Just remembering those days makes you smile! Of course, there was hardly anything to smile about in that era of the Eighties for obvious reasons. But, there were Alamgir, Nazia and Shyheki, too. So, that was a plus, at least.

How many numbers can you recall? Well, for one, who can forget Albela rahi, the Urdu version of Quantana mera! Today, we know that Fawad Khan, a famous singer himself, is playing Alamgir in a film, titled Albela Rahi. There you go, it’s going to be, perhaps, our first feature film on a living legend in our country. We have made films on singers like Mooseeqar (1962), Doraha (1967), Salgirah (1969), Pyar ka Mausam (1975), Bobby & Julie (1978) etc, but none on a known Pakistani singer before this film on Alamgir. In a flop film, Bobby & Julie, Alamgir’s album of six hits was a sell-out in the Seventies.

I remember, our day began with Alamgir’s ditties, in the ‘80s, be they Dekh tera kya rang kar diya hai, Yeh sham aur tera naam, or Khwabon mein main bhee akela naheen. To the college and back, his numbers played on our car player. Then, of course, his Aaina hits reverberated all over the city, when the film broke all records. Can you imagine we had such playbacks, side by side, as Alamgir, Akhlaq Ahmed, A Nayyar, and Ghulam Abbas! No wonder they are called golden moments of our film industry.