Hamza, Rubya join hands for a night to remember

Duo performs live at concert followed by the screening of their debut music video.

KARACHI:

Rubya Chaudhry can attach ‘singer-musician’ to her resume as the model-turned-actor displayed her vocal talent in a concert held at the FTC Auditorium on Monday.

Hamza, on the other hand, is no stranger to the spotlight as a musician. The front-man of CoVen, one of Pakistan’s most well renowned and oldest rock bands, also made an appearance on Coke Studio season 7 as a guest musician.



Monday’s show was prearranged to screen the music video for Jafri and Chaudhry’s single, Let’s Get Together.

Several members of the music fraternity such as Coke Studio musicians Omran ‘Momo’ Shafique, Sikandar Mufti and Sara Haider turned up to support the musical duo.

Despite the exasperating delay to kick-start the event, stand-up comedian and improv artist Akbar Chaudry kept things interesting by indulging in a rapid fire and humorous round of questions with the celebrities and event organisers.

Mufti, better known for his stint on Coke Studio on percussions, was full of praise for his friends, Chaudhry and Jafri, stating, “It’s always nice to see good and quality performers emerging in the industry and I would like to wish both of them all the very best for their future projects.”



Jafri and Chaudhry performed several singles and covers they had collaborated upon for a long period of time — the first being Chaudhry’s debut release, Let’s Get Together, a traditional pop-rock number.

“We have been writing and composing music together for almost 8 to 10 months and ‘Let’s Get Together’ is the first of our songs,” She stated. According to the musicians, the song is an uplifting anthem which has been sung in Urdu and English so it’s able to appeal to a wider audience.



The duo performed several originals alongside Coke Studio and Strings drummer, Ahad Ayani. Some other noteworthy songs included the ballad Thaam Lo before changing gears and increasing the tempo with pop-rock songs like Aaja and Badshah.

The latter was one of the highlights of the evening mainly due to Jafri and Ayani’s guitar and drum solos respectively.

The music video for Let’s Get Together was also screened at the event and featured theatre director and Jafri’s wife Nida Butt dancing alongside Jafri and Chaudhry. Despite being a decently shot video, it generated mixed responses from audience members.

Waleed Tariq, an audience member, commented, “Personally, I think that the video was well-shot but the song was a major letdown and the artists were unable to do justice to it.”

The screening for the music video was followed with Jafri and Chaudhry performing covers of popular songs including Bollywood tracks like Ram Chahe Leela from the movie, Goliyon Ki Raasleela: Ram-Leela.

Despite the delayed start and minor technical difficulties, audiences generally appreciated the event and praised the organisers for arranging a concert at a time when there is a dearth of live performances in the country.

“Credit must be given where it is due. This is my first time coming to a concert with my family and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish we have more musicians performing live so that the music industry does not fade out,” remarked audience member, Zohair Alvi.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2015.

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