Faakhir: There’s no stopping the pop star

Faakhir turns composer for Asim Raza’s ‘Ho Mann Jahaan’, stays put in the dwindling music industry

KARACHI:

Since the advent of digital download, very few Pakistani artists have released albums, let alone singles. Owing to this, many singing sensations of yesteryear have now gone into semi-retirement, only coming out to perform the odd show or two. Only a handful continues to make music in the dwindling Pakistani music industry and one of them is Faakhir.

Having been part of the music setup for more than two decades, Faakhir’s knowledge and understanding of local music trends is testament to the time and effort he has invested into the industry. Always on the lookout for a new challenge, Faakhir got his wish when he was asked by his friend, director Asim Raza, to produce two songs for his upcoming film Ho Mann Jahaan.



The former Awaz band member takes immense pride in his latest work, despite only doing two songs for the movie. The two songs that Faakhir has composed for the film include a reproduced version of Asrar’s ‘Shakar Wandaan Re’ and ‘Khush Peya Wussain’. “‘Shakar Wandaan Re’ became a little challenging for me because there are a few other versions of the song as well. With the other song ‘Khush Peya Wussain’, however, I had complete freedom to do whatever I liked,” he shares.

He was full of praise for both the singers Asrar and Tina Sani, who have lent their vocals to the songs. “I was really impressed with Asrar. Not only because he has a very powerful voice, but also because he has great sur. I didn’t have to tweak his vocals much.” Working with Tina was a dream-come-true for Faakhir, who was honoured to record and direct her. “Tina Sani is such a big name and to guide her and tell her how I want her to sing the song was exciting. Now, I can relate to the high that all those big composers, such as R D Burman must have gotten after composing and guiding singers, such as Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar.”



Faakhir recalls how instrumental Asim has been throughout his career trajectory, from pushing him to relocate to Karachi to giving him the opportunity to produce film music. “Back in the day, Asim insisted that I move here as there was great scope for music. I used to make jingles at the time, but when my solo career picked up, I had the opportunity to travel the world again and didn’t have time to do this anymore,” says Faakhir. “But now, when things were quietening down a bit, Asim pulled me back into it, saying I should make film music for him,” says Faakhir.

He shares that he seeks to fulfil his passion of making music by doing projects which he enjoys, and those that drive and satisfy him. Ho Mann Jahan seemed to tick all the boxes. “This is the first time I’ve actually made music for a film. It’s a new beginning for me. It was something different, especially as I wasn’t singing myself. This time around, I got other singers to sing and produce. It was a new line of work for me, which is why I enjoyed it so much,” told Faakhir. Commenting on the trending genre of music, he says that dadra is quite popular these days. “Most of the known Bollywood songs you will listen to these days are dadra. As according to time signature, 6/8 and 3/4 is desi dadra, just like Ranveer Singh’s song [‘Tattad Tattad’].”



Not one to plan too far ahead, Faakhir looks towards composing for maestros, such as Abida Parveen, and promoting new artistes in the near future. “I’m going to push new talent now, but am still looking for a platform where those artistes can be registered and become household names, all of which has become difficult with many music channels closing,” he says. “We need to have our own infrastructure, through which we can push our artists to success.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th,  2015.

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