Review: Naseer and Shahab up the ante of visual narratives in Pakistan with music video ‘Hero’

The duo touch upon the motif in the video but calling their take a cliche will be an insult of the highest order

KARACHI: Futurism, space exploration and post-apocalyptic setting are among the most cliched themes in the storytelling of today. What started out as a Cold War romance turned into a domain of its own when technology proclaimed: yes, it is all possible.

Alt rock duo Naseer & Shahab released the music video of their latest single, Hero, on Saturday. They do touch upon the motif in the video but calling their take a cliche will be an insult of the highest order.

Hero is a fresh and uplifting track that toys with the band’s original genre inclinations through the introduction of an electronic treatment. With only a handful of singles out, that too majorly in Pashto, in Hero Naseer & Shahab also experiment with the linguistic medium of their work; their Urdu is crisp and the poetry is reasonable, although it was slightly troubling to make out the words of the track’s chorus.



However, the song seems to end two minutes before the actual duration and is dragged to accompany the video’s high-point; the composition plunges into a bridge, never to return again. “Zindagi ne diye hen dhokay, Chalo no problem it’s okay,” is what reconnaissance pilot Naseer says as he commands his airship to take off. He is soon intercepted by a hostile aircraft that begins to follow his trail and the two airships zigzag through the buildings that rest on space rocks. A dogfight ensues and Naseer calls out for help. Shahab, who is flying close by, receives the signal and initiates the rescue mission which is visually at par with the works of top film studios.

Naseer’s airship reminds us of the one flown by Cooper in Nolan’s Interstellar; Cooper’s famous line itself defines what Naseer & Shahab have accomplished: “We’ve always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible.”



With Hero, Naseer & Shahab have upped the ante of visual narratives in Pakistani music into a realm that we were (or so it was thought) previously too ill-equipped to step into. The industry has never in the past seen musicians of this kind. 


Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th,  2016.

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