Faiz Festival was a three-day event
Pakistani actor-singer Ali Zafar recently hosted Indian poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar at a private gathering in Lahore, Pakistan. Mr Akhtar was in Pakistan to attend the seventh Faiz Festival organised at Alhamra Arts Council, Lahore. A video of the jam session has surfaced on the internet, in which Mr Zafar can be seen crooning Zindagi Aa Raha Hoon Main, a Bollywood song sung by Kishore Kumar and written by Mr Akhtar in 1984 for the film Mashaal.
Posted by Twitter user Haroun Rashid, the video shows Mr Akhtar sitting with a group of people and Mr Zafar singing a beautiful song for the poet. The crowd looks smitten by the singer's rendition of the song.
Mr Rashid in his caption wrote, "Such a rare pleasure and a privilege to have an evening of music and poetry with our brothers and sisters from across the border. The master Javed Akhtar Sahib in Lahore-it doesn't get better than this."
Ali Zafar reshared the video and wrote, "It was an honour to host him. I have always believed art & music transcends boundaries and is the best way to bring people together. Love is the ONLY way to peace. Thank you @Javedakhtarjadu sahab for gracing us with your presence. Thank you Faiz sahab for keeping us connected."
Check out the video here:
The video was posted on February 20 and since then it has amassed over 4 lakh views on Twitter. A user wrote, "This is fantastic, if only there was a normal relationship between Pakistan and India, things like this could be so normal. If only Pak & India could be good neighbours, same as it is for 99% of the countries around the world that are neighbours."
Another user wrote, "Wow, that is surely a masterpiece and the way you sang it is beautiful mashallah."
Faiz Festival was a three-day event scheduled for February 17 to February 19.