The Arts Council recently opened its doors to welcome the Braadri Orchestra and all the guests who flocked to the auditorium in order to watch the magnificent show unfold on stage. What took place on stage reaffirmed two beliefs about music. First, music is best understood when it is heard live. Second, music plays a huge role in strengthening one’s identity and culture.
Urdu ghazal and Punjabi folk music have been beautifully fused together to tell the tale of ‘Tum Bin’, a song about two lovers who have fallen for each other even though they don’t speak each other’s languages.
MUsicMIx
The Braadri Broadcast brings Pakistan’s rich culture to the forefront.
The Arts Council recently opened its doors to welcome the Braadri Orchestra and all the guests who flocked to the auditorium in order to watch the magnificent show unfold on stage. What took place on stage reaffirmed two beliefs about music. First, music is best understood when it is heard live. Second, music plays a huge role in strengthening one’s identity and culture.
Why is culture so important? It helps people function better in society, it promotes harmony and most importantly, it gives people a sense of belonging.
Unfortunately, culture faces a huge threat in today’s highly globalized world and the threats are very visible in a developing nation such as Pakistan. We already see traditions being replaced with more Westernized concepts in all aspects of our culture. For instance, English is replacing Urdu at an alarming rate, where many worry for the future of our mother tongue. In such a scenario, Pakistan’s other regional languages simply don’t stand a chance.
The dynamic duo behind Braadri Broadcast: Hamza Jafri and Nida Butt.
The Braadri Orchestra is one project that is working hard to reverse these effects of globalization. Spearheaded by Hamza Jafri, the orchestra is attempting to bring Pakistan’s vast array of languages to mainstream culture by producing fusion folk music for the masses. However, the unique selling point for this venture is the fact that the fusion is happening between cultures and languages of Pakistan, promoting cross-ethnic harmony. Also, the orchestra will be playing live concerts so that people have a chance to hear the music live.
For instance, one song in their album, called ‘Tum Bin’, is about two lovers who have fallen for each other even though they don’t speak each other’s languages. Urdu ghazal and Punjabi folk music have been beautifully fused together to tell the tale and guests who attended the Braadri Broadcast had a chance to hear it live.
There is simply nothing like live music and the brilliance of local instruments can be heard in all their glory only when they’re being played right in front of you. For instance, the chang, mutka and sarangi really added depth and authenticity to songs like ‘Karma Wale’ and ‘Mann Melo Thalo’. Another song that really resonated with the audience was ‘W11’, a sweet song about Karachi’s famous mini-bus that runs all over the city; the song won everyone’s hearts with its simple lyrics: ‘Sar pe uthaye ye poora Karachi.’
The Braadri Broadcast was a treat to the ears, as well as eyes, thanks to executive producer Nida Butt and costume designer Yousuf Bashir Qureshi. The entire stage was adorned in patchwork quilts and ajrak and it explored a plethora of bright colours, staying true to Pakistan’s culture.
Each and every musician, singer and performer was dressed in beautifully detailed traditional garb. Also, each province was well represented on stage: from the Balochi bangles to the Pathan topi, the Sindhi ajrak and the Punjabi patiala shalwar, there was no dearth of tradition on stage.
After the show, Instep caught up with Hamza Jafri, the man of the hour, to discuss his thoughts and motivation for the Braadri Broadcast. “I’ve always liked mixing things and here, I wished to mix the different cultures as we don’t see a lot of that happening,” noted Jafri. The musician also added that music is the bridge that brings people together, therefore music can be used to combat provincial and cultural conflicts between people of different provinces. Jafri believes that everything in this world comes from one source, only separating from each other later to form the different components of this world. In much the same way, he feels that all Pakistanis should be united as all our provinces come together to complete Pakistan.
This project hasn’t come to its conclusion yet, as the orchestra will be performing many more live gigs. Also, the ten compositions, produced by Hamza Jafri and composed by Akram Khan, will be released digitally and electronically one by one. “We are in talks with Patari and various TV and radio channels so the music will be available to everyone soon.”
