Interview: Moazzam Abbasi
Hair and Makeup: KR Crew
Photography: Khawar Riaz

You are not only the queen of the local music industry, but happen to be the only big female pop star. Why aren’t there more female singers from good families out there? How have you managed to retain this monopoly?

THERE’S a first time for everything as singer Khadija Hayder proved with her debut album ‘My First Time’.

My First Time has been released by AP Productions and offers a variety of musical styles including pop and bhangra.

Khadija collaborated with lyricist Akhtar Hussain and producer JKD to bring out her first solo work. The result is uplifting and refreshing - a sure fire hit.

Devdas is being remade again — this time, in Pakistan, by producer Nadeem Sha and veteran Pakistani director, Iqbal Kashmiri. Music is by Vajahat Atrye and is arranged by Uttam Singh.

The songs for the film will be sung by Indian singers, including Asha Bhosle, Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal, Kavita Krishnamurthy and Alka Yagnik. The film will star Nadeem as Devdas and Reema as Chandramukhi. The role of Paro is yet to be finalized.

Says Sonu, who was about to start Riyaaz for the song recording when we called him; “Uttamji asked me to sing a song”.

Hoooo… Channo ki aankh mein ik nasha hai. I thought I heard someone sing…dang, you hear it too, don’t you?

Resonating throughout Pakistan, USA, UK, and all around the world for that matter, the sudden Channo-mania has caused quite a hullabaloo, uproar, and frenzy. The man behind the mania, whose voice is often compared to Kishore Kumar’s, is none other than, painter/model/singer, Monsieur Ali Zafar.

We had a chance to meet up with Ali Zafar, who was in Karachi for a couple of days. Sammy kept singing, Ke huqqa paani…

“Arg! It’s stuck in my head!” Sammy hollered.

You pick up an album and start searching for the credentials. Well, one is not really impressed when one sees Himanshu (one scene in Jungle and a bit role in Tum Bin) on the cover with a good looking newcomer girl opposite him. You say, “OK !! Let me check who the music director is? ” Again, nothing encouraging as it is attributed to a new guy Milind Sagar. Credentials to Vivek Nayak and Govind Menon as producer and director too do not excite enough and one feels that ” Chalo !! Some redemption here, as the lyricist (Faaiz Anwar) carries some weight !! But HOLD ON ! Suddenly you find something written on the album cover at a corner - “ALL SONGS BY ASHA BHONSLE”. And you get an intuition that this may be something that you have been looking for. How true does your intuition turn out to be, let’s have a look !!

The album opens with the title song Saathiya, a melodious number with the rich flute solos and guitar accompaniment in the backdrop. Lyrics by Gulzar are good and Sonu Nigam’s rendition is appreciable.

Road’ boy Vivek Oberoi and Rani Mukherji are pairing for the director Shaad Ali’s Saathiya music for which has been composed by A.R. Rahman.

The album opens with the title song Saathiya, a melodious number with the rich flute solos and guitar accompaniment in the backdrop. Lyrics by Gulzar are good and Sonu Nigam’s rendition is appreciable.