Return of the Mack: Ali Zafar comes full circle with Jhoom

While musical evenings have become almost extinct in Karachi, there are still some smart minds that are trying to bring people together through other means, and promoting music and entertainment all at the same time.

The purpose of the evening was to launch Ali Zafar’s latest album, but what was interesting was the way it was done. Usually you have the typical conference, with the snacks being served to the guests and all the other clichés. Instead of all that, you had a grand evening at the Mohatta Palace, with a lot of celebrities, a lot of music and an incredible dinner for the guests.

Jhoom has already made its place in the market because of the fact that it’s Ali Zafar’s third album. Also, it’s different from what Ali Zafar is famous for; the chamak dhamak, and the masaalaydaar music. Jhoom is showing a more romantic side of him, and perhaps that was the theme of the evening as well: the dim lighting and the beautiful background created an almost perfectly romantic getaway for all the couples present there.

The show was hosted by Shahista Wahidi, who entertained the audiences with her little one-liners, (and her little accident when she got Ali Zafar’s name wrong. That definitely provided the audience with some chuckles.) She called upon the stage all those people who have played an important role in Ali Zafar’s career, (which has been very colourful and eventful, as the audience was reminded by the video montage that was made with clips of every song or advertisement Ali has ever done)

The first person to come on stage was one of our most famous hairstylists, Nabila. Other people to follow her were some very well known celebrities, such as Shehzad Roy, Tariq Amin, Amir Adnan, Frieha Altaf, Faisal Qureshi, Aijaz Aslam and Fakhir. Some more famous faces that could be seen in the audience were Wasim Akram, Feeha Jamshed, Atiyah Khan, Muneeb Nawaz, Gumby and Omran Shafique and Saqib Malik. Jhoom’s tagline is sab keh sanng jhoom, and the evening managed to that by not just accumulating all our talented celebrities in the same place, but also all the other people who came to watch the performances that took place.

Since Jhoom is essentially a sufi album, there were dance performances that took place, with neatly choreographed routines and beautifully designed costumes. Finally, Ali himself came on stage, and showed his first video of the album, ‘Jhoom’. The song is definitely a must-hear for all Ali Zafar fans, especially those who’ve loved his style in the first two seasons of Coke Studio.

Ali then went on to sing a few songs from his album, which included Dekha Jab Seh Tujhe, and Jaane Na.

While the audience was enjoying the music and the arrangement, the best part perhaps was Ali Zafar himself. He came on the stage and spoke to everyone in the most charming manner. After quite a successful trip in India, one would expect some diva-esque behaviour.

Instead, the first thing Ali said when he came on stage, after all these celebrities had come up and praised him as much as they could, was this: “Please, if you all think I have become a star or something, then don’t. I personally don’t like such destructive thoughts. I think when a person starts believing that he’s something better than others is the day he becomes dirt. Mujhe Nabila jaisay log make up laga detay hain, (people like Nabila doll me up with makeup) aur Amir Adnan jaisay log achay karpay pehna detay hain (people like Amir Adnan dress me up in fine clothes) iss liye shayad mein thora behtar lagta hoon TV par. (Maybe that’s why I might appear to look a little better on television) But seriously, I am the same person I was when I started out. I’m not a star or anything like that.” Talk about modesty.

Then some more memorable moments of the evening were the amusing ones, where the audience got to laugh a little. One such moment was when Ali Zafar called up Saqib Malik on the stage, and started talking to him about this one time when Saqib tricked him into shooting an extra scene for a Dettol commercial. “He tricked me and said that we need to shoot a scene of me sitting and taking a bath. I even fell for it, and shot the scene, only to found out that these guys were just fooling around.” Saqib then added “I still have that footage and I’m ready to sell it for some very high rates, if anyone’s interested.”

The album has been put together in collaboration with Jazz, and they were the ones behind this grand evening. Instead of doing things the usual way, they decided to make it an event filled with some great music and even greater people. While we are proud of Ali Zafar’s success in India, we’re even more proud of the work he does here in Pakistan as well.