Saturday, May 8, 2010

Fashion ka hai ye jalwa

It seldom happens that you expect something from a place somewhere only to be led into something which was nothing. Confused? Well so was I when I mistook a fashion show for a concert. It so happened when yesterday i visited the Arts Council Karachi (for the first time) for a mistaken concert perception. What so ensued after reaching their tells for an interesting tale.

The event was entitled "FASHION ECLIPSE 2010 Funky Style Nelson Paints Jalpari Night Ramp Modeling".

Models alongwith the function organiser.

In case you are wondering why I spent money on such an event ,well I along with my friends got the passes for FREE, yea dude links do help ;). The open hall was kind of rusty with shabby walls and white concrete benches to sit on, at corner a small stage was set up and surprisingly water coolers were placed across the hall but not so surprisingly, no glass to drink?

You know what they say about Karachi, if there is a show at XYZ hrs, be sure to be there by XYZ+2 hrs so you don’t miss out on anything. And staying to its roots this one didn’t disappoint either. Start time was 20:30 and it eventually kicked off around 22:15.

By 21:30 the crowd had begun to fill in with the diverse inhabitants of Karachi ranging from the typical mela paan youth to upper class burgers, form women dressed in body hugging outfits and tight jeans to burqa clad ladies carrying little children.

A man much similar to my complexion dressed in black coat and spotting a neat tie eventually opened the proceeding with introducing himself as the host. The guy had a typical “Shairna” lingo (the one that can bore you to sleep) and did not hesitate in singing a lullaby which he thought was a good moodlifter to set the tone for the evening “Ik pal me zindagi ka maza hum se puchye” and my weak memory does not allow me to remember the rest (thankGod!!!). He enlightened the now settled audience about the Fashion show that was going to take place along with some musical performances. The highlight of the evening was supposed to be a Pakistani singer of INTERNATIONAL fame Muskaan Khan, Muskan who you ask? Muskaan Khan dude, a Pakistani female singer with Khan at the end, isn’t that enough for her to be the most anticipated performer of the evening?

The first act was by some underground band whose name I am proud to forget. Funny part was when the host introduced them saying “they are here to play for u” (suggesting that we are dying to hear from a band which till a minute back we never knew even existed) , FAIL, no moron they are here for the money, recognition, fame, to get heard and definitely to dig some babes. Rather its we who are here to help them succeed in this noble aim of theirs. The band, not surprisingly, was a huge disappointment, maybe it was due to poor English covers or maybe the lead guy was just not loud enough and his voice remained buried under the sounds of guitar/ drums or maybe it was his ugly posture of standing on one leg , closing his eyes n rubbing his fingers around his heart all throughout the gig (ewww). The band did not depart till the time they made sure the bored audience was stretched to its utmost limitsand they had received their quota of abuses from the crowd.

But the organizers were smart enough, they anticipated the mood of the audience and as a morale lifter called in a dancer Sehar Ghazal for the next act, wohoo , now we are talking baby. A thin timid looking girl dressed in shining black blouse and long skirt shortly entered and shaked herself to the song paisa paisa amid continous whistling and hooting. Which eventually leads me to few questions? Whether this was a family event? If yes then what’s the mujra babe doing up there on the stage in front of so many housewives and little children? If no, then why were the families invited at the first place? Surely this is something we as a society need to look into.

Then came the original act, the show basically the function was organized for, Ramp modeling. Now I don’t have much of a fashion sense so I can’t write much about the clothes but the models were a complete turn-off, maybe its cause I’ve never been to a fashion show before and my perception about models is whatever “little” I have seen on Ftv, though it was nothing like that. All the girls were new; some looked residents of Lyari, others an average fat Pakistani aunty and rest were no good either. About the male models, well the less said the better. So this was the third act of the evening which also did not live up to my FTV expectation. Second last happening was another gig from another undergroung band Aaj aur was it Auj, never mind though. The lead was quite generous enough to apologize for the long delay due to instrument check and thanked the audience for bearing them. Thankfully they did not waste their energy and our time on English covers but preferred the Indian ones followed by one original. By this time news had leaked that the much hyped show stopper Muskaan Khan is not going to perform as she had some issues with the organizers. Hearing this we departed for an early exit as I for once, did not want it to be a déjà vu of the anticipated ep gig at Lok Virsa Islambad.

Me, my friends and Muskaan Khan.