Camera! Lights! Action!                      

The trio of cinematic commands that help launch celluloid dreams. The music video in Pakistan has finally come of age with this palpable inspiration in mind. A recent slew of cinematic videos imbued with technical expertise, visual expressionism, cutting edge musicality and sartorial grandeur have continued to create waves in Pakistan’s music industry. The synergy between music and ‘eye candy’ has never been stronger.

Musicians have realized that to make an impact in the competitive music industry they have to create dramatic visual companions to their music. Videos like Rangeen, Khamaj, Mahi Ve and recently Sali have all fed into that drive to feed the audience’s need for visual and auditory stimuli. The Indus Music Video Awards created a palpable buzz in the entertainment industry with its line up of presenters that included pop icon Zohaib Hasan who along with his sister, the late Nazia Hasan received a special Outstanding Contribution Award from Ghazanfar Ali.

Ghazal great Tina Sani, fashion designer Maheen Khan, comedienne and director Bushra Ansari and both Nabila and Tariq Amin amongst other fashion folk including HSY, Tooba and ZQ. Tariq Amin almost stole the show as he garnered two awards; one for ‘Best Hair and Make Up’ for Abbas Ali Khan’s ‘Sun Re’ in which he himself appeared as a desolate clown for which he won his second award for ‘Best Male Model’ in a Music Video. The other ‘Styling’ award went to Deepak Perwani, who was in Bangkok celebrating his birthday, for ‘Best Wardrobe in a Video’ for Ali Azmat’s Na Re Na.

Newcomer Annie was thrilled and tearful as she won the award for Best Female Model for the title role of Shezad Roy’s ‘Sali.’  Shehzad Roy also went away with the ‘Best Performance by an Artist in a Video; award for his Amitabh Bachan meets Elvis Presley inspired performance in ‘Sali.’ The Breakthrough Video went to Sajid and Zeeshan for their animated video ‘Free Style Dive,’ while a very excited and ebullient Farhan Golden picked up a  well deserved award for Best Cinematography for his sharp eye in Jal’s ‘Teri Yaad.’

The Breakthrough Video went to Sajid and Zeeshan for their animated

video ‘Free Style Dive,’ while a very excited and ebullient Farhan Golden picked up a  well deserved award for Best Cinematography for his sharp eye in Jal’s ‘Teri Yaad.’  Other ‘technical’ awards went to Tahir Mehmood for ‘Best Art Direction in a Video’ for Ali Azmat’s ‘Na Re Na’ making the video the night’s big winner with a total of five awards. Ali Azmat’s other video ‘Deewana’ directed by Jami also won an award for Best Post Production for Amir and Waqas.

Special Awards were also handed out for Best Video 2003 and 2004 which went to Jami for Strings’ ‘Chaye Chaye’ and Amena and Ahsan for Ali Zafar’s  colourful ‘Rangeen’ video respectively. And as with all of Indus’s award shows the First Indus Video Awards had a slew of scintillating performances including the world premiere of Hadiqa Kiyani’s moving ‘Is Baar Milo’ directed by Jami and various VJ medleys including Dino’s rendition of Zohaib Hasan’s ‘Aye Dil Meray’ and Ayesha Omar’s cover of Nazia Hasan’s ‘Aankhein Milaney Waley.

Pop wonder Ali Zafar also debuted his new song, ‘Aasma Ko’ ;Abbas Ali Khan showed the importance of solid songwriting with’ Teri Yaad’ accompanied by Walid and ‘Sun Re’ while Noori performed a loud and thunderous ‘Nishan.’ Sonu ‘Dangerous’ and his dance troupe electrified the audience with his  quickstepping rendition of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller replete with ghouls while Younus Jani provided comic relief with ‘Papi Chulo’ A chorus of Makrani drummers opened the award shows that were aired on December 31, 2005 on Indus Music..