration and effects, the composer employed Western chord patterns and beat to blend with local melody. Variation from lowest to highest vocal tones, interminable moderate beat, synthesized chords, counters and effects were essential parts of their numbers. And this was the fasion which the composer applied in most popular songs such as, Aik Do, Aay Dil Meray Chalray, Disco Diwanay, Laikin Mera Dil, Ye Dil Tere Liyay Hai and others. Soon Zohab began to compose. With Zara Chehra, he proved himself to be a complete musician, though, the composition techniques in Khoobsoorat Ho Andaar Say, Pesa Bara Yaa Piyar and Zara Chahra were not diffrerent from the style set by Biddu. The brother and sister duo rarely sang for other composers. In Pakistan, Nazia sang Khabi Khabi in Javed Allahditta's and Komal komal in Arshad Mehmud's compositions, with lyrics by Anwer Maqsood and great Indian musician Laxmikant Piyaraylal (LP) selected them for a duet. NAYYER ALI DADA With the Agha Khan award (awarded for his Alhamra masterpiece), the Kenneth award presented by the University of Hawali, the Arcacia Gold medal for public buildings and the Pride of Performence all under his belt, Nayyer Ali Dada has fast become a household name. A graduate from the National College of Art, he was initially attracted to the canvas but soon the drift towards architecture took place. What lured him into this arena was the fusion between the romance of the past and the technology of the future that, he feels architecture allows. Shakir Ali Museum and Alhamra on the Mall in Lahore were both amongst his earlier pieces and are deemed as masterpiece. His more modern designs are admired in their own way, however, it seems as if the magic has been lost. He explain this by stating how people used to be far more sensitive then than they are now. Many a critic today that his designs are now becoming more of an aesthetic piece than a place to live or work in. But despite all the critisms and the court battles that he's had to fight, at the end of the day he's still the person most would opt for if they can afford him -- that is. NOON MEEM RASHED It was said by the begining of the century that Urdu poetry had lost its essence as it got bogged down in the craft of versification. Many attempts had been made to liberate it from the restrictions of stylisation but it was Rashed who gave it the impetus of breaking away from the traditional pattern of prosody. Inspired by the European poets and egged on by his teacher, Patras Bokhari, Rashed dwelled on the blank verse intraducing it successfully to dispel the widely held view that our poetry was not possible without it. He was part of the new movement that brought in modern sensibility to support the experimentation in the formal patterns of poetry. The theme of his poems were the serve humiliation in being subjugated and the various states of emotional distress that creat a certain kind of character, linking it to existential anguish. This new formal pattern also had to do away with much of traditional imagery and rhythmic patterns, and he was able to creat imagery and from sources which had not been considered poetic material. His poetry therefore was not always easy as it demanded agility on the part of the reader to appreciate a totally new area of experience. NUR JEHAN When the silent films were upgraded into talkies singing became an essential ingrediet of the emerging medium in the subcontinental cinema. The voice that was to give it a definite form was Nur Jehan in the late thirties. In the next few years leading up to independence sge had firmly established singing in the films as a popular and authentic form. She also played the leading roles in films as there was no focility of playback recording but her stature as a singer always overshadowed her role as an actress and it was not surprising that she left one for the other in her later age. She migrated to Pakistan from Bombay when at the height of her career and helped in building the film industry from a scratch in her new country. A great number of her songs have become classics of film music and she had maintained her top ranking for more than fifty years -- no mean feat. the full richness of her voice and her Punjabi ang has remained as a distinct contribution even after film music proliferated in the subcontinent. Some of her non-film geets and nazms too have been very highly regarded bu music connoisseur. NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan came from a family of great qawwals. His father and uncle were respected for their knowledge of the raags and a wide range of Kalaam in Urdu, Punjabi and Persian and Arabic. Nusrat Fateh, in the initial phase, sang the traditional qawwali with great virtuosity in laikari and sargam and later switched to experimentation with some of the leading musicians and composers of the world and when he sang for Peter Gabriel in The Last Temptation Of Christ he became an enternational celebrity. He bacame one of the leading members of the movement that espoused World music. Mostly basing his melody on traditional sources he brought in a huge input of instrumental music which varied from heavy metal to computer-generated sounds. World Msic became a craze and has been taken as the begining of globalisation of music and Nusrat was a very active member of it. Unfortunately his premature death put an end to the endeavour of arriving at a definite form. He was perhaps the best known Pakistani in the world and was rewarded with praises and awards from all the four corners of the world. |