Based on a report by Suzanna Koster

Umer Draz was once one of Pakistan’s best cello players. Like his father before him, he played for the film soundtracks of Lollywood – the Lahore based Pakistani film industry. 

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Lollywood films, like their more famous Bollywood counterpart, were all about the song and dance, and the industry’s musicians were well kept in work. 

From musician to stall owner
The industry was producing more than a hundred films a year, until general Zia ul-Haq imposed an Islamic military dictatorship in the country; culture and the arts were amongst the first victims.  And when the film industry shut down, so did the orchestras who’d provided the thrilling soundtracks.  The sitar and tabla soloists, could still find the occasional commercial, or classical music concert, but violinists and cellists had nowhere to go, and no means to earn a living.  Umer Draz needed to find a way to feed his family, so he sold his cello and started a garment shop.

Starting an orchestra from scratch
Then a few years ago, a music loving Oxford-educated businessman Izzat Majeet, son of a Lollywood producer, came to Lahore and started looking around for these retired musicians.  He brought in instruments from Europe and the UK, and convinced Umer Draz and other musicians to come out of retirement and founded the Sachal Studio Orchestra. 

When Majeed started a few years ago, he could only find 4 or 5 violinists but today the orchestra boasts more than ten times that number.  They have a repertoire that combines the music of the region with western jazz and classical.  And their exuberant recording of Dave Brubeck’s Take Five went viral on You Tube and received rave reviews.  Brubeck himself wrote in to say it was the most interesting cover of his piece he'd ever heard

More than just terrorism
 Umer Draz says that when he saw the cello that Majeed had brought over from the UK, and when he started playing it in the music studio in Lahore, he realized how much he loved it.
Majeed hopes that the music of Sachal will show the outside world that there’s more to Pakistan than terrorism.  The orchestra is still surviving on a non profit basis, and the group – still training new young musicians – feels it is not yet ready for concert performances, but if their first recording is anything to go by, the Sachal Studio Orchestra has a great future ahead of it.

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