A musical evening featuring Ustad Ghulam Abbas and Humera Channa held last month at Karachi’s Marina Club was a treat for music lovers as the veteran artists put forth a poignant collection of ghazals, semi-classical songs and filmi geet, made magical with their flawless renditions.
Karachi
A musical evening featuring Ustad Ghulam Abbas and Humera Channa held last month at Karachi’s Marina Club was a treat for music lovers as the veteran artists put forth a poignant collection of ghazals, semi-classical songs and filmi geet, made magical with their flawless renditions.
Organized by Mauseqaar, an organization dedicated to social, cultural and philanthropic ventures, the event, like many others before it, was intended to preserve 
Pakistan’s rich musical heritage and support musical icons who are often ignored by the state despite their invaluable contributions. While explaining the cause, Dr. Saira Khan, the founder chairperson of Mauseqaar, explained, “We feel really blessed that we have had the opportunity to serve legendary artistes like Allan Fakir, Pathanay Khan, Khalida Riyasat, Subhani Ba Younus etc. when they needed medical and financial support. It was very sad to see legendary Pathanay Khan selling his medals just to bear the expenses as there was no government help coming his way.”
Music enthusiast across the country, and even abroad, are familiar with both Ghulam Abbas and Humaira Channa. Ghulam Abbas’s diverse singing has earned him a distinguished niche among his contemporaries. As a playback singer he started off his journey from a Punjabi film but it was his superhit song ‘Woh Aa Tu Jaye Magar Mera Pyar Hi Kum Hai’ for the Urdu film Ajnabi (1975), which consolidated his position, proving him to be a force to reckon with. Having been bestowed with 217 awards, he is the recipient of Tamgh-e-Imtiaz from the Government of Pakistan and has over 5000 songs and ghazals to his credit.
The daughter of a film writer, Humera Channa was initially noticed by her school teacher for her beautiful renditions of naats at school events. At the age of nine, her father made her sing for a film he had penned down, namely Darwaza Khula Rakhna. Later, producer Nisar Haider gave Humaira her first major break on television and the rest, as they say, is history.
Ghulam Abbas opened the show with a patriotic number “Aye Watan Pak Watan”, a highly motivational mili naghma, dedicating it to our armed forces. He followed it up with crowd-pleasers from his films, such as “Mujhay Tum Nazar Se” and “Pyar Bharay Do Shermelay Nain”, mesmerizing the audience with his phenomenal command over his vocal range.
After Humera joined him on stage, the two continued to memerize with two back-to-back duets, giving the evening an unforgettable romantic flavour. The first duet that the both artistes performed was “Yeh Safer Tayray Mayray Pyar ka” a beautifully written ghazal with delicate poetry clearly to the liking of the assembled connoisseurs. It was followed by the equally poignant “Aap Ko Bhool Jain”.
After Ghulam Abbas exited the stage, Humaira continued to perform solo, including the Coke Studio hit from Season 7, “Phool Banroo”. Her cover of Madam Noor Jehan’s vintage hit “Chandni Raatain” brought the house down.
Special mention must be given to the supporting musicians for the evening, who were all fantastic on their respective instruments. With ease and élan, Saeed Khan, a living prodigy, played the violin. Asif on keyboard and G.A. Jafri on the harmonium were flawless. With perfect rhythm, harmony and mastery over his craft, Mehmood Ali on tabla lent soul to the proceedings.
The evening ended with a unanimous feeling amongst the guests that gatherings like this one should continue unabated.
