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‘Yaheen‘ is one of those perfectly well-rounded songs that one would expect all radio stations to be playing nonstop and all at the same time. The kind of tune that you eventually wish you wouldn’t hear ever again but only because it was being played around you till it came out of your ears (almost literally).

The song is soft, but has a slightly melancholic edge to it, which saves it from stumbling into the valley of the shadow of bubblegum-pink pop. The words to the song are kind of on the cheerlessly contemplative side as well. The effect is not completely depressing however and ‘Yaheen’ becomes one of those songs you would want to upload on your iPod right away.

The best thing about the song though? Uzair Jaswal can actually carry a tune. He has a voice that is steady and solid, but is flexible too. He can go into different pitches without losing the tune; which is rare in most music hopefuls, most of the time.

The video, directed by Usman Malkani is average. Uzair sings to a weeping girl, tinted sepia. There is nothing seriously wrong with the video – it is simple, but simplicity can be strikingly played up as well. Most photographs or films or music videos that have stood out in our memory have had that something extra even in the face of zero special effects or even a complex storyboard (think ‘Anjane’ by Strings); the ‘Yaheen’ video simply doesn’t have that something extra.

Luckily though ‘Yaheen’ is a song that does not need a kick-ass video to be carried around by. It stands quite confidently on its own melodic feet.

– Amina Baig

Source: Instep Today

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indie music and individuality
Instep Today speaks to Hammad Khan,
the director of the upcoming film Slackistan

Saba Imtiaz

The Slackistan trailer has been discussed and dissected widely. The story of young adults trying to discover themselves in a rapidly changing Islamabad has garnered a lot of interest in Pakistan and abroad. Directed by the London-based Pakistani filmmaker Hammad Khan, Slackistan may just be the most relevant film for young people who find themselves searching for their identity in the socio-political climate.  Instep Today speaks with the filmmaker…

Instep Today: What was the concept behind Slackistan?

Hammad Khan: The concept was quite personal. In some ways, it’s an autobiographical film with my collective experiences of living in Islamabad in my early ’20s. And it is a reaction to the kind of media messages that are coming out of Pakistan – we know that it’s not the whole picture of Pakistan. So it’s also meant to subvert the preconceptions of Pakistan.

Instep Today: How did the idea come about?

HK: Very casually. My wife Shandana Ayub (who co-wrote and produced it with Hammad) and I were just sitting around at home and we started thinking, if we were to make a film about Islamabad, what would be all the things we would include. It was just a joke really, we made a list of things…but there was no master plan! I had other projects which were far more serious, and I bailed on the idea, much to her displeasure. But last December we went on a family trip to Islamabad, and just looking at everything, the other script didn’t feel as urgent. This was more relevant and important.

Instep Today: Do you think Slackistan will fall into the trap of clichés that stories about Pakistan often do?

HK:  I don’t know. As it is, it’s a segment of Islamabad, so in that way it’s already a counter-cultural film. And it’s truthful to the lives we’ve portrayed; the experiences of 20-somethings living in the comfort zone of Islamabad. What kind of day would they have? The actors are actually playing versions of themselves. The main protagonist Hasan (Shahbaz Hamid Shigri) is actually a young filmmaker and that’s what he plays in Slackistan. In the film, the female lead Aisha (Aisha Akhtar) is aspiring to go to the US and in reality, she’s studying in the US right now. So various things happened organically. I just told them to be as you are, invest your personality into it. So in some ways it is a documentary. And if there are any clichés, that’s because they’re true!

Instep Today: Let’s talk about the music. You’ve picked a number of indie bands for the soundtrack… (Slackistan features music by The Kominas, Mole and Adil Omar)

HK: I’m a huge music fan. I always conceive ideas and am inspired through music when I’m working. So it was important that since it was to be a counter-cultural film, it didn’t have to have necessarily mainstream Pakistani music but music that was more representative of the film’s spirit. So the (featured) bands are either underground bands or breaking through, they’re fresh and punk and westernized. In that way it’s an American film. And there’s a plethora of underground bands here…I’m excited by that.

Instep Today: What’s the plan for releasing the film, is it going to be a cinema release or through festivals etc?

HK: The usual route…we’re looking at a high profile festival premiere and the answer really is… “watch this space!”

There’s an audience for it in Pakistan, but it’s not a typical film. So we’re looking at untypical venues, showing it in colleges and schools etc. We have submitted it to the Censor Board though, so let’s see.

Instep Today: It’s a clichéd question, but thoughts on the state of filmmaking in Pakistan?

HK: More than the state of filmmaking, it’s really the lack of any filmmaking happening. Right now, making a film is literally about as cheap as buying a car. The amount of stories, ideas and more importantly – reasons -  are endless. It’s become a mission for me to try and figure this out, why filmmaking hasn’t been used a form of expression in Pakistan. We’ve taken to fashion and music but why is filmmaking such an alien concept?

So the state is quite bleak…but one hopes that films like mine are little steps and that other people are inspired to make films.

Instep Today: When can we expect Slackistan to be released?

HK: Hopefully by January or February 2010. We’re very close to completion and aim to have it done a 100 per cent by the end of the year. And the core audience for the film is not just within Pakistan, but around the world for expats and South Asians who will connect with and understand the urban experience.

The buzz about Slackistan

On blogs:

“Never knew Pakistan cinema was worth the name, but this is out of this world.”

≠– Comment posted on Chapati Mystery (chapatimystery.com)

On Twitter:

“Might be quite a nifty lil film to watch.”

“This is not CNN’s Pakistan.”

On YouTube:

(where the trailer has been viewed over 10,000 times)

“Luv it… this may help built a soft image of Pakistan.. we need things like these to change peoples perception about our country… Pakistan is not just about suicide bombers and Taliban… there is more to it… and this just shows another side that people in the west don’t know exist… way to go… keep it up…”

Source: Instep Today

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A few hundred miles from Pakistan’s Badlands, Islamabad is the setting for Hammad Khan’s new low-budget indie flick. So why does it feel like smalltown America?

Aisha Akhtar and Shahbaz Shigri, just - you know - hanging

Visitors to Islamabad, the small but perfectly formed capital of Pakistan, could be forgiven for thinking that the only things to rock the place were terrorist attacks. But they would be wrong. The city, population approximately 600,000, forms the backdrop for the country’s first slacker movie. Titled Slackistan, the low-budget independent film from first-time British director Hammad Khan features the Pakistani young and privileged as they drift around in a rarefied world of cars, dating, drinking and parties. Worrying only about what to wear and where to go, this group of fashionably-dressed kids could be in Orange County or New York’s Upper East Side.

Khan, who co–wrote the no–budget, independent film with his wife Shandana Ayub, says he could have picked an easier target for his debut but wanted to capture an undiscovered world.

“It’s a countercultural film, one that rejects the stereotypical western view of Pakistan, as well as one that rejects the prevailing establishment of older cultures and traditions.”
The turbulence in Pakistan hasn’t dampened spirits among the young creative community

As the first film of its kind, Khan is confident it won’t be the last. “The people who worked on the film are writers, actors, photographers, musicians, artists and film-makers. Slackistan should be a wake-up call to the wider youth base, both in and outside Pakistan, to redirect the future of the country. I made the film without any backing and I hope it can influence others to tell their stories. Pakistan has had a zombie movie in the last couple of years, now my slacker movie. Who knows what’s next to counter the same old superficial song’n'dance ‘masala’ movie?”

The turbulence in Pakistan – played out on rolling news channels – has not dampened spirits among the country’s young creative community.

Pakistan’s second largest city, Lahore, has a thriving underground rock scene (and has recently seen the launch of its first guitar school) while Islamabad is about to gain a new outdoor auditorium and recording studio, the Rock Musicarium. Its founder Zeejah Fazli says there’s a real thirst for entertainment and estimates that there are at least 20 rock bands in the city.

Khan, meanwhile, likens Islamabad to Canberra or Brasilia – seats of power that are very organised but entirely uneventful – and affectionately calls it the city that always sleeps.

“Islamabad is quite dead but it has a lot of young people. It feels like smalltown America. The kids are living in a bubble. It’s chaotic outside but the two worlds don’t meet.

“The only pictures of Islamabad you see are western journalists reporting on the Taliban.”

The Slackistan story – if it can be called that considering the absence of a hard and fast plot – is about the lives of young people in Islamabad. Khan cast locals – Islooites – with no acting experience, who were essentially playing themselves on screen.

“Every Islooite is talking or listening to stories of other people. It is a small town and the mentality is that of characters from Gossip Girl. Who was seen with whom, what car they were in and what happened at the last party are typical concerns for the Islooite. This town isn’t big enough to get away with much.”

If you were in Islamabad and in your twenties, he explains, you’d probably be seen at places like The Hot Spot, an ice–cream parlour and B–movie shrine housed in a disused train, or Rendezvous, somewhere that offers outdoor sheesha and indoor dating.

Ice-cream parlours and Gossip Girl? This hardly sounds like a cinematic feast. So why should anyone care about another bunch of bored and privileged kids?

“They are the kids of businessmen, politicians or professionals,” explains Khan. “They are the future of Pakistan. They will inherit Islamabad and it is more interesting to look at what they might do with it, rather than look at the poor or the radicalised who have very little real power. The film is about growing up, too. It asks, can we really do this for the rest of our lives?”

It’s not just the cast and story that lend Slackistan its realism. The soundtrack features underground hip–hop and rock artists such as Zerobridge, the Fatsumas and Adil Omar.

‘People ask me if I live in a hut! Those who don’t know Islamabad will learn something’

Indeed, the strapline for the film is: “Think you know Pakistan. Think again.” While it sounds like it ought to be part of a tourist campaign, it points to a country that is rarely explored in modern cinema, TV or literature. “It’s a weird conflation of Pakistani and western cultures and privilege,” observes Khan.

His friend and mentor Asif Kapadia, who won a Bafta for his film The Warrior, says the trailer surprised him. “I have my ideas of what I think Pakistan is like, so I can only imagine how much of a shock it will be for western audiences. It will really affect their preconceptions. It’s exciting.”

For Slackistan’s two leads, Shahbaz Shigri and Aisha Akhtar, the film is quite simply a reflection of their day-to-day realities. “It’s about being a big fish in a little pond,” says 20-year-old Aisha, when we meet in a bar at London’s Cumberland Hotel.

“You live in your comfort zone but you get stuck in a rut there.”

Shahbaz, 21, who plays the film’s protagonist Hasan, an aspiring film-maker, says there’s a real lack of ambition.

“Most jobs that kids get are through contacts. Ninety percent of Pakistani boys say they want to take over their dad’s business. The slacker thing was always there, I was just never aware of it.”

Aisha agrees that their Islamabad life is like “Gossip Girl without the glamour. It’s fun. It’s awesome.”

“No matter how bored or unproductive it gets, it’s nice,” adds Shahbaz.

Having lived in the US and the UK Aisha says she has a more “rounded vision” than people who never leave Isloo. Both say it is “completely normal” for 20-somethings to hang out with and date 30-somethings in Islamabad, whereas it would be socially unacceptable elsewhere in the country.

“You’re friends with whoever is left in town,” says Aisha.

Shahbaz feels the audience for Slackistan is a limited one. “All the films that come out of Pakistan are either religious or political. I’m looking forward to see how it does abroad. It’s made in a way that an indie would be made.”

That would be, according to Khan, with a one–man crew, no script, no budget, no permission and, at one point, when the Taliban were just 60 miles away from Islamabad.

Shahbaz used his own car in the film, Aisha used her own room and they borrowed houses from friends to keep costs down.

“We enjoyed making it and when it was over we were so bored, we were just being pathetic,” says Aisha.

“People who don’t know Islamabad will learn something,” says Shahbaz. “People who don’t know it have asked me if I live in a hut!”

“This is the anti–Slumdog,” proclaims Aisha. “That was a good film but highly overrated. It wasn’t anything new. It didn’t show people a side they didn’t already know. This will be a film people talk about.”

www.slackistanthemovie.com

Source: Slackistan Indie Film Islamabad | The Guardian

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The sensation of Islamabad, Uzair Jaswal and the only internationally recognized Pakistani rapper Adil Omar are teaming up for the soundtrack of the film.

The film is being directed by the award-winning filmmaker Hammad Khan, whose short films have been screened, nominated and awarded at film festivals around the world.

Slackistan stars some of the freshest, most talented and downright cool personalities you could expect to be introduced to namely:

Shahbaz Hamid Shigri
Ali Rehman Khan
Shahana Khan Khalil
Osman Khalid Butt
Aisha Linnea Akhtar

For more details on the film, see the Facebook group.

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