Where art and music collide

Shahbaz Sumar, the director of Arieb Azhar’s upcoming video for his song “Mere Des”, talks to The Express...

Shahbaz Sumar, the director of Arieb Azhar’s upcoming video for his song “Mere Des”, talked to The Express Tribune about the process of making the video and how he brought Shehnaz Ismail and Maheen Khan on board.

How did the concept of an art installation video come about? Art and music used to have a lot of linkages early on in Pakistan’s history but those have dissipated in recent times.

Arieb wanted to be surrounded by artists, to have an environment that would depict Pakistan’s great potential. As the song goes: ‘Mere des mein hai imkaan bohat, aas umeed armaan bohat.’ Yousuf Bashir Qureshi offered the use of Commune and we brainstormed. I wrote a concept but the budget was extremely tight so we had to keep the idea contained. Eventually I decided to juxtapose the eclectic atmosphere of the installation with the extreme reality of street kids and have the artists and kids come together (in an explosive fashion) at the end of the video.

Was this your first experience working with Arieb Azhar? How did it go?

Arieb is a gem of a guy. He is very cooperative and an all around great human being. It was a pleasure working with him and I am grateful he gave me the opportunity to direct this video for him, which is my first music video.

Mainstream music videos are often very unoriginal and uninspiring. Is it easy to break through the clutter with a video like the one for “Mere Des”?

Well as a director you have to be flexible, and in the end you have to satisfy your client. There are budget constraints so you may not be able to do all the fantastical things you dream about. With “Mere Des” I wanted to go a bit old school, show Arieb singing on a 1970s PTV ‘Milli Naghma’ set, go nuts on wardrobe and art direction and bring back the nostalgia that this country needs so desperately.  But Arieb really wanted to be surrounded by artists etc. I don’t know if “Mere Des” is the most original concept, but I really hope it can be inspiring in some way.

Was it easy to bring the artistes on board?

Everybody pulled favours for this project. Qureshi called in his friend Jabbar Gul, the wood sculptor and suggested Shehnaz Ismail to operate the ‘khaddi’. Even though Shehnaz had never done something like this before she was a great sport. I called in Maheen Khan, who was one of my mother’s classmates in school and someone I am completely enamoured with. Maheen had never done a music video before and didn’t even know Arieb before the shoot but agreed to participate in our patriotic venture.  This video could not have been possible without Shehnaz and Maheen. I kept all the artists on location for 19 hours that day. One can imagine the fatigue and crankiness, but these two ladies were like rocks. There wasn’t a single negative vibe or complaint from them.  In fact they made sure that the other cast and crew members were energised and focused throughout ... they truly are iconic Pakistanis.

When is the video expected to release?

I’m doing the final grading and post right now and it should be out next week.

What do you feel is the current state of music video production in Pakistan?

Music videos are the rare opportunity directors and artists get to express themselves creatively. I am really inspired by people like Bilal Lashari and Zeeshan Parwez. Now with the ease of cameras like the 7D and the video editing functions on a MacBook Pro that every kid has ... don’t worry, this country will be crawling with little genius Lasharis in a few years!

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2010.