Whats Moor can Strings do?

Band and Anwar Maqsood speak about working on soundtrack of Jami’s upcoming film

KARACHI:

The phrase “it has been a long time coming” epitomises Moor’s journey as a film perfectly. Not only have audiences been made to wait for not just the movie, but also for the soundtrack — which has been composed by Strings.

While addressing members of the press at the launch for their music album, the band shared their experience about working on a project, which provided them an opportunity to join hands with frequent collaborators Anwar Maqsood (lyrics) and Jami Mahmood (director).

Even though Strings has previously lent songs to Bollywood movies, Moor marks the first time that the band has composed the soundtrack for a movie.

Actor Sonya Hussayn

“After releasing our own albums for 25 years, our first film album is being launched,” said Faisal Kapadia, “This is a very important milestone for use.”

Speaking about his own experience of working with Jami, Bilal Maqsood shared, “The movie Jami has made has different layers of emotions and visual textures to it. For instance the mountains of Balochistan, then the city, and all such textures are helpful for a musician for composing a song around them.”

Having worked on the on the soundtrack for a long time, Bilal revealed how one track on the album particularly close to him — Talabgaar.



“There is one track that whenever I listen to I start crying. Although I have made the track myself, written it with Abba [Anwar Maqsood] and mixed it in the studio for almost a month, even now when I hear the song in the car I feel emotional. And that song is Talabgaar,” said Maqsood.

Despite a host of singers such as Javed Bashir, Meesha Shafi and Rahma Ali taking up the playback singing duties for the album and Strings’ hands, already full with production responsibilities, the duo have still sneaked in two tracks, which have been sung by them.

“It was very difficult for us to sing for this movie as we were enjoying listening to Meesha Shafi, Javed Bashir and other singers. But at the same time, since we had been doing this ourselves for a while, it was something very natural,” stated Kapadia.

Director Jami

Anwar Maqsood, who is a known collaborator with the band, praised the director for his work on the movie, “I am glad that this film is releasing on August 14. As Moor in Urdu means Maa (mother) and this film tells how you should not try and cheat with your mother.”

The event would have felt incomplete if it did not feature the veteran writer and lyricist’s trademark tongue-in-cheek humour. While sharing how the soundtrack for Moor was a pure Pakistani product he joked, “In Moor you would not see any Na Maloom Afraad, neither would you find any number wrong in it, nor will it take you Karachi Se Lahore and it would also not make you Dekh Magar Pyaar Sey.”

Also present at the music launch was Jami, who elaborated how Moor as a project was close to his heart and praised Strings for their contribution to the film, “The music is very soulful and mesmerising, it adds to the subtle underlying tones of the movie without overpowering the storyline,” said Jami.

Moor which is slated for an Independence Day release, stars Hameed Sheikh, Samiya Mumtaz, Shaz Khan, Abdul Qadir, Soniya Hussain, Ayaz Samoo and Eshita Mehboob.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2015.

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