|
|
 |
|
 |
| |
The pros and cons of beautiful people,glamourama and premium ice cream |
|
| |
INSTEP REVIEW.....Karachi |
|
| |
|
|
| |
By
Muniba Kamal |
|
| |
It’s been a surreal week with the ongoing Malikgate and the demise Shahenshah e Ghazal Mehdi Hassan. These are the events that made waves, one of the salacious variety, the other of the sublime kind. In all this, the Magnum event that took place last Sunday at the DHA Golf Club got lost, after the initial reactions of oh society just needs an excuse to party, people like dressing up and looking silly, all for the launch of a choc bar. It was the kind of an evening people love  to scoff at; a sponsored black tie affair. But really when it comes fashion, beauty, television, music, etc, it is sponsors that drive them forward. So all this talk is getting old. If Wall’s wants to throw a starstudded black tie affair to launch it’s premium Belgian chocolate bar complete with a red carpet and the unusual theme of decadence, what’s the problem? In fact, thank you for coming up with something different at a time when shop launches in little alleys have a red carpet. It all gets so humdrum and boring that it’s exciting whenever anyone comes along and decides to raise the bar on how it should be done.
Who has ever needed an excuse to have a good time? And despite a play that everyone agreed was disastrous, a good time was had by all at the Magnum launch. That's what happens with the right mix of people and a unique atmosphere. In a sea of people dressed for the red carpet, the shining star of the evening was Amina Rashid Khan[image] (barely visible running around getting things perfect, the only woman there in jeans and a tee) of RAK Associates, the event management company that had arranged everything. Contrary to the buzz going round that the evening was a Frieha Altaf production, the ambience and décor complete with gorgeous flower arrangements, low lighting and faux baroque walls reminiscent of the exaggerated old European grandeur they were trying to create was very much an RAK Associates set up. It was spectacular. On entering the hall set like a feast for a king, one felt that one was walking into another world.
The way the ice cream was presented, the table setting, the gilded masks, the floating table girls doling out chocolate shots, the dessert counter with plates laden with fruit popping out to reveal an unexpected smiling face were a super hit. Some people found it too manic but the hedonism of a European court allows for a bit of a freak show. Decadence is not about sophistication, its about excess, that feeling of a carnival. That was what Amina Rashid Khan managed to produce so well. Hats off to her doing it when her partner/mom Anisa is out of the country.
There were other bits that didn't work. The ushers dressed in bright red and white old world ballgowns and overtly made up just didn't go down well. Adnan Malik and Aisha Linnea Akhtar hosting the show were more cheesy than chocolatey and the introduction of the brand council that consists of stylist Nabila, fashion designer Deepak Perwani, photographer Tapu Javeri, jeweller Kiran Aman and chocolatier Madiha Sultan of Lal's was stilted in the extreme. The set up demanded[image] an elegance and an effortlessness that the typical exercise of calling up people on stage and plugging the brand couldn't accomplish. It would have been a better idea to let people enjoy the experience and have a booth where all that could have happened. It would make for better footage to talk to people lounging and having a good time in a royal setting than forcing them to look up at a stage that offered nothing in terms of content value.
The play presented by Nida Butt, scripted by Uns Mufti called A Royal Remedy didn't hit the mark. A bawdy plug in for chocolate with an evil witch of a step mother and a babe lost in the woods princess, it was more faux fairytale gone wrong than European royal history. The only pleasure was in watching Sanam Saeed and Rubya Chaudhry act, sing and[image] dance on stage again. History is a dicey theme to play with, even if you are doing it in another language, you have to have sense [image]and sensibility of the time, the place, the people. This was slip shod all the way, just big hair and period piece ball gowns thrown together clashing jarringly with the attention to detail paid to the décor. What one heard was that it would go down well when it runs on television with all the European royals letting loose to ‘Daddy Cool’ and other pop hits.
But really, how many times will it be aired? Nor can Nida Butt stage this 25 minute skit/an out and out plug for Magnum again.
A little bit of effort, a little bit of research, a bit of consideration for the kind of an experience you want everyone to have would have made for a rollicking evening. It was a grand affair, but if corporations want to step into theatre they would do more of a service to the audience and themselves by getting Nida Butt and Co (or whoever) to adapt Roald[image] Dahl's excellent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Joanne Harris' Chocolat to an Urdu play format. A Royal Remedy was a colossal waste of time, and a comedown for an evening that could have been fabulous all the way.
(Check out the Red Carpet Special on the Karachi glitterati and the fashion they wore to this black tie affair in Instep tomorrow)
|
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
