Pakistani songs from 2000s that'll take you back in time
To fill in the gap, the channels on cable are airing music produced in Pakistan during 2000s
LAHORE: (Web Desk) – Indian content has recently been banned in Pakistan. It is impossible for the cable TV channels to air the content from the neighbouring country and thus they’ve been forced to air Pakistani content.
The drama channels have certainly benefited from the arrangement. Their content, already popular, has received an added impetus after this order. But it is the cinema and music industries that are suffering the most. Pakistan has started to produce some good movies of late but the content certainly isn’t enough to run a 24-hour TV channel. Thus, the channels dedicated completely to music and films are faced by an uphill task.
This not only brings us to the age-old question of film royalty and the amount of time a film needs to get rid of the legal issues and be aired on TV. As a matter of fact, most of the movies that earned public praise recently have not yet been aired on the TV channels as the TV rights haven’t been released.
To fill in the gap, the TV channels on cable are airing the music produced in Pakistan during the 2000s. However, this content has certainly proved that Pakistani musicians are in no way behind their Indian counterparts. In fact, in some cases, Pakistani musicians seem far better than the Indian ones. Pakistani music has always kept a distinct brand of its own, never allowing the Indian themes and genre to overwhelm it.
These music videos, being played on the cable these days took many Pakistanis back in time. Some of them were kids back then, some in their youths and the others were certainly younger than they are now. Some of these songs, therefore, deserve mentioning here.
Yaqeen – Atif Aslam
Atif took us all by a storm after his first music video Aadat sent the nation into frenzy some time back in 2004. But Aadat wasn’t the only song from that album that sent ripples across the music industries of Pakistan and India back then. There were at least four or five songs that remained in the top-10 for several weeks in a row from that album.
One of the most loved songs from that album was Yaqeen. The video, showing Atif in a black background, sitting on a chair and playing a guitar, hardly had the graphics and antics that’d attract you. But Atif’s voice, the lyrics of the song and a beautiful tune played on guitar, certainly had something in it that made us stick to the channel for a little while.
Channo – Ali Zafar
Ali had been around for quite some time. He had done modeling for years before this first music video and had also acted on TV. Kollege Jeans was a fantastic drama on PTV of course and Ali played his role brilliantly. He’s a good actor, no doubts about that at least. So when Channo hit the screens, Ali’s face was already familiar for us all.
And then there was the tune. Ali had made the tune of the song by himself. He had written the lyrics too. But it was Tariq Amin who surprised us the most. The bald hairdresser played a Jinn in the music video and played it so brilliantly that after 13 years of its release, it is Tariq Amin that we remember from the video, not Ali.
Well, that’s an overstatement. We do remember Ali, of course. How can we forget him?
Na Kaho – Aaroh
Aaroh came to the limelight in 2003 when their music video ‘Na Kaho’ became a mega hit. The music of the song, somewhat old school, was soft, and serene. The video, showing the singer and his aides in the lobby of some hotel, seemed clearly in sync with the music.
Aaroh never came up with something as popular as that again. They were brilliant in this song but probably just couldn’t live up to the expectations of the people after having set the bar so high for themselves. Although the band remained a one-hit sensation but that one hit is still fresh in our minds.
Dhaani – Strings
Strings gave some massive hits throughout the 2000s. Duur, Begaane, Chhaaye, Chhaye, and the 2003 world cup song were just a few of their hits. But the song that had a kind of inspiration for the masses, especially women, and deserves special mention thus is ‘Dhaani’.
Dhaani was made for women. With a feminist tinge in the song, the video showed women working in all fields of life. They were shown working in salons, driving trucks and doing whatever they were not deemed fit to do by this patriarchal society.
Khamaj – Fuzon
Fuzon made their arrival with a bang. But that bang wasn’t ‘Khamaj’, their most celebrated song. It was ‘Aankhon Ke Saagar’. However, the song that took the band to the ultimate stardom was ‘Khamaj’. The video, starring Shaan Shahid and Zara Sheikh, was set in the background of early years of Pakistani cinema industry.
The music video went so popular that even the Dhadkan girl Shilpa Shetty said in an interview that it was her favourite song. Although the band couldn’t survive the popularity it received afterwards, the lead singer Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan later gave many hits for Indian movies as well, ‘Mitwa’ from Shahrukh starrer Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna being the biggest hit of them all.
The story has been written by Ali Warsi.
