Artists: Ali Zafar

Sour grapes & bad haircuts
By Nadeem F. Paracha


Ali Zafar Vs. The People
Guitar virtuoso, Mekaal Hassan says one has to have a face like Ali Zafar’s to make it big in the local pop industry. Many other famous and not so famous pop/rock acts of the land have been suggesting the same, including Junoon and the many so-called “underground” bands. Sour grapes, I say. Sour grapes and bad haircuts.
Zafar may not be a Kurt Cobain or a Jim Morrison but hey, neither are any of his many detractors. Because if, for example, you keep his pop contemporaries like Fakir or Haroon, Strings or Ali Haider in mind, or his rock counterparts like Junoon and the scene’s “rock underground” (*groan!*), then, really, most of them come out sounding like nothing more than silly boy-band caricatures or on the “rock” side, bad “nu-metal” mimics.
The truth is, Ali Zafar, is perhaps the freshest thing to happen to local pop music ever since maybe the Strings’ reunion album some four years ago and after Fuzon’s debut release in 2002.
But where both Strings and Fuzon have somewhat failed to sustain any of their personal and creative charisma generated initially by them (and thus ending up, quite like Junoon, as their own corporate parodies), Zafar has continued to sound and behave as refeshing as he did when he first arrived early last year.
Sure he’s no Morrissey or for that matter the great Sajjad Ali who in spite of his great talent and following continues to balk at the cynical lure of corporate sponsorship, but Zafar’s done his corporate bit in ways that somehow do not make him look like an eager-beaver personification of a ubiquitously pushed mint brand or an equally ubiquitous cola bottle. And what is even better is the fact that never have I seen him utter any of those formulaic and bogus lectures on God and country (ala Najam, JJ, Abrar, Javad and many more).
And what exactly does Mekaal Sahib mean when he talks so lovingly about the commercial wonders of having a face like Zafar’s? Yes, my wife too thinks the guy’s gorgeous, but hey; I found much of his music on that debut album of his pretty good as well. In fact, to sum it up, Zafar’s persona and music to me is like a glossier and smoother extension of the school of pop that first gave us matter like Dr. Aur Billa and the brilliant Vee Jay team ( Faisal Qureshi, Ahmed Ibrahim, Ahsan Rahim and Javad Bashir). They were fresh, different and anything but cynical or sponsorship savvy.
He’s got a great voice (Shayki-meets-Kishore), bouncy wit and a refreshing sense of melody. And if only he manages to steer clear of the land’s style and fashion mafia (all those who can (cringingly) be see as directors, models, actors and actresses in each and every fashion magazine and Pakistani cable channel), he, as a pop entity and figure is good enough to outlast many of his contemporaries.
So, really, Ali, you needn’t bother selling fried chicken. Hand a piece to Mekaal as a goodwill gesture and maybe who knows, he’ll play the bass for you as well?