January 22, 2016 -- This documentary film is about Pakistani musicians struggling to be heard in a culture that has turned against them. According to the film, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, traditional Pakistani musicians in the metropolis of Lahore found their music, which had been around for hundreds of years, was suddenly outlawed when Pakistan instituted sharia law in 1979. Musicians in this film are trying to bring it back.

Lahore musicians (apparently their musical styles are folk and Hindustani classical music) once played on the soundtracks of films made in the city's thriving film industry, until that industry was outlawed, too. Persecuted, the musicians tried to find a way to survive and make some money.

One music arranger, Nijat Ali, talks of seven generations of musicians in his family. When the music ban eased up, Sachal Studios was founded in Lahore by wealthy music lover Izzat Majeed. Ali's father, Riaz Hussain, arranged music at the studio until his health failed, and Ali took over. Riaz Hussain's funeral procession is shown in the film, along with Ali's lament that his father deserved a lot more recognition than he got in Pakistan.

Lahore musicians, most of them elderly, trickled back to the studio, but a whole generation had grown up without traditional Pakistani music. The studio struggled to find an audience in Pakistan for folk and traditional music. Majeed was a fan of jazz music. His father had taken him to a Dave Brubeck concert in Lahore when he was eight years old. Majeed felt that traditional Hindustani music is similar to jazz, with a lot of improvisation.

So the Lahore musicians melded their traditional music with jazz, and Sachal Studios put out its own jazz album, hoping for a worldwide audience, and it succeeded. The jazz album became a best seller on iTunes. The group's popular rendition of Dave Brubeck's “Take Five” from the album became a sensation on YouTube in 2011, and drew praise from Brubeck himself, who called it “the most interesting and different recording of 'Take Five' that I've ever heard.”

The recording drew the interest of American jazz icon Wynton Marsalis, who invited the musicians to come to New York City and play at the “Jazz at Lincoln Center” venue. The last half of the film is taken up with the group's trip to New York and the hectic preparations for the concert.

The group's reaction to New York is the most entertaining part of the movie, as they marvel at the Statue of Liberty (it reminded one of them of King Kong) and the vibrant music of the street, singing along with the Naked Cowboy of Times Square (“It's cold! He'll be dead by morning!”) and donating money to a street drummer (“He's a poor musician like us!”). The musicians marvel at the freedom of being able to enjoy music in the streets.

The preparations for the concert proceed at a hectic pace. The group's sitar player could not keep up. He had to be replaced. The Pakistani system of music notation is different than that used in America. There is a lot of note-taking and late night rehearsals. It looks like there is no way they are going to be ready for the concert, but it worked. Marsalis said afterwards, “When people are soulful and they want to come together, they do.” The concert is a big success and the melded music is electric.

The film ends on this upbeat note, but it is not easy being a musician in Pakistan. In the film, a musician points to an article in a Lahore newspaper about a musician who was murdered, just because he was a musician. There are suicide bombings. The Taliban stage periodic attacks. Concerts can't be held without a lot of security. Valuable musical instruments are sometimes destroyed by those who think that music is against Islam. Tensions between the Shia and Sunni divisions of Islam also affect the musicians of Lahore.

This film is a celebration of music, but also serves as a cautionary tale against any country where religion has a lot of power in government. If you could pick up Lahore and move it a few miles to the east, into India, music and other arts, like motion pictures, would not be under such vicious attack and this once-thriving, ancient culture would not be in danger of being lost. This film rates a B.

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Copyright © 2016 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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