An award ceremony is usually about two things: celebrating talent and star-studded performances/appearances. Be it the Lux Style Awards, the Filmfares or even the Grammys, a major attraction for audiences are the stars who take the stage and create memorable moments.
An award ceremony is usually about two things: celebrating talent and star-studded performances/appearances. Be it the Lux Style Awards, the Filmfares or even 
the Grammys, a major attraction for audiences are the stars who take the stage and create memorable moments. Adele at the Grammys, the trio from Student of the Year at Filmfare or Fawad Khan’s Khuda Kay Liye-drenched performance at the Lux Style Awards, circa ’08 - no matter what platform, in the end, it’s the performance that stays with you, or not, as is the case with the recently televised Hum TV Awards.
Ahsan Khan channelled his inner Hrithik Roshan, grooving to songs from the Bollywood star’s film Bang Bang.
From the onset, one thing was palpable and important to understand: This particular award show is not about recognising excellence in television as a genre, across all channels. It is essentially about Hum’s own content and their various endeavours. Fair enough, they are celebrating their shows, artistes and endeavours.
We won’t even touch upon the nominations, because for us and any regular viewer, watching the Hum Awards was about the show and the showmanship. And breezing past the opening performance of a colourful, aerobatics-laden troupe, the rest of the show, at least in terms of the star-performances it put up, was disappointing. More than a few
artists took to stage and, for some inexplicable reason, they all danced to Bollywood songs.
Saba Qamar teamed with Ahsan Khan to emit romance on stage.
Feroz Khan danced to Bollywood tune ‘Saturday Saturday’, a generic, club-meets-redundant beat-esque song from a Varun Dhawan film called Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. Saba Qamar and Ahsan Khan’s effort to generate romance onstage was pleasant enough, except, of course, the choreography, which was lack-lustre due to lack of coordination. In one sequence, the two stars danced to a song called ‘Aaja Aaja Piya ke Bazaar Mein’ from Bollywood’s Humshakals. During his solo stint, Ahsan Khan grooved to a song from yet another Bollywood film, the Hrithik Roshan-Katrina Kaif starrer, Bang Bang. The list goes on and on.
The Bollywood playlist got a lot of popular votes; the Hum Awards got high ratings. But the fact that Pakistani music was compromised for ratings sadly reflected on the show’s top priority: again, ratings. The justification that we, in Pakistan, don’t have enough music just doesn’t fly.
Pakistan is blessed with some fantastic musical acts. Whether it’s music from our glorious film past, folk fusion, Coke Studio or pop acts – the songs are all there. Ali Zafar’s debut album, Huqa Pani is filled with songs that could be used as a backdrop to one performance or another at award ceremonies. Atif Aslam’s Doorie is laced with Bollywood-esque 
songs that can serve a similar purpose. Rushk has groove, MHB has soul, Ali Azmat’s got wit, Sibti’s rhythmic, Overload has gorgeous melodies, the ethereal Zeb and Haniya who can do no wrong, are just some names off the top of my head. This list is fairly extensive if you consider the number of musicians working in this country.
Blast from the past: We remember all those great acts at the Lux Style Awards, like this Fawad Khan performance after Khuda Kay Liye released, as examples of how important the promotion of Pakistani music is at Pakistani award shows. This is what the Hum Awards severely lacked.
So many of these artists have songs that can be used to design a powerful Pakistani performance. Pakistan is also blessed with world-class electronic music producers. By roping in artists like Talal Qureshi, Rudoh and Tollcrane, award ceremonies can create their very own mixes and remixes to suit a performance. It can even be collaborative, but all of it should be Pakistani. Agreed that Award shows need big names and stars to pull in viewers but they also have a responsibility to promote the young talent. Who else will give them a chance?
If the point is to recognise talent, there’s no better way to elevate the stature of music than mixing it up with an incredibly popular source of entertainment: an award ceremony. Otherwise, it’s just pandering for the sake of ratings.
