The first Q Mobile Hum Style Awards 2016 went down, on Friday evening, with a lot of applause. Taking place in Karachi, the Awards roped in Nida Butt as Show Director and just about every star in Pakistan’s small constellation of stars. Having watched Ae Dil Hai Mushkil last night I would compare the Hum Style Awards to a Karan Johar film: there’s nothing new and you know what to expect but the actors, characters and locales change (with a few consistent lucky mascots) and it’s always enjoyable nevertheless.
Here’s what you need to know about the first QMobile Hum Style Awards:
1. What happens when it’s Ahmed Ali Akbar instead of Ahmed Ali Butt
We’ve seen so much of Ahmad Ali Butt of late that it was a relief to see Ahmad Ali Akbar host the show instead; you may remember him as Nida Butt’s lead in Grease. If only he was half as entertaining as Butt. A flat script didn’t help either. However, the show’s opening performance was spectacular as Ahmed’s element was obviously theatrics and not comedy. ‘Welcome to the first Hum Style Awards’ had Nida Butt written all over it and it was slick and energetic.
2. There were many first time performers
Other than Ahmed Ali Akbar, it was obvious that the organizers had made a super-conscious effort to introduce new acts and performers to the evening. We saw Meesha Shafi, Umair Jaswal, Saba Qamar, Zahid Khan and of course, Zaid Ali T.
3. Another first: a Hum event without Bollywood music!
We don’t know whether this happened due to the situation between India and Pakistan, or whether the show organizers finally listened to our pleas but the show went by featuring only Pakistani music for all performances! It featured the glorious music of the 80s and 90s, including Nazia Hassan, Alamgir and Sajjad Ali. Ali Zafar also took the show down a memory lane by singing some of his older original songs such as ‘Jhoom‘ and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan also chose to use his TV soundtrack songs as opposed to his Bollywood numbers.
4. Saba Qamar can’t dance
 At the risk of sounding too mean, we have to say that Saba Qamar’s wardrobe malfunction actually did her a favour as it took attention away from the fact that she cannot dance. Qamar may be a good actress but her legwork was almost stationary and the choice of clothing did not help lift the lackluster performance.
5. Humayun Saeed and Mahira Khan will win any category they’re nominated in
 We love and admire both Humayun Saeed and Mahira Khan but while Mahira carries her style effortlessly, Humayun has never really cared. He even tweeted his astonishment, saying that he didn’t realize that not following a style would be considered stylish. In a category that had Mohib Mirza, Adeel Hussain, Sheheryar Munawar and Sikander Rizvi…need we say more? But we will. It just so happens that HS and MK can never lose.
Â
6. Hum TV will be hosting a Film Festival
There were no further details announced but the thought of a film festival does sound exciting. That being said, we hope the film festival will feature films from all over Pakistan and not just from the network because otherwise the platform doesn’t make sense.
7. HSY is a rockstar
Perhaps this is the one thing everybody can agree on: HSY stole the show! We would actually pay money to see the self proclaimed king of couture perform like this. The best part was that one of his outfits included a plain black tee with the words ‘king’ emblazoned across it. Whether or not anyone agrees regarding his status as a king, it’s a unique quirk that sets him apart from others and he specially got away with it during his fabulous performance.
