Tribute to Iqbal

All Urdu poetry buffs cheer up. Iqbal — Verses in Gold is a CD that will augment your love of/for the Shaer-i-Mashriq and his poetry. Some of the renowned names in show business have got together to make the effort a worthwhile one. It is actor Zia Mohyeddin and musician Arshad Mahmud’s labour of love that is likely to bear fruit.

Zia Mohyeddin has recited some of Iqbal’s known nazms and ghazals in his typical style. It would be stating the obvious to suggest that he is good at what he does, but methinks one would have liked him to be less monotonous while reciting the ghazals, because the genre demands a different set of cadences because of its metrical constraints.

Then singers like Abdia Parveen, Mahnaz, Tahira Syed, Ustad Hamid Ali Khan and Salamat Ali have lent their voices to Iqbal’s poetry. They’ve done a decent job. However, the compositions (by Arshad Mahmud) appear to have been made keeping a certain audience in mind; you won’t start humming them along with the singers as you would with Tina Sani when she sings Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poems.

All in all, Iqbal — Verses in Gold is a valuable addition to the world of music and literature.

Source: Dawn Images