The highlight of the Seagram’s Mega music show at the Palace Grounds on Friday was an innovative attempt at fostering Indo-Pak friendship by the Pakistani band Strings comprising the duo Faisal Kapadia (lead vocals), Bilal Maqsood (guitars, backing vocals, composer).
Amidst singing a medley of popular Hindi song, the Pakistani band, which also consisted of a keyboardist, bass guitarist, lead guitarist and a drummer, sang, Jaanuu meri jaan, Main tere qurbaan, main tera tu meri jaane... ‘ and the audience on an appeal from Bilal responded with saaraa Pakistan without an iota of hesitation.
And to consolidate the spirit of friendship, they followed it up with such peppy songs like Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge (Sholay), Pyaar karane vaale, pyaar karate hain shaan se (Shaan) and Aa dekhen zara kisme kitna hai dum (Rocky).
They began the medley Ae meri umar ke naujawaanon, Dil na lagaana O deewanon......Om shaanti Om’ (Karz) coaxing even those who were seated in the VIP class to get up and dance. Bilal followed this with, Koyi kahe kehta rahe, kitna bhi humko deewana (Dil Chahta Hai).
Of course, they did sing their all time popular songs from their Indi-pop album, Duur say koi aaye, kahin chupkay say woh, Dil main sama jaaye, Saajana...duur..duur...duur. and Na jane kyun from the album Dhaani.
Incidentally, Naa Jane Kyun was also included in the soundtrack from the Hindi version of
Spider-Man 2. During one of the songs, Bilal asked for the lights on the stage and the audience arena to be put out and asked the audience to switch on their mobile, hold it high and wave. This created an ethereal ambience.
It may be interesting for fans to know that Strings are set to launch their new album tentatively titled ‘Dhoop in 2008. Bilal informed the audience that this was the fifth time that they had come to Bangalore and spoke in glowing terms about the `Bangalore Habba’, where they last performed.
And then came the star of the day, Saif Ali Khan. Beginning with a brief riff, he played a mean guitar with songs from AC/DC and Pink Floyd, jamming with Parikrama, India’s long standing rock band.
Earlier opening for the day was Bangalore’s own alternative rock band, Synaps, who began with an original song, which Aditya, the vocalist said, was composed a month back.
They also played a few songs from their maiden album `Check this side up’ released last year and of course, cover versions of System of a Down and Pink Floyd.
Michael Patrao
