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assistance interview Popular
dreams
Happy 80 to Lata
Reluctant Friends All that one would like to say at this stage about the Bill is that we will essentially be at the mercy of the US administration's assessment of our performance in satisfying each conditionality in the law to qualify for continued financial assistance By Shahid Kardar The government will continue to maintain that it has had
spectacular success in getting international backing for funding the
country's strategy on security and socio-economic development (not just
directly from the Americans and the Europeans but also indirectly through
funding by multilaterals like the IMF and the World Bank) and defend its
accomplishment in the shape of the Kerry-Lugar Bill, while critics and
analysts will relish tearing to bits this contention and the wording and the
underlying intent of the Bill. While not wanting to comment at length on this assertion and the controversy that has already been generated by the claims and counter claims, all that one would like to say at this stage about the Bill is that it requires no elaboration that we will essentially be at the mercy of the US administration's assessment of our performance in satisfying each conditionality in the law (even if it had been better worded) to qualify for continued financial assistance. The US will be the sole determinant of the seriousness of our efforts to address terrorism and dismantle extremist networks and in providing direct access to Pakistanis accused of nuclear proliferation. The tone and content of this Bill is grimly reminiscent of the Pressler Amendment of the late 1980s (in which case Zia-ul-Haq and Sahibzada Yaqub were joint drafters/approvers of the legislation-reflecting their short-sightedness) in which case also waivers, in the shape of certification by the President, had also been built-in, ostensibly to get around the Glenn Amendment. The need for certification that we are fulfilling the conditions to remain eligible for assistance seems to imply that we are guilty unless declared innocent by the Secretary of State! The Kerry-Lugar Bill will come back to haunt us whenever we cease, in the eyes of the Americans, to have lost our utility to the enhancement of their national interests. They will, as they did then, turn their back on us, blaming us for not meeting the requirements of the Bill, thereby constraining their earnest desire to lend a hand and forcing them once again to walk away as they had been accused of doing in the past. Also, whereas the developed countries are keen to romanticise the importance and relevance of the level and volume of their assistance, these crutches, even if they were to become available as pledged (including the US assistance of 1$ 1.5 billion) would represent barely 6% of the annual non-military spending of the Federal and provincial governments. But then, these reservations notwithstanding, for those protesting the pertinent question would be whether beggars can ever be choosers? As for the delayed flow of funds from Friends of Democratic Pakistan, let us not forget that they had sent out an unambiguous message when we had first reached out to them for help. These Friends refused to write out cheques to this aid-addict without an IMF programme in place. Given the country's well-documented history as a spoilt child not willing to mend its ways and failing to undertake any meaningful reform, they wanted IMF supervision and oversight to ensure utilisation of funds for the purposes for which they were purportedly sought. These anxieties about the reluctance of successive governments to carry out fundamental reforms were supplemented by the poor international and domestic perception of the PPP's credentials with respect to sleaze-free government (if ever there will be such a government, PPP or of some other party, in this country), reinforced by a recent World Bank official publication highlighting a minimum 'leakage' of 15% from government construction contracts, and stories flashed widely in both foreign and domestic media about not just the existence but also, supposedly, the growing incidence of corruption in recent months. Since this issue of country and government image and poor governance refuses to go away, it is getting aptly echoed in the funding programme of the Americans. They are unwilling to dole out more than US$ 200 million per year (a mere 12% of their assured annual aid) to the government as budgetary support, despite our repeated entreaties for aid in financing a variety of obligations in these testing times. They have opted for funding various poorly identified and designed projects and programmes through their own consultants and local NGOs; the majority of these schemes cannot surely be the priorities of the country -- as evidence see the USAID website for the exotic names of projects on which millions of dollars are being expended. The Americans have also decided to house a veritable army of US government administrators and auditors (complemented by services of large international accounting firms and their local associates) in their embassy to manage disbursement of funding and oversee utilisation of their financial support. Estimates vary, but at least 40% of such assistance will flow back to the US as payments to American consultants and contractors. The same is going to be the case with the assistance of the other Friends. Moreover, in the case of the latter, contrary to popular myth, in excess of 75% of the aid will be in the form of loans to finance projects. That, in view of the low credibility of the Federal and provincial governments, the Friends of Democratic Pakistan are loath to give these governments money to spend on the rehabilitation of the IDPs and the reconstruction of the infrastructure in Malakand is fittingly reflected in the decision to set up a Trust Fund to be administered by the World Bank for this purpose. This writer for one also fears that regardless of the high profile session in New York chaired by President Obama, donor fatigue, in view of their own domestic problems, could choke the flow of funds for this endeavour. As evidence is the case of the British. It is instructive that Gordon Brown, who co-chaired this meeting, promised what appeared to be an additional (albeit miserly) 50 million pounds for FATA and IDPs, conveniently forgetting to mention that 40 percent of this sum had already been spent (before he proudly made this much publicised public announcement in New York) on the IDPs while they were in the camps, etc. The short-term implications of the lack of hoped for funding is that the government will have little choice but to substantially trim its ambitious development programme for the next 2-3 years. However, what is particularly disconcerting when you sift through the rhetoric of our professed friends, especially the Americans, on their keenness to help us is their aversion to opening up of their markets for products in which we have some comparative advantage, despite this being a better approach from all angles of concern to them.
No kidding with Ramchand At 10, Syed Fazal Hussain alias Ramchand -- from last year's internationally acclaimed film by Mehreen Jabbar -- is already an old hand at performing a variety of characters on screen: be it Main Aur Tum's adorable prankster, Grahan's street beggar or Toota Phoota Hi Sahi's quiet and withdrawn Nadu. But, certainly, his biggest claim to fame remains the eponymous Ramchand Pakistani (2008) where he played a Hindu Dalit minor who accidentally crosses the border from Pakistan and lands in a jail in India. As an angered little prisoner, Fazal emoted famously with his kohl-lined, highly expressive eyes. For Pakistani cinema at least, here was a performance that could put most professionals to shame. A precocious boy, Fazal cut his teeth on television as
well as school stage before he was sought out by Ramchand… scriptwriter,
Mohammed Ahmed. A single audition later, he was in. This was no small
achievement, considering how perfectionist Mehreen is said to have previously
auditioned scores of children and rejected them all. Today, Fazal is on the verge of making another little history: he is the first child star in the country to have made it to the Best Actor category alongside pros like Shaan and Moammar Rana, in the due-soon LUX Style Awards. Will he, like Bollywood's Darsheel Safari (of Taare Zameen Par), beat his elders to the trophy? Time will tell. Right now, he is happy discussing with TNS his teachers "who are my fans", his nick 'Chandni' and, of course, his future plans. Talking to Fazal is like talking to an adult -- except for his squeaky voice and a petite, 4-foot-something frame. There is nothing 'kiddish' about whatever he says or the way he says it. His responses are measured and his sentences properly structured. And, his arguments are those of a grown-up, such as he says that he wants to become an engineer "because acting is not a wise career choice in Pakistan", or that Ghajini is his favourite film because "it's clean; even the bachhas can watch it". Boy! You are surprised, also because you expected a rather spontaneous reply.
By Usman Ghafoor The News on Sunday: Let's start with the very beginning. At what age did you first act? Syed Fazal Hussain: I must be four at that time. TNS: We hear that you worked on television before Ramchand Pakistani. Tell us a bit about the plays you did. SFH: My first TV play was called Eid Muqabala, and my first serial was Malika that was directed by Yasir (Nawaz) uncle. Later, I acted in Zanjeer and Bay Waris. TNS: When you went outstation for Ramchand Pakistani's shoot, were you kind of intimidated? SFH: No. Actually, my father accompanied me throughout the month-long shoot in Tharparkar and, later, to Salamkot and Islamabad. TNS: What was the response of your classmates and teachers when the film came out? SFH: They would say, 'Hamarey school mein ek star hai!' While my teachers told me they were my fans. TNS: Do you have a lot of friends? SFH: I've two friends; one of them, Sameer Saleem is my school principal's son. TNS: Ok. Have you been getting any interesting offers of acting lately? SFH: Yes. I recently shot for Yasir uncle's comedy serial, Nadaniyan, where I play the Don's son. It was a very interesting character. TNS: What about films? SFH: Nandita (Das) auntie has promised me a film. (smiles) TNS: Did you attend the Mumbai or Delhi premiere of Ramchand…last year? SFH: No. I just attended the Islamabad premiere where Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was the chief guest. TNS: How was it like, meeting the PM? SFH: (in mock-anger) I thought he'd get me presents, but he didn't! TNS: What about the cast and crew of Ramchand…? How did they treat you on the sets? SFH: They treated me with a lot of love. All of them! TNS: How many retakes did you generally give before a shoot? SFH: (confidently) My shots were okayed in the very first take. TNS: Any bloopers or mess-ups? SFH: We were shooting in Salamkot. There was a cow on the location. I didn't know it was being milked, and so I went to her and started petting her. The next we saw the cow had kicked away the churn. TNS: Have your studies suffered because of your shooting schedules? SFH: No, because I've had such cooperative teachers as Sir Saleem who always treats me like his son. So, if I went on a shoot and missed a few important lectures, he'd make sure I catch up afterwards. TNS: You have participated in school plays, too. Right? SFH: Right. For our school's annual function recently, I performed on the songs 'Ko ko korina', 'Maa mujh ko jhulao jhoola' and 'Meri payal baajey chhan'. TNS: Do you have any favourite actors? SFH: I like uncle Nadeem Baig, Babar Ali, Humayun Saeed and Faisal Qureshi. TNS: ...and from among film stars? SFH: Everyone likes Shahrukh Khan, but I think he overacts. I like Salman Khan better. He is great at fighting and has a great body. He is an original actor. TNS: What about the ladies? SFH: I like Madhuri, Katrina Kaif, Ash (Aishwarya Rai) and, definitely, Nandita auntie. TNS: Tell us your opinion of Darsheel Safari (of Taare Zameen Par)? SFH: He was very good, mashallah, considering it was his first film, just as Ramchand Pakistani was my first film. TNS: Fazal, your full name sounds rather 'daunting'. Do you have a nick? SFH: Yes. It's Chandni! TNS: That's a girlie nick, isn't it? SFH: Well, my mother calls me by this name. (smiles) TNS: How many siblings do you have? SFH: Seven. TNS: Is anyone of them working on TV? SFH: My younger brother recently acted in a play. TNS: Would you want to pursue a career in acting? SFH: No. I don't think it's a wise career choice in a country like Pakistan. I want to become an engineer. Acting I can always do on the side. TNS: Tell us about your other interests and hobbies? SFH: I play cricket and football. TNS: In the film you sport kohl in your eyes. Do you use that in real life, too? SFH: Sometimes, I do. Again, that's my mother's doing. TNS: Have you ever sported a wildly different get-up for a role? SFH: I did my hair in spikes for my role as Don's son (in Nadaniyan).
Re-viewing Jeff Koons' artwork in a café in Lahore's Liberty Market By Quddus Mirza "To beauty in simple things" -- Jeff Koons Perhaps the best place to review Jeff Koons's recent show
would be a café in Lahore's Liberty Market. Outside the window, one gets to
see vendors selling inflated plastic toys like dolphins, dragons, monkeys and
aeroplanes of all sizes and shades at nominal prices. Actually one was
reminded of these toys while looking at the works of Jeff Koons, exhibited at
London's Serpentine Gallery from July 2 to Sept 13, 2009. Koons, the celebrated American artist, has explored the idea of 'popular' in our age through his paintings and mixed media sculptures. Popular imagery and kitsch artefacts have appeared regularly in his photographic prints, sculptures, large-scale installations and paintings for a number of years now. So seeing Koons work -- art based on popular visual culture -- in its surroundings (London) seems appropriate and logical. This kind of work conveys its full meaning in a culture that is moulded by concepts of consumerism, market strategies and delight of possessions. Modern Western societies have been established on the relationship between production and purchase -- a phenomenon that requires selling of image before selling the actual object. Hence publicity has become an integral part of market economy; as it creates and carves an illusion of need among the public which is compelled to own items that are not necessarily required or essential. The glowing and glittering network of publicity has turned real products into attractive images that everyone wishes to associate with and keep consuming. The goal aimed through publicity was well-illustrated by Earnest Elmo Calkins (the advertising pioneer, who coined the term 'consumer engineering'): "Goods fall in two classes: those which we use such as motor cars and safety razors, and those which we use up, such as toothpaste, or soda biscuits. Consumer engineering must see to it that we use up the kind of goods we now merely use." To attain Calkins's dream -- the collective desire of a culture -- is not possible without the immense input of advertising that has transformed the link between goods and their images. In a way, publicity, a practice of persuading public to purchase new products, has now become an activity through which visuals have acquired more importance than the real object they seek to represent. We are constantly surrounded by visions, which are illusions but satisfy us to an extent that in most cases it is not the visual that compels us to buy a product, we collect an item in order to be a part of the virtual world of virtues -- spanning from sex to beauty to comfort to abundance. In that context, the works of Jeff Koons signify the power
of shared dreams through popular imagery – from children's comics, toys,
recreational stuff to fashion and pornography. Hence his work, both paintings
and sculptures, are blends of visuals that, despite the disparities in their
consumers, are prepared and projected on the basis of a single agenda -- the
Pleasure of/and profit. So the cartoon figure of Popeye the Sailor and naked
models from Playboy magazine are combined in his canvases. Similarly,
replicas of blown-up toys are joined with garden furniture -- elements that
reflect lavish living style. Likewise, a dolphin is stuck amid the pile of
plastic chairs, and in another work three monkeys are holding each other
along with the last one supporting a chair. Although the work of Koons, if read with his earlier art pieces (such as kitsch items cast in stainless steel and glass) and giant Puppy (made in 1992 with live flowers, earth, wood and steel), affirms the artist's involvement with the vocabulary of popular, the exhibition at Serpentine suggests an important motif in his art: Plastic. Many sculptures are fabricated by reconstructing plastic toys in metal. However the execution of these sculptures is so immaculate and deceptive, that one tends to believe that the exhibits are made of plastic and not metal. The tactile quality, stretched surfaces, multiple colours and the presence of air inside the object, are translated in metal with such mastery/craftsmanship that the plastic appear the most obvious medium for these pieces. In addition, the nude voluptuous figures also allude to plastic surgery that is used for transforming body and enhancing certain organs. So in a sense plastic seems the main substance in his current body of work. This is not surprising because, like the division of human history into stone, bronze and iron ages, the present phase may be dubbed the period of plastic. A material that is manufactured on a monstrous scale in our era will perhaps outlive us (provided the world survives the after-effects of plastic). If scrutinised, the unnatural origin of this substance seems to have a certain impact on our lives, not in terms of physical characteristic of objects, but in connection with the behaviour and attitude of the users. Its inexpensiveness, easy availability, non-ethnicity and potential to be converted into innumerable products, forms and functions have turned plastic into the most representative material of our age. It has even replaced paper, for example the Australian bank notes are made of plastic and so are the credit cards everywhere. So Koons' repetitive use of plastic may be a way of reading the signs of his times, besides acting as an exponent of popular art forms. If one compares Koons with the practitioners of popular art in Pakistan, one recognises that the difference lies not in the ability, exposure or intelligence of the two, but in the two societies. A highly mechanised and consumerist culture is bound to produce Pop artists like Jeff Koons who address the aesthetics of a social structure that survives on the lines of productions in factories, automatism and huge markets. In that atmosphere, 'popular' consists of visuals that are perpetually created to accompany goods, which subsequently have a deep impact upon the psyche/behaviour of the population. In Pakistan, on the other hand, the term 'popular' as employed both by practitioners of art and critics has a different connotation. Here the popular art is primarily perceived to be some sort of local popular, for instance the transport art (an indigenous decorative practice). This attempt and reading of popular in our midst is hardly different from the effort of making miniature painting as the identity of this region. So with our own indigenous, special, specific and vernacular popular art -- sitting in a Lahore café while recalling Koons at Serpentine Gallery -- one understands that though there are clearly marked boundaries between our modern miniature painting and popular art, perhaps there is no discernable distance between the two.
Even at this age Lata Mangeshkar is an inspiration to several vocalists who can only dream of emulating her virtuosity and popularity By Sarwat Ali Lata Mangeshkar's 80th birthday was celebrated across the length and breadth of South Asia last week. It must have been celebrated across the globe too because Indian cinema now has an international outreach. Lata Mangeshkar's contribution to the popularisation of
cinema has been immense. K.L Saigal and Noor Jehan had established the
parameters of this new genre, which came into existence with the rise of the
talkie, it was left to the slightly younger Lata Mangeshkar to carry the
burden of this genre with help from other members of her family for the next
half century. Being the daughter of Dinanath Mangeshkar and shagird of the Gwalior Gharana gave the right credentials to Lata who was forced to become a performer at an age that many would consider immature. The uneven gains from the father's profession in the theatre and then his untimely death left no option for the prodigy but to pitchfork upfront and provide for the family. Other than her father, she is said to have been the shagird of Aman Khan of Bhindi Bazaar and Amanat Khan Dewaswale. The latter was so impressed that he recommended her to Sajjad Hussain for a break in the films. She also appeared in small roles in films but her prodigious musical talent made her get rid of forced acting. She started disliking being an actress and the introduction of the playback must have come as a great relief to her. It was Master Ghulam Haider who gave her the break in films and elevated her from a chorus girl to a soloist because as the lore goes he had predicated that she would rule the airwaves for decades to come. While working her way upwards from the 1940s onwards with quite a few music directors, picking up the finer aspects, she was quick to grasp the peculiarities of the new medium and the limitations of the recorded sound. Her first solo number for Majboor almost dethroned Shamshad Begum as the most sought after voice in Bombay since the departure of Noor Jehan to Pakistan. It is a little difficult to say which was the song that established her as the undisputed queen of the cineworld -- probably it was "Aiga aane wala" from film Mahal, which the great Khemchand Pralkash did not live to see, followed by series of songs from two blockbuster releases Andaz and Barsaat. Within a few years it was clear that she was being preferred over Shamshad Begum and Geeta Roy as voices for the two emerging cinema stars Madhuballa and Nargis. But something else was happening simultaneously: song and voice was taking precedence over heroine and actress and female voice was about to take over from male voice as the most sought after single entity -- all due to the immense talent of Lata Mangeshkar. During the decade of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s there was no stopping her as she held total sway over the film song. She sang for all the leading composers except O.P Nayyar. The main asset was that these composers came from various parts of the subcontinent. S.D.Burman, Anil Biswas, Salil Chaudhry and Hemant Kumar hailed from Bengal, from Rajisthan came Khemchand Prakash and Jamal Sen, from Uttar Pradesh Naushad Ali and Tripathi, from Bihar Chitragupta, and from Aurangabad in Maharashtra C. Ramchander. Vasant Desai hailed from Pune, Kalyanji Anandji from Kutch, Jaikishin from Gujarat, Shanker from Andhra and from the Punjab were Ghulam Haider, Shayam Sunder, Husn Lal, Bhagat Ram, Khayyam, Madan Mohan, Roshan and Jaidev. Initially the composers made her sing in the Noor Jehan mould but she came out of the K Dutta/Shyam Sunder influence to carve a place for herself. Following the immortal Mahal number to Anil Biswas' Anokha Payar, Naushad's Andaz, Shaker Jaikishin's Barsaat and later Sajjad Husain's and Husn Lal Bhagatram's compositions affixed the seal of her individual style. It was Ghulam Haider who informed her on the importance of the bol and the significance of the stress on the sum and Anil Biswas on the art of breath control while singing on the microphone. Lata was probably the first singer to insist on the recognition of and identity of the playback singer. The 78rpm records carried the names of the characters in the films on which the song was picturised rather than the name of the vocalist. She insisted that the name of the singer be mentioned and she also led the fight for the singer's royalties from the phenomenal sale of her records at a time when other top rank singers were reluctant to lead from the front. On her 75th birthday, Lata Mangeshkar's criticism of film music sparked a debate on the subject both in India and Pakistan. Her remarks on her birthday bemoaned the lack of melody as she nostalgically remembered the days when the film world had a succession of very creative composers. Some of these composers she worked with formed the second generation who followed the founding fathers and took film music to the pinnacle of popularity and creativity. It was particularly creditable because film music had evolved to be the most eclectic of the forms in a musical environment that took pride in the purity of the form. From classical to folk it lend itself open to music from all over the world -- be it the classical symphonies of the western classical tradition or the samba and cha cha cha dance tunes of Latin America, the jazz of the US and the pop music that spread like wild fire all over the western world after the second world war. Now as she lives in retirement. She is still an inspiration to several vocalists who can only dream of emulating her virtuosity and popularity. |
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