Kudos, Zoheb Hassan!

We all miss the legendary duo of Nazia and Zoheb Hassan who just brought joy to our hearts whenever we heard the soulful magic of the pop icons. Nazia’s untimely death saw her brother leaving the industry and going on to focus on his family business. However, season seven of Coke Studio brought the legendary pop icon out of his retirement. Although the first two songs, Chehra and Dheere Dheere featured in the second and the fourth episodes were just above par, the new song, Jaana, featured in episode six, certainly gives justice to the pop icon reminiscing in the memory of his sister.

With a spectacular intro to the song, we are reminded of the soulful composition that once moved our hearts in the ‘80s. Zoheb did a perfectly good job and although the fresh candid voice is replaced by a new husky tone, the pop icon did just well enough to give justice to one of the best numbers in Boom Boom. As far as the re-entry of the icon in the music scene is concerned, the job was perfect. Certainly well above par, but the question still looms over the seventh edition of Coke Studio — what exactly is Strings up to?

Strings have constantly been relying on the skills and the fame of the stars to churn out simple, easy-to-hear numbers which, although are ringing well with the audience, have nothing new to offer. Jaana starts with the similar intro as of the original but fails to keep up with the soul of the song. Strings has failed to add a new dimension to the song and thus have, by far, not lived up to the standards that Rohail Hayat had set for the prestigious music platform.

The only thing that Strings did right to mutate the song was the introduction of Zoe Viccaji (I still don’t understand what she does to gain entry in the studio) who remained true to her nature of always giving a below-par performance. I hope that Strings can certainly find the heart and try to utilise the platform — which can offer just so much more — to give the studio a new direction and not just keep caving in to the risk-free ideology that they have adopted for now.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2014.