As the frost that has dogged relations between Pakistan and India ever since Partition starts melting, and the guns along the bloody vale of Kashmir fall silent, peaceniks and most people in both countries seem to be overjoyed. While the political mandarins, who together hold the fate of a billion souls in their hands on both sides of the divide, strut and posture, in the shadows, more meaningful diplomacy is at work. Recently, a team of talented Pakistani musicians and

The film in question is Pooja Bhatt's Paap, and former Vital Sign Shehzad 'Shahi' Hasan, cinematographer Faisal Rafi, singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and studio session player and keyboardist Faiz Ali Naqvi, aka Faizi, were the foursome representing the world of Pakistani music in India. Shahi and Faisal were visibly overjoyed with their coup-d'etat, as they revealed the story behind the merger of Indo-Pak talents.

"I did an album with Rahat about five years ago. Nusrat Fateh Ali sahib had just died at the time and naturally, Rahat, his nephew, was depressed. We tried to get him out of it, reminding him that now, carrying forward Nusrat's legacy was his task. He already had a couple of compositions, and we put them to music. It was something I wanted to do as an artist. It was a very experimental record," Shahi started.

Unfortunately, due to their record company folding, the album never saw the light of day, but Faisal, who had been working with Channel [V] and Star TV, had contacts in the Indian entertainment industry and sent the demo tape around.

"For many years, I've been producing music and Shahi and I go way back, as we're childhood friends. I always wanted to do a project with Nusrat Fateh Ali, and I had even talked to him about it. Night Song (with Michael Brook) was pretty big, so we thought we could do it better, being Pakistanis. But as it happened, Nusrat passed away before anything came to fruition. Shahi introduced me to Rahat and we hit it off. Seven or eight months later, we had the skeletons of several songs and realized that most of them were ahead of their time. Then, about two years ago, Munish 'Munna' Makhija, who was one of my good friends from the Channel [V] days, was in Pakistan and we made him listen to our demo tape, as Shahi had gotten around eight songs done," Faisal explained.

Following that, again, the project seemed destined for the 'Classics that never were' vault, until six months ago, when Faisal received a call from Munna.

"He told me that he had made Mahesh Bhatt listen to the tape, and that he and his daughter Pooja loved it. They were interested in using the music for their films and basically wanted the album. I talked it over with Shahi and Rahat and we agreed to give them the album," Faisal said.

"It so happened that Annu Malik, a big time Bollywood composer, had done a few songs for Pooja's movie, out of which one was selected. Paap is a very arty film as there is no lip-synching and silly dances. Apparently, the music that Malik had provided somehow didn't gel with the rest of the production. When Munna made her listen to our CD, she fell in love with it, particularly a song called Man ki Lagan (no doubt an exquisitely beautiful track with Rahat's high vocals, bass maestro Sameer Ahmad's deep intonations, Assad Ahmad's sparse plucking, Nizar Lalani's drums and poignant verses penned by Amjad Islam Amjad)," Shahi added.

As was the case, Munna and Pooja soon tied the knot and Faisal and Shahi are of the view that the tune, Man ki Lagan, was a major catalyst in bringing the two together. Listening to the song, with its tender cadences and beautiful structure, its true, expressive elegance, it is not difficult to understand why.

So impressed were the Indians, particularly Mahesh Bhatt, the writer of the film, with the demo, that he wanted Shahi and Faisal to come down to Mumbai to do the whole background score for Paap. The duo eagerly took up the offer and in October 2004, along with Rahat and Faizi, packed their bags for a Mumbai sojourn. The result is an impressive background score that is equally moody, meditative, sombre and tender, in fact encapsulating the gamut of feelings, the waxing and waning of emotions that make for an authentic movie score.

"This came out of the blue. I had done a movie score in my head a zillion times. I even produced the album of a local band, Rushk, as if I were making a soundtrack. All of a sudden, this film fell into my lap. I believe it was nature's working, as perhaps fate had decided this was the most opportune time to score a film," Shahi says, clearly still in a state of surprise at the speed at which developments have taken place.

"Working with anyone who is bigger than you is a learning experience. I mean, he might not be Steven Spielberg, but Mahesh Bhatt is pretty big in his own industry. That's why we caught the next flight to Mumbai, via Dubai, after the offer was made," Faisal says about working with the senior director.

"I though we were initially going for a meeting to iron out the details, and then they would probably give me a month to do the soundtrack. Pretty much as soon as we landed, they were like 'when do we start?' That took us a little by surprise. But their minds were made up and they wanted us to do the project," Shahi explained.

"For the Indians, it was a big risk calling over two guys from Pakistan who had no experience with soundtracks. Of course between the two of us, we had plenty of experience with jingles, pop songs and other types of music, but we had not done a soundtrack. We got a very good brief from Pooja, who I believe is one of the most talented people in the Indian film industry today," he added.

At first, the Pakistani contingent was a little hesitant as they were given just 10 days to thrash out the score, but Munna issued such a challenge that they couldn't help but take it up.

"Munna said the right thing at the right time. He said that 'hey, we gave Annu Malik 10 days also. If you're better than he is, then prove it.' That became a serious impetus. Our national pride was at stake!" Shahi said, laughing.

"Their whole industry was talking about it. A lot of people doubted we'd be able to deliver," Faisal observed. "I think we made a difference. The people who employed us told us that we had surpassed their expectations."

Pooja Bhatt's Paap and Mahesh Bhatt's Zakham are scheduled for showings in Pakistan, at this year's KaraFilm Festival. It is said that this will be Paap's world premiere. For the Pakistani entertainment industry, this is a very healthy sign as this time, our artists have been invited to India to produce. Usually, it is the other way round, with Indian choreographers and musicians clandestinely assisting Lollywood directors and producers in fine-tuning their flicks. How far this collaboration goes is up to fate and forces beyond our control. But one does hope that this symbiotic artistic relationship continues primarily to not only promote Pakistani talent abroad, but to raise our own standards as well.