Audience applaud a popular ghazal being presented by Tina Sani at a concert in Islamabad. PHOTOS: EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD: Only the renowned singer Tina Sani could turn around a fall from the stage into good humour. As she walked towards her seat on the elevated surface before a performance on Saturday evening, she stumbled and fell backward, leaving many to gasp.
Gathering herself with ease, she stood up and settled in with poise. “That means there is a lot of energy in this room. The worst fear that anyone who’s a performer, can have, is this fall and it just happened so it’s over and done with, let’s clap it up,” she said, smiling gracefully.
This is how a potentially awkward situation was garbed into something of an ice-breaker at the prelude of “Nawa-e-Nay”, a live concert with Sani and instrumental accompaniments.
Seated against a purple backdrop and clad in coral-blue kurtas, the accompanying musicians were Abid Hussain on tabla, Iqbal Hussain on harmonium, Wazir Sultan on dholak and Hassan Badshah on flute.
Actor and television host Tauseeq Haider moderated the session, lighting up the mood of the overcast evening.
As Sani’s effortless vocals took over, the buzzing hall fell silent. In tribute to the resilient Tharparkar locals, she opened with a Thari song “Mai Bhagi”.
Emanating an ethereal aura, she related a thought-provoking musical, weaving the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Allama Iqbal and Maulana Rumi into an ensemble. Sani, who has been performing Faiz for a long time, said Rumi has been a part of her spiritual journey and his poetry should be experienced not through the mind but through the heart.
She narrated 17 verses of Rumi’s Masnavi, the first one in Persian followed by Urdu translations. “Much is lost in translation, as you all know,” she said while narrating an allegorical tale of the soul, wanting to reunite with the creator.
Her renditions of “Dasht-e-Tanhai mein”, an amalgam of “Mori Araj suno” and “Rabba Sacheya” as well as “Hum Dekhenge” had ardent Faiz admirers singing along, some nodding their heads, others flashing their smartphone cameras in the dimly-lit interior while still others clapping fervently. There was a sense of calm transcending the packed hall, with occasional plaudit from an engrossed audience.
Joined by actor and writer Adeel Hashmi for select verses, Tina performed “Sheeshon ka maseeha” as the duo progressed into an intense exchange of Iqbal’s “Shikwa” and “Jawab-e-Shikwa.” With Hashmi reciting verses, Sani on the vocals and interspersed notes of music, the night was a soulful retreat away from the cares of the world.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2014.
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