The legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan might have passed away years ago, but his legacy continues. He is the source of inspiration for many singers and musicians who are still to this day, coming up with their renditions of his qawwalis and tracks. Having sung all these tracks years ago, his versions are relevant even in this day and age with both Bollywood and Lollywood films taking some of these hugely popular tracks as OSTs. Just when we were taking “Rashke qamar” off our stereos, having listened to it on repeat throughout the autumn season, Qurram Hussain of the band Josh, has now come up with a spectacular qawwali under his auspices as the music director for the Bilal Ashraf and Urwa Hocane starrer ‘Rangreza’. Called “Janasheen” for this musical film, the song is a treat through and through and aims to take up our stereo sets on repeat once again throughout the incumbent season. Qurram Hussain has crooned it in a qawwali style, which gives it a little mystic touch as well. The track, blended with the modern music and the qawwali traditions of the region, is a tribute to the great music maestro Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Qurram has composed four albums for his Josh band, jingles for mobile brands, a song for an Indian film and also OSTs for dramas, but ‘Rangreza’ is his first Pakistani film as music director and playback singer. This will be Qurram’s second song for the film, the previous which was the “Bagiya”. “Janasheen” was unveiled on Tuesday, just a week before the worldwide release of ‘Rangreza’. ‘I composed ‘Janasheen’ quite a while ago as an experiment with the qawwali genre, and it ended up connecting with ‘Rangreza’ very naturally. I guess there is a time and place for every inspiration, and ‘Janasheen’ found a perfect home in Rangreza’ The film is all set to release on December 21, 2017. Qurram will be performing in all the major cities of Pakistan to promote the film and also to interact directly with all his fans. During a press conference, on Wednesday, Qurram said, “I composed ‘Janasheen’ quite a while ago as an experiment with the qawwali genre, and it ended up connecting with ‘Rangreza’ very naturally. I guess there is a time and place for every inspiration, and ‘Janasheen’ found a perfect home in Rangreza,” he said. “As a music producer and director, I have always wanted to try new things. When I dive into different genres of music, I always try to be respectful of that genre, so I work with people from whom I can learn and make a better end product,” he added. “Although the film’s director Aamir wanted a slightly modern take on a regular qawwali, I tried my best to do justice to the essence of a qawwali, so I worked on ‘Janasheen’ with Sohail Abbas and Imran Khalil, who are both respected producers in Lahore. We recorded all the live instruments in Lahore. For the overall mixing and mastering of the song, I got Ali Mustafa to do it in Dubai, because he put the bigness in the sound in all the songs I’ve done for ‘Rangreza’. ‘Janasheen’ has been created and composed in my hometown Toronto, recorded in Toronto and Lahore, and mixed and mastered in Dubai. This qawwali has been all around the world before it got to the listeners! It’s a true labor of love. When I had first written the lyrics for ‘Janasheen’, it took me less than half an hour. Somehow when I started writing, the lyrics were flowing very smoothly, and it was an inspired moment. We had to make some edits to the poetry to fit the movie scenes better and for this I sat with Akhtar Qayyum, the story writer of the film to do that,” he added. “I am also in talks for two new big projects but would reveal after things get finalised,” he said excitedly. ‘Rangreza’ is an upcoming 2017 Pakistani romantic-musical drama film directed by Amir Mohiuddin, and written by Akhtar Qayyum under the production banner of Vision Art Films. It is produced by Yasir Mohiuddin and Usman Malkani under the Usman Malkani Films banner. The film features Gohar Rasheed, Bilal Ashraf, Urwa Hocane, Ghana Ali, Saleem Mairaj and Akbar Subhani in the main cast. It will be one of the most expensive Pakistani films of the year. It will be distributed by ARY Films in Pakistan, and by B4U Motion Pictures worldwide. Published in Daily Times, December 14th 2017.