LAHORE CULTURAL DIARY: Music competition at Lahore Arts Council

A music competition at Lahore Arts Council, a couple of plays staged at different locations in the city and an exhibition of historical decorative motifs from Multan were the highlights of cultural activities in Lahore this past week.
A couple of musical events were presented at the Lahore Arts Council during the week. One was a competition in folk singing on September 8 in which folk singers and instrumentalist from across the nook and cranny of the province of Punjab participated at the invitation of the Arts Council.
Included in the competition were such genres as Mahiya, Tapey, Boliaan, Dholay and songs from the epic Mirza Sahibaan. Governor of the province Lieutenant General (R) Khalid Maqbool was the chief guest. Twenty participants from a group of 50 folk singers who performed in the competition were awarded cash prizes.
The competition was sponsored by the Lahore Arts Council to give a boost to folk music of the province, which in recent years has come under pressure as a consequence of the onslaught of Western pop music. Both the judges assigned to select the winners were retired officials from Radio Pakistan.
It would have been better a practising senior musician was included in the panel of judges. The other music event held at the Lahore Arts Council was a presentation by ghazal singer Adeel Burki of old songs and ghazals on September 9.
The concert was arranged to pay tribute to legendary ghazal singers of Pakistan, who have contributed so much to the evolution music.
Kala Qanoon (black law) was he title of a play staged at the auditorium of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on September 7. The theme of the play was violence against women in Pakistan. Scripted by Muhammad Waseem, it was sponsored by Interactive Resource Centre (IRC) to focus on prejudice and hypocrisy of the extremist elements in our society, who keep women in a kind of bondage depriving them of some of their basic human rights. It also mocked the government's much-hyped slogan of enlightened moderation.
The other play staged in the city was titled "Run for Your Wife"; a comedy drama produced by a group called the Production Illusions. It was staged at Hall No 2 of the Lahore Arts Council on September 10 and continued till 13th. Directed by Ijlal Khan the play created dozens of laughter for the attendees.
The plot was pegged to the theme of bigamy. "Multan in Lahore" was the title of an exhibition of historical decorative motifs, which opened at Naqsh Art Gallery inside the walled city of Lahore on September 10 and will be closed on September 17, 2005.
The exhibition was jointly inaugurated by Syed Fakhar Imam, former Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan and Mr Nayyar Ali Dada, a Lahore-based architect of repute. Objects on display at the well attended inaugural ceremony of the exhibition were a collection of historical images of Multan, which had been collected and arranged by the students of Naqsh School of Arts. They reflected on artistic traditions brought to this part of the world by Muslim artists.
The Muslim rulers of India, particularly the Mughals, later blended the local imagery with the typical Muslim vocabulary with the result that a treasure of rich and aesthetically satisfying was created for posterity.
The Lahore City District Government is reported to have once again approached the provincial Home Department urging it to take punitive action against five female and two male actors for presenting obscene and sexually inviting dances and exchange of vulgar dialogues during their performances at different theatres in the city.
The DCO has sent monitoring reports of two theatres to Punjab Home Secretary urging him to take action under the Dramatic Performance Act, against the artistes involved in vulgar postures.