The making of Mahira’s song

A few days ago, Mahira Khan’s response to a tweet praising her appearance in the Parey Hut Love teaser went on to become national news. “The dress was so heavy that the gol chakkars gave me chakkars,’ she had responded.

The song isn’t out yet but the short clip already has everyone intrigued. It’s been a while since Lollywood featured a traditional mujra in one of its movies and the last time we remember one is in Iman Ali’s Mah-e-Mir and Bol. But while Iman looked ethereal in those songs, they weren’t big enough to leave an impact.

Mahira’s song in Parey Hut Love looks every inch a grand affair. It reminds you of the golden era of Lollywood, when Rani danced her heart out in ‘Kaate na kate re’ from Umrao Jan Ada.

I connected with Asim Raza to talk about the film, which releases on Eid ul Azha, and everything that fans needed to know about the song.

Ho Mann Jahaan, Asim’s first feature film had four main leads and some strong supporting characters but with Parey Hut Love, he has taken a giant leap and has gone to 12 characters, each one having its own back story.

“I think I am one of the luckiest persons to be working with such an amazing team,” began Asim. “As a team we worked in a thorough professional manner, even though we had some hectic schedules. We shot in multiple locations including Turkey, Muzaffarabad and Karachi but we were very organized otherwise it would have been a task to arrange all these stars on the same dates.”

He further shared, “Imran Aslam, who is the writer of this film, is an amazing writer and he has woven all the characters so smartly around the two leads. It is a love story of a boy and a girl but there is a lot that is happening around them.”

It’s not hard to observe that most of Asim’s projects have his muse Mahira Khan and his mascot Fawad Khan in them. Would he ever make a project without them? “If you ask me, no. They are my lucky charms and I would have issues if someone suggested to me to not have them in my film. If I had it my way, I would have Mahira and Fawad in all my projects, even if it were for a scene or a song or the whole feature film. They are my heart.”

“The entire film has been given the kind of treatment that is not expected from a Pakistani film,” Asim elaborated on the production. “Over the years I have realized that people are looking for larger than life productions when it comes to cinema so we have gone all out, as far as the budgets allowed us. We have pushed the limits and you must have seen that in glimpses of Mahira’s song.”

I probed him a little more to share details of the song and the mega set. “I had a particular look in mind for Mahira’s song. It was special because Mahira was doing it and she hasn’t done anything like this before. It is a Court Dance so there had to be a set of the Court; unfortunately, we don’t have locations that can be used as a court. In Lahore, some facades are available, but the interiors are not in a good condition. Then where the interior is good, it is not accessible. So I decided to build the set. We constructed this set in Karachi’s Korangi area, the planning and designing of which took three to four weeks and another three weeks to put the structure together because there is a lot of detailing there. I have studied architecture and I have a special liking for royal and traditional architecture, especially from the Moghul times. You will see in the backdrop that the set gives that sort of a royal feel. Everyone from my set designer, to my production designer Hina Farooqui, who worked day and night with me on this, to the art team were deeply involved to create the set as it has that cinematic appeal. Normally in the past, courts have not been shown in their full glory and most of the times there is a hall with some detailing on the interior. It sometimes looks claustrophobic, so we worked on both the interior and the exterior. There are fountains running outside and there is a whole chiraagah. So it will remind you of Anarkali and Umrao Jaan in a very Pakistani way; the grandeur is something which is never seen before.” 

Asim shared more details about the song, which features Mahira and is undoubtedly a highly anticipated part of the film. Designed by Umar Sayeed, Mahira’s dress is classic courtesan costume with chand-tara motifs on the waistcoat; made in a deep colour chosen to complement the set.

“There was a large group of dancers with whom Mahira rehearsed for about four days and we shot and wrapped the song in another four days,” Asim informed. “It gave me some sleepless nights but so many beautiful memories are attached to the shooting of this particular song.”

We sure are looking forward to seeing it in full glory!

– Sadiq Saleem is a Dubai based entertainment journalist. He is also an Instep & Something Haute correspondent and can be contacted on his page, fb/sidsaidso.