Monday, November 21, 2011

Peace, not pieces...


Shahvar Ali Khan is a “proud Lahori” who is “madly in love with Mumbai”. No Saazish, No Jung, his peace anthem, tells both mullahs and foreigners to stop messing in the region. The song also combines the voices of Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Benazir Bhutto and Barack Obama to make an impassioned plea for peace.

“I am a born and bred proud Pakistani Lahori, who is unapologetically and madly in love with Bombay with no qualms in saying that again and again! Unlike my parents’ generation that was born in the midst of the partition hangover, my Pakistaniat (identity as a Pakistani) is beyond being just ‘anti-India’,” says Khan.

Khan released the song on the internet two years ago, but the video was shot only recently in India. “I always felt that the shooting of the music video in India would be a litmus test for peace. Lots of people questioned me as to why I was so gung ho on shooting a music video in India when Pakistan specialises in this sphere.” 

Mullayae na kar tung 
Oo guraya na kar tung 
Meino rahen dae malang
Mein nach nach kai larni 
Yae jang de nal jang 

(Don’t bother me mullahs
Don’t bother me foreigners
Let me remain a free spirit
I will dance away 
And fight your war)

The voice of Gandhi can be heard intoning “...in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists” while Jinnah is heard saying: “Our object should be peace within and peace without. We want to live peacefully and maintain cordial friendly relations with our immediate neighbours...”

4 comments:

  1. Interesting... I can understand Lahoris liking Delhi.. but a Lahori being madly in love with a city like Mumbai is nothing short of interesting :) Even a typical Delhiite finds it hard to like Mumbai beyond a point..

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  2. i have lived all my life in Dubai.I have met a lot of pakistanis who clearly have a fascination for Mumbai.It could be cos of Film Industry.I have even heard that some Paksitan believe that it was part of Sindh(lol) .I guess cos the region was under BOmbay presidency.

    But aniways this guy s really inetersting.More power to him

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