Music has a greater influence than cricket, when it comes to improving Indo-Pak relations, believes Faisal Kapadia, lead vocalist of Pakistani band Strings. “In cricket one team wins and the other loses, while in the exchange of music concerts, it’s the audience that wins ultimately,” says he. Faisal alongwith Bilal, the lead guitarist, make up the band. Many a time they have performed live in India.

What’s the band’s take on the controversies of lip syncing, of late doing the rounds in India recently? “Often we are asked to do so by organisers, specially for shows on TV channels,” says Bilal. But he feels it is a crime to lip sync in a live concert. “Given a choice nobody would want to fool the audience,” he says.

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina, James Franco, J.K. Simmons, Rosemary Harris
Directed By: Sam Raimi
Producer: Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad
Screen Writer: Alvin Sargent, Michel Chabon, Steve Ditko
Cinematographer: Bill Pope
Composer: Danny Elfman
Executive Producer: Joseph M. Caracciolo Jr., Stan Lee
Story: Micahel Chabon

Synopsis:

In the latest installment in the blockbuster ‘Spider-Man‘ series, based on the classic Marvel Comics hero, Tobey Maguire returns as the mild-mannered Peter Parker, who is juggling the delicate balance of his dual life as a college student and a superhuman crime fighter. Spider-Man’s life becomes even more complicated when he confronts a new nemesis, the brilliant Otto Octavius, (Alfred Molina) who has been reincarnated as the maniacal and multi-tentacle “Doc Ock.”

Name: Salman Saquib a.k.a Mani

Date of Birth: 23/03/1978

Place of Birth: Karachi.

Education: B.Com from Govt. Commerce College, Karachi.

Hobbies: Personalities usually watch TV programs. I watch sports in my spare time and I also play along with the showbiz team.

Other Occupations: Well this is my bread and butter…. If you are fit in this profession you can more than a CA or an MBA.

What do you think about your job?

It’s cool.

Would you encourage others to take up this job?

What is power? Who has it? How can you tell? These are questions that have no easy answers. Ask an assertive journalist, and you’ll hear a vehement dismissal of all glamour types and the list of powerful people whittling down to a stodgy industry bigwigs. Ask a starry-eyed showbiz fanatic and you’ll hear a bubbly eulogy for all the hot starlets who in reality would not even have the clout to wangle a solo project. So the dilemma remains.

Pop music is rapidly taking over the Pakistani music scene, despite the moral brigade and diktats of the clergy. “Pop, along with soft rock, is growing in popularity. It has developed in a very short span of time and shows more promise than even Indian pop music,” claims Saadia, 19, a student of business studies. Most of the songs are in Urdu set to western music. There is a lot of talent coming here. Music experts say there are about 15 established music bands and a dozen pop music stars in Pakistan today.

A far cry, all agree, from the early 1980s, when during President Zia-ul-Haq’s regime, listening to or creating pop music was aggressively discouraged. However, after the Music ‘89 show, aired on the government-owned Pakistan Television (PTV), who was also the official sponsors, things appeared to change. At the show, 30-somethings danced to the music of the then pop idols - Nazia and Zoheb Hassan, Ali Azmat and bands like the Vital Signs.

Currently the biggest band in Pakistani pop Faisal and Bilal - the band duo - at churning out good music.

That’s what the music of the Pakistani band Strings is all about

Currently the biggest band in Pakistani pop, Strings has had a tumultuous history of disbanding and then reuniting. What hasn’t changed is the consistency of Faisal and Bilal — the band duo — at churning out good music.

“Music happened as a hobby, not a profession. We first met in college in Karachi. After producing two successful albums, we disbanded to continue our studies. We completed our studies, got married, and then got back together after more than seven years,” says Faisal.

A Live concert of “STRINGS” new album “DHANI” is being launched by Bridge Company. They are also introducing “AAROH” in Karachi at Bahria Auditirium Karsaz on 20th September at 9 pm.

Tickets are available at following places:
Agha’s super market Clifton
KayBees Snacks, M.A. Housing Society.
Veer, Kurta Gali, Tariq Road–
Jumbo, opp Masjid Bait-ul-Mukarram, Gulshan-e-Iqbal
Continental Bakers, Gulistan-e-Johar–
IHS Cyber Cafe , Hussainabad Near Mano ice cream F.B.Area

The Rafi Peer Theatre’s 10-day world performing arts festival, 2004, is being held at the Alhamra Cultural Complex from Nov 27.

As many as 600 artistes of over 33 countries, including India, will perform in various disciplines of performing arts like dance, theatre, music and puppetry.

Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi will inaugurate the festival. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will attend its premier show on Nov 26, a day ahead of its formal launch.

Rafi Peer Theatre directors Faizan Peerzada and Usman Peerzada told newsmen here at the Lahore Press Club on Friday that it was one of the biggest festivals in South Asia.

While conducting a poll on the top ten Pakistani bands/soloists, I realized how ignorant of the pakistani music scene our expatriates are. For instance, the only bands they would know of were Junoon, Strings or EP…beyond that, most of them still thought that Awaz was making waves…ok, I’m exaggerating, come to think of it, our music scene has finally started making its presence felt…a far cry from just a year or two back when we were all still hooked on to the ‘I love junoon’ phase. Now, at least we have a number of bands to choose from…when you ask non-Pakistanis about which Pakistani band they like, at least some of them add strings or Ali Zafar to the necessary bout of Junoon mania. It’ll take time to get our selves established, but heck! We’ve started haven’t we? Ample proof of that is Strings contribution to the spider man movie!

The show got bigger this year. Not only did the organizers fly out to Dubai, giving the local entertainment industry much-needed international exposure, they also collaborated with a television network, ensuring a much wider audience than our local channels could ever pull off.

Indian talent, comprising professional dancers, stage designers and technical assistants, was flown in to fill the gaps, but this year’s Lux Style Awards could easily have been better executed than last year’s programme had the picture not been overexposed to the glitter and gaudiness of Bollywood. The India-based Sony TV channel, as director and producer of the show, was perhaps given too much freedom to project it as it wanted, right from the poster at the front desk down to the silver and gold tinsel on stage.