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Music Say It With Music By Afshan Khoja and Sa'adia Reza
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It's the MTV Awards night in Mumbai. And the spotlight is on Junoon's Ali Azmat, Brian O' Conell and Salman Ahmad belting out "Sayonee." People are dancing and screaming, jumping in unison and singing along, word for word with the group. Somewhere in the crowd, actress Kajol is rocking: eyes closed, head raised and arms swinging in the air, swaying with the music. And she is not the only one in a state of trance. Hundreds of Indians are grooving with the same group that has had Pakistanis of all ages rocking. That was in 1998. Fast forward to 2004. Junoon is still around, and not just performing for Indian audience, but collaborating with them on exciting, new ventures. Early this year, their "Garaj Baras" was featured in Pooja Bhatt's directorial venture Paap. And soon to be released, to coincide with the Indian and Pakistani Independence days, is Junoon's "Ghoom Tana," featuring Nandita Das and Naseeruddin Shah, along with Salman Ahmad, shot in Lahore and Patiala. Already making waves is String's "Najane Kyun," chosen as the theme song for the Hindi version of Spiderman 2. Music has broken the Siachen ice - and how! Indian singer Sagarika teamed up with Strings for "Pal," as did the Indian pop group Euphoria for "Jeet Lo Dil," a joint number produced to mark the revival of the Indo-Pak cricket series after 15 years. Meanwhile, the gorgeous Urmila Mantondkar flew down to Lahore to shoot with Pakistan's Resham for Fuzon's "Deewane." And Shehzad Roy, after belting out "Jinna Karloge Pyaar" with Sukhbir Singh, has now joined hands with Shaan for another number, "Shaan Se." Songs of love and peace are being traded across the borders. The guns are silent for now…
Junoon are no strangers to being in the limelight: the first rock band in Pakistan, the first band to play at the MTV India awards and the UN General Assembly and the first band to have been invited to Patiala by the Maharaja for the six-day-long Heritage Festival. So when the doors of friendship opened up with India, Junoon joined the few others who stepped right in to grab the opportunity! Their latest venture is their Indo-Pak collaboration for the video of their song, "Ghoom Tana," from their album, Deewar. "'Ghoom Tana' is a commonly used vocal or musical syllable which musicians and singers of the subcontinent have used since the time of Amir Khusrau, during the 12th century," says lead guitarist, Salman Ahmad. "Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs found common ground musically, and 'Ghoom Tana' suggests a musical and spiritual harmony. It is also a metaphor for the journey of life." The video, shot in Lahore and Patiala, India, not only stars one of Bollywood's most versatile actresses, Nandita Das, but is also narrated by the legendary actor, Naseeruddin Shah. Adding to the package is the voice of India's queen of classical music, Shubha Mudgal, accompanying Salman's vocals. Although lead singer Ali Azmat and bass guitarist Brian O'Conell are not in the video, the song is truly Junooni and loosely based on Salman's personal family background. "My mother's great grandfather was the defacto prime minister of Patiala state," explains Junoon's manager and Salman's brother, Shehryar Ahmad. "When the Maharaja of Patiala called us over this year, Salman told him that we wanted to shoot a video in Patiala and we wanted to see our ancestral home, which is on Namdar Khan Road, named after my grandfather. Our home, called Ashraf Manzil, was a little outside the city and all we knew was that the house was in a settlement called Bassi Pathanan. The building was completely destroyed but they hadn't demolished it, so we decided to shoot the video there, and at Qila Mubarak, which is the place where the Patiala dynasty started about 300 years ago." In the seven-minute long 'musicfilm,' as Salman calls it, Das plays a young, widowed, dance teacher who finds friendship with Salman, a visitor from Pakistan. Although the band didn't reveal many details about the storyline, Shehryar said that it depicts the issue of families that were separated during Partition, yet share an everlasting cultural and social bond. "During Partition, Pathans were considered able warriors and they were enlisted into the army like the Kshatriya warrior class. So when leaving India, our family was protected because they were nobility. The Maharaja had a train prepared for our family to travel to Lahore, and my naani was told to make sure that she had no jewellery with her because 'they'll take it and they'll take you with it.' So my family crushed all their jewellery and put it in a thermos and buried it at our ancestral home. That's a fact and the video is going to play on from there," explains Shehryar. Earlier, Junoon had tried to shoot a video in India for their song "Yar Bina" from the album, Azadi, which was released around 1999, but then Kargil happened, and their plans fell through. "When Junoon went to India for the first time, we were really happy to see that people over there loved us, and loved Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. We told them that the people of Pakistan also loved Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai. But we were branded traitors by the myopic officials in Pakistan. What we're celebrating is that the narrow vision of the past is gone, even at the top level, on both sides," says Shehryar. The idea of collaborating with Indian artists occured to Salman during his visit to Patiala last year. He shared the idea with Das, Shah and Mudgal, who were all very excited about the project. "I played the song, gave them the background of my mother's family originating from Patiala, a state which has produced amazing Muslim singers and musicians. I told them that I was seeking to unearth Lahore and Patiala's shared culture and history, which dates back centuries. All three loved the song and agreed immediately to participate.They worked on the project as if it was their own and gave 200 per cent of their time and effort. This is truly an Indo-Pak collaboration... 'Ghoom Tana' is a song with a powerful universal theme of cohesion and coexistence. We live in chaotic, polarised times and by having Shubha sing with me, I've tried to make it a unified plea for peace. The UN Undersecretary-General, Shashi Tharoor, has endorsed this project and it will be launched on a UN platform." Incidentally, Salman is the first Pakistani musician to become a UN Goodwill Ambassador.
The video, directed by Saquib Malik, with India's Sanjay
Kapoor as director of photography, is scheduled to be released on
August 14-15 as a joint celebration of India and Pakistan's independence. |
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E-mail: newsline@cyber.net.pk
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