Instep plays a guessing game this week, looking at how things could turn out very differently in Music & Film

What if
… Junaid Khan of Call joins EP instead while Xulfi flies solo

Not that we don’t appreciate Call but since their days of Bollywood, the aggression and the passion that made the rock band and its lead singer Junaid Khan stand out from their first single, ‘Nishaan’ has all but disappeared.

Xulfi maintains that if Bilal Maqsood of Strings can sing and Gohar Mumtaz of Jal can sing (while being lead guitarists), why can’t he? He can but maybe flying solo would work best at least for him.

As is, EP is making a return minus Xulfi. EP’s Irtiqa was explosive stuff. And seeing them return is a welcome. Adding Junaid Khan – whose star shone high in the video of ‘Ho Jaane Do’ off the upcoming Call record Dhoom – would give Fawad Khan an interesting partner. The two can channel Scott Stapp like magic. And Junaid’s voice has that rough edge to it that would bode well with EP as opposed to Bollywood jingle-like tunes.
As for Xulfi, he’ll do just fine. As long as he can continue to create songs like ‘Laaree Chootee’, he’ll be just fine.

What if
…Khuda Kay Liye was made with Junaid Jamshed and Ali Zafar as originally planned?

While the film was eventually made with Shaan and Fawad Khan in the lead roles, director Shoaib Mansoor originally planned for it to be made with Vital Signs singer Junaid Jamshed (playing Shaan’s role) and Ali Zafar (playing Fawad’s role). It would have been quite a dynamic combination, had Junaid not renounced entertainment and Ali Zafar not having gotten scared off by the plot. Ali Zafar’s already shown quite a dark side in his videos for ‘Aag’ and ‘Ek Pal’ and we imagine he’d have been quite suitable for the character of a man who gets brainwashed into fighting in Afghanistan and abducting a girl and forcibly marrying her. The icing on the cake would be that we’d all be spared from the war of words that Shaan and Iman Ali got into at the last Lux Style Awards! But then again, perhaps Iman Ali would have rubbed Junaid Jamshed the wrong way too… no… Junaid wouldn’t have acted up. He was and remains a gentleman, tableeghi beard notwithstanding.

What if
… Ali Noor and Ali Hamza go their separate ways ?

What would happen if Noori disbands? Great things we think. Don’t get us wrong, we completely dig Noori the band. However, both brothers Noor and Hamza are brilliant front men in their own right and in very different ways. Ali Noor is all fire and brimstone… an angry young man out to change the world, with an attitude to make it happen. Ali Hamza is softer, melodic, more on the spiritual side. If ‘Aik Alif’ and ‘Jo Meray’ at Coke Studio were the coming out of Ali Hamza as a superb singer, musician and songwriter, then ‘Saari Raat Jaaga’ bore testament Ali Noor’s angst-ridden genius. They are brothers for sure, but they sure aren’t two peas in a pod. They seem to have two very different sensibilities, both necessary to the music scene. Ali Hamza is winning hearts and minds of rozaydars with his rendition of the naat ‘Madinay Mein’ that his grandmother taught him and both brothers are working on the video of their upcoming single ‘Kedaar’. Long live Noori! But here’s hoping that both brothers also continue to follow their own individual paths as they’ve been doing of late.

Source: INSTEP Magzine