Coke Studio’s season 10 has kicked in big-time. Although its inaugural rendition of Pakistan’s national anthem — which featured a huge line-up of artists, from legendary folk singer Attaullah Esakhelvi and veteran Sajjad Ali to contemporaries such as Shafqat Amanat Ali, Ali Zafar, Ali Sethi, Momina Mustehsan, and Farhan Saeed — didn’t go down too well with the viewers, especially those who expected the video to be more creative.
The fresh releases, from the recently-aired episode 1, are tipped to draw the disenchanted fans of the show back. Sethi’s ghazal tribute to the late maestro Mehdi Hassan, Ahmed Jahanzeb’s Allahuakbar, and Mustehsin’s Muntazir, an original composition, with Danyal Zafar (Ali’s younger brother) are some of the highlights from the opening episode. Strings are producing and directing the show for the third consecutive year.
