Pakistan Idle
By Fatima Khurshid | Arts & Culture | Published 16 years ago
Despite being veterans at organising award shows, Indus Television Network’s latest offering, the first MTV Music Video Awards, were a huge disappointment. The entire show was badly managed right from the get go, and was riddled with a juvenile script, tepid performances and poor technical execution.
The red carpet area, which was still being prepared when the guests started arriving, was unable to live up to its name, as only a handful of celebrities bothered to show up. Out of those who did, half were there to present the awards, while the other half were there to receive them. Vaneeza arrived wearing one of her lawn dresses, thus using the event as a platform to advertise her lawn collection. Tariq Amin was wearing weird georgette flapper-like pants with long slits — on the inside. A slightly overweight Begum Nawazish Ali looked gorgeous, while Mahnoor Baloch, who was underdressed for an award ceremony, still managed to look half her age. And Mehreen Raheel looked pretty.
The organisers had arranged for the celebs to arrive inside the venue in flashy cars. They were greeted at the entrance by a bevy of people dressed up as paparazzi who clicked away at their cameras, trying to give the whole event an Oscar-like touch.
The show started over two hours after the designated time, and things only went from bad to worse from that point on. The announcers/VJs seemed bored and were unable to liven up the audience with their meaningless banter and ridiculous jokes. Sadder still was when the bored-to-death audience refused to comply with Mehreen Raheel’s shrill pleas to clap for Tariq Amin, who went on to win four awards that evening. However, Begum Nawazish Ali, who came on stage to present an award, got a very warm welcome from the audience.
No big name from the music industry was among the list of performers for the event. Regardless of whether they were getting an award or not, the stars of the local music industry should have been present to support the event and lend it star power. Roxen, Arif Lohar, Nirma and Shiraz Uppal were some of the performers and, as expected, all them were lip-syncing. However, the sound system was good enough to keep the audience in doubt about that fact — till the sound people started to play the song before the artist got up on stage, thus not only confusing the audience, but also embarrassing the performer.
Hopefully, the magic of editing will rid the show of all the hitches and glitches before it is aired on television. Indus Television Network, however, should get credit for paying tribute to the music industry. If only they had gotten their act together.