Tag: Fashion Blogging

Gul-e-Daudi Premiere – A Tribute to Madam Noor Jahan

EMI Pakistan Ltd. held an exclusive premier of “Gul-e-Daudi (The Chrysanthemum), in tribute to Madam Noor Jehan”, on 25th November at Cinepax Cinema, Karachi.

The 15-minute film was directed by Umar Riaz. It was a fictional story based on the music of Madam Noor Jehan that had been selected from EMI Pakistan’s archives.

While talking about the film, Mr. Zeeshan Chaudary (General Manager of EMI Pakistan) said,

“We are pleased to be part of this initiative, the life and art of Madam Noor Jehan is filled with joy, love and splendid music. This short film is an effort to reminisce the golden era of Pakistan’s music industry with fresh techniques of audio and visual representation.”

He further added,

“With this we have tried to give audience a feel of the original music keeping in mind the requirements of state of the art studio and visual appeal for the audience. This film will take you back to the era of the melodious singer, who not just conquered the heart of millions but made history in subcontinent with her work.”

The event was attended by Ms. Aliya Iqbal Naqvi along with a group of panelists including Mr. Hameed Haroon (Chief Executive Officer of the Pakistan Herald Publications (Pvt.) Limited), Mr. Umar Riaz (Director of Gul-e-Daudi), Mr. Arshad Mahmud (Director Programmes and Administration), NAPA and Ms. Tina Sani among socialites, press, media, and bloggers

The film screening was followed by a discussion session among the panelists, and Question-Answer session was hosted by the director of the film to discuss the story and efforts of the production team.

Here are pictures from the premiere of Gul-e-Daudi.

Jeewan Hathi is all set to release

The trailer of upcoming Pakistani film Jeewan Hathi was officially revealed on 30th September, in Karachi, by Matteela Films & Footprint Entertainment at an exclusive event with the cast of the movie along with the press, media and bloggers.

The movie is directed by Meenu Gaur and Farjad Nabi and written by Faseeh Bari Khan and is produced by Mazhar Zaidi and Shailja Khejriwal, under the banner of Mattela Films Company.

The cast includes Hina Dilpazeer (Popularly known as “MOMO”), Naseeruddin Shah, Kiran Tabeer, Fawad Khan, Samiya Mumtaz and Adnan Jaffer.

Jeewan Hathi is a black comedy, and is all about the race of TRPs in television industry of Pakistan that how the owners cross all the limits just for the ratings of show, and these all presents in such a comedy way.

The story is about an ideal, loving, lower middle class couple’s marriage is on the edge of collapse when they find themselves part of a TV game show, and attracted by the prize of an enormous screen.

While talking about the press meet-up, director Meenu Gaur said,

“We have worked really hard on the movie and the credit goes to our entire team for working hard day and night. This thriller/comedy movie is an attempt by our team to entertain the audience and we hope the people who visit the cinema would enjoy every bit of the movie.”

While talking about the press meet-up, actress Hilna Dilpazeer said,

“I’m playing a role of morning show host and my husband owns the TV channel where I work.”

She further said,

“He changes my show timings to the late night slot and tries to give the morning show to his girlfriend. I do protests and many different things to increase the ratings of my late night show. It’s an amazing comedy and that’s why I signed the film.”

The movie is all set to release on 4th November, 2016 across Pakistan. Here are the pictures from the press meet-up of upcoming movie Jeewan Hathi.

Sanam Baloch’s exclusive interview for Ek Thi Marium

 

  1. What was your motivation to play this role?

Ever since I heard about Marium and her plane crash, i was into her story. I have always been critical of how women are perceived in our society. They are thought to be weak and emotionally unstable and what not. Then I came across Marium Mukhtiyar, an Air Force pilot, being trained for hard core fighter jet flying. Where most of the men dare not tread, there is this ‘weak and emotionally unstable’ woman saying ‘Look at me. I am a woman and I can do this’. Isn’t this incredible? She proved my point right that women are as capable as anyone at anything. So i was hooked to her story even before i was offered this telefilm.

  1. What are the lessons you learnt from Marium’s life?

Resolve. Courage. The courage to stand up, look into the eyes of fear and say, “Don’t come back to me, I am over you”. And this is all we need to do wonders in life.

  1. What do you love about her character?

Her focus. When i met her family and friends, I realized she was an extremely focused individual. She set a goal for herself and she got there. She was a perfectionist.

  1. What should viewers expect from this film?

A moving story of a remarkable girl. A self-driven individual who saw life and death differently. She lived wonderfully and she died a martyr. Who wouldn’t want to watch such a story?

  1. How did you prepare for the role (ie physical training etc.)?

I still haven’t been able to decipher my method to acting. It just happens there and then. May be I want to be in the moment while it is being done. So for this character, my approach was the same, to get into her head. I asked myself a lot of questions about Marium. What motivated her, what did she feel bad about, how would she cry and smile and love and all. And it helped me a lot while doing the scenes. I made up a sketch of the basic character and then allowed myself to react to situations the character experienced. Since people have seen her talk. They know her. And I never played a real life character before. So I had to be extra careful of everything. For example I saw her wearing a specific wrist watch. I knew people wouldn’t notice such a detail but I made sure I wear such a watch too. It had to be less of myself and more of her. And it was challenging. I loved doing all the physical trainings. I loved sports while I was young and that made things easier for me. And you know what the instructors were impressed and they even asked me to join Air Force hahaha.

  1. While filming this movie do you feel like you were impacted personally from the story?

Please describe. First thing that struck me, apart from the story, was the tough training that our forces go through. One has to be extremely tough both mentally and physically to survive. We shot a lot of scenes at the Risalpur Academy and I got to see their routine up close and I must say I was impressed. Hats off to all the cadets. I jumped off a 36 feet tall structure, I flew a trainer plane, Mashaaq, marched while holding a really heavy gun, ran and did awkward exercises and all this has made me stronger. Marium Mukhtiyar ne maut ka dar khatam kar diya hai. Thank you Marium,my friend. Do you have any message for the audience about this movie? All the mothers and fathers and men and women and girls and boys, basically all the Pakistanis,do watch this telefilm. And allow your daughters and sisters and wives to pursue their dreams. They will make you proud. Ye Marium ki nahin, Pakistan ki beti ki kahani hai. See you on 6th September.

Ek Thi Marium

Karachites celebrated the Azadi at Azadi Rocks Music Festival!

Azadi means freedom, and freedom means “the state of not being imprisoned.”

In past few years the people of Karachi having terror while going out from home to attend any event. But this year, Karachites proved by coming out from home to celebrate the Azadi “Independence Day” at different events that were held in the city of lights.

This year different events were organized in the city of lights on Independence Day of Pakistan. But the event which grab my attention was “Azadi Rocks Music Festival.”

Azadi Rocks Music Festival (ARMF) was the event, which was held on 14th August 2016, at Eduljee Road. And its venue was especially chosen to highlight the cultural heritage and historic importance. The event was managed by CKO Event Architectures and was sponsored by Faysal Bank.

The event started as per schedule, with a 100 person marching band parade along the entire stretch of the road and ended up on stage to perform the national anthem.

The event was hosted by Ahmed Godil, and then the show kicked off with an amazing performance by Dubai-based band “Chronicles of Khan.”

Natasha Bayg the leading vocalist of Kaya band followed up and gave her best performance, and then Mai Dhai performed on folk music.

After that Zoe Vicaji came on the stage and crowd began showing energy towards her performance, and then Fuzon gave his electrifying performance that the crowd became energetic, especially on the song “Ankho Ke Sagar.”

It was grand finale performance by Atif Aslam, which was one of the most awaited moment of ARMF. When Atif came on the stage, then crowd became crazy. With every song of Atif, the crowd seemed to be going wilder. The crowd was showing their love and craziness for Atif by singing along, humming and dancing on his songs. After the exit of Atif Aslam, the fireworks followed up, and the event was ended with the song “Jeeway Jeeway Pakistan.”

In the end, I would like to say that it was such an amazing and unforgettable Azadi event for the Karachites, which forced them to come out from home and make the Azadi of 2016 memorial.

“Azadi Rocks Music Festival,” Few hours to go!

CKO Event Architecture, the team behind the Karachi Eat Food Festival, is all set to host another event in Karachi “Azadi Rocks,” on 14th August to memorialize the Independence Day. The main idea is to bring together the citizens of Karachi in one place to celebrate the spirit of independence.

While talking about the event, Sara Chappra, Director CKO Events Architecture said,

“The objective with regards to the signature events like Karachi Eat, Lahore Eat, Light the Night – Chaand Raat and Azadi Rocks Music Festival is to give back to the people of Pakistan”

She further said,

“Our core business has always been the event management but over the last 3 years we started to design our own signature events that has been a huge success.”

She stated more,

“The aim of this event is to reclaim public places of Karachi. We are excited to organize another signature event, and we hope to have a positive response from Karachites.”

The Independence Day music concert has been designed for Karachites in order to revive public spaces around the city in the same way that Karachi Eat Food Festival revived Frere Hall. The venue of the event is Edulgee Road and it has been chosen specifically for the importance it holds in the urban fabric of Karachi. Featuring some of the biggest names in the Pakistani music scene today, Azadi Rocks is unique in its cause, include a good mix of local, folk and contemporary.

The event is sponsored by Faysal bank, and it will start with a 100 person marching band parading along the entire stretch of the road and ending up on stage to perform the national anthem. It will be followed by Kaya Band, Chronicles of Khan, Mai Dhai, Zoe Vicaji, Fuzon, and a grand finale performance by none other than Atif Aslam.

After the recent unfortunate incident in Quetta the management contemplated cancelation, however decided that although Pakistan is heartbroken and mourn with Quetta, cancelling the event and not standing up for our Independence on this day would be a far greater loss. Fear is, what is dividing us, what is preventing us from coming out and standing together. Our flag and our country is the only thing we have left that holds us together. That unites us. If today out of all the days we are expected to sit at home and not recognize our independence and honor all those lives that were lost so that we could live in freedom and be born AZAD then we have lost everything. We might as well give up now.

Azaadi Rocks Music Festival