Karachi: The 18th edition of the Lux Style Awards, which honour the best in Fashion, Film, TV and Music, took place in the city of lights at the Karachi Expo Centre on Sunday. The ceremony was surrounded by multiple controversies, more than ever this year, but suffered due to mismanagement and weak script/direction more than anything else. The result was an undoubtedly star-studded evening highlighted by some powerful performances and tributes but lowlighted for its numerous technical flaws.
The evening began with the red carpet, which was glamorous albeit congested for the footfall it took. Actors, models, singers, designers and other artists dominated the space and spoke to the press while they were photographed from every possible angle. While the entrance was bifurcated between gold and silver card holders, it seemed like every one was clamouring for the perfect selfie with the stars. Nominees shared their excitement as well as nervousness with red carpet hosts Munib Nawaz and Anoushey Ashraf. The buzz definitely was on despite the area getting uncomfortably warm thanks to the influx of people.
Mega-star Fahad Mustafa was one of the many hosts of the evening, which started well beyond its scheduled time and continued with Parey Hut Love couple Sheheryar Munawar and Maya Ali, Mehwish Hayat, Zara Noor Abbas and Laal Kabootar duo Ahmed Ali Akbar and Mansha Pasha, amongst others. The event began quite late; unrolling at around 10pm to be exact and going on till 2am, by which time most of the audience had left.
Beginning with Television, winners in the categories of Fashion, Music and Film were honoured with their trophies, which they received and followed with some meaningful and some thoughtless acceptance speeches. It was a delight to see real talent being recognized in most cases though some names sent collective shock waves through the audience. Iqra Aziz is the only person to pick up an unbelievable two awards for Suno Chanda - Best Actress Viewer’s Choice as well as Critic’s Award. This definitely was her day as later in the evening her real-life beau Yasir Hussain proposed to her in front of an excited LSA audience.
On stage to either present, perform, co-host or accept an award were stars like Fahad Mustafa, Meera, Atif Aslam, Mehwish Hayat, Saba Qamar, Maya Ali, Feroze Khan, Faysal Qureshi, Sohai Ali Abro, Sana Javed, Adnan Sarwar, Mikaal Zulfiqar, Ahmed Ali Butt, Nadeem Baiq, Qavi Khan, Shabnam jee, Bushra Ansari, Iqra Aziz, Mawra Hocane, Hajra Yamin, Sarwat Gilani, Imran Ashraf, Saqib Malik, Asim Raza, Ushna Shah, Mohammed Ahmed and many more. There was considerable star power with Mahira Khan also being in the front row; one did miss the star power of Humayun Saeed, Noman Ijaz, Ahsan Khan, Aamina Sheikh, Sanam Saeed, Adnan Malik, Ali Kazmi and many other who were also nominated but didn’t bother to turn up.
Most performances provided relief from an otherwise somberly scripted evening. Minus the opening act featuring Momina Mustehsan - who set the bar quite low for the night - there were some really amazing performances. Topping the charts was the tribute to legendary actress Shabnam (who was presented the Unilever Chairman’s Award), in which several of her hit songs were remixed by various contemporary artists and presented in exhilarating dances by different Lux girls.
Atif Aslam concluded the medley and as always, paying respect to senior artists, he came off the stage to walk up to Shabnam, accompanying her back up for the award. “I am very happy to be here today around all of you,” Shabnam Jee said in her acceptance speech, adding that she felt like becoming a part of the world of showbiz once again. “Congratulations to all the winners and those haven’t won; be consistent and your hard work will pay off. I want to thank Lux Style Awards for having me here.”
Shabnam was accompanied onstage by her onscreen hero Nadeem and went on to ask him, “I have worked with you for 30 years and you never came on time, how did you manage to come early today?” leaving the audience in fits of laughter. This was definitely a moment worth remembering!
Right at the end of the evening, Fahad Mustafa and Mehwish Hayat stole the show with their thumping dance sequence to their hit songs from Load Wedding. It left one wishing for more of that energy.
Unfortunately, despite having so many stars in the house, there were flaws that left much to be desired throughout the evening. A poor script and weak direction made some segments very dull and they were unable to hold the audience’s attention. Then there were so many bloopers in terms of announcements, flow and sound and it looked like they had not rehearsed well for the show at all. It was very disappointing to see people leaving the venue through out the evening.
Some of the evening’s top awards went to Fahad Mustafa, Mehwish Hayat, Feroze Khan, Sohai Ali Abro, Nauman Ijaz and Iqra Aziz, with Teefa in Trouble picking up an award each for Ahsan Rahim (Best Director) and Ali Zafar (Best Actor – Viewer’s Choice). The award for Best Film went to Cake and was presented by President GEO Network Imran Aslam and the new Lux girl, Saba Qamar.
The 18th annual Lux Style Awards were presented by GEO and will be aired on GEO TV soon.