Through music, the band wants to bring peace in the province. PHOTO: PUBLICITY
PESHAWAR: Khumariyaan, a popular instrumental band that came into the limelight amidst terrorism and violence in the region, recently released the video of its latest song, Bela with a unique slogan: Hope for peace, hope of the Pashtuns.
The band comprises Farhan Ali Bogra, a well-known rubab virtuoso, Aamer Shafiq as the rhythm guitarist and vocalist, Shiraz Khan as the lead percussionist and Sparlay Rawail as the lead guitarist. Khumariyaan is known to play with different instruments and produce tunes that represent their native culture.
Bela has a sentimental and soulful tone to it. The HD music video has been created after quite a lot of research and shows picturesque shots of various scenic sights in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) region. “We wanted to highlight K-Ps’ greenest fields and mountains,” says Bogra.
Directed by Javad Zaib and Bilal Feraq and produced by 37th Productions, the video incorporates visuals of Indian Kathak dance alongside the pulsating rhythm of the rubab. However, this infusion of Kathak with Pashto music has been heavily criticised with many saying that the dance has destroyed the real essence of the music. Regardless of the criticism, Bogra points out that their intentions were genuine. “The song was created purely to spread joy, prosperity and peace among people. We only want to offer pure, peaceful music to the public and create it in such a manner that listeners are set in silence while they enjoy the soulfulness of the music,” he says.
The band wants its music to be a medium of bringing peace to people who have been going through rough times in the province. Khumariyaan has gained immense popularity in the underground circuit of Peshawar, Lahore and Islamabad and attracts a huge audience because of its experimental approach. The band has earlier given several captivating numbers such as Sheenai, Malang Yara, Sakal amongst others and has also been selected for Center Stage Program 2014. Center Stage is an international exchange programme that brings together performing artists from around the globe to perform in the US.
Despite achieving appreciation in such a limited time frame, the band is still struggling to make it big in the mainstream music industry. But nonetheless, it seems pretty content with the progress so far. “If we manage to make the audience forget their worries for a few minutes, the point of forming Khumariyaan would be fulfilled,” they had told The Express Tribune in an earlier interview.
The new song has been already uploaded on their official Facebook page and is available for download on SoundCloud.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2013.
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@Sparlay Rawail no body know u guys...its the reporter who gave u importance and fill the page in ur praises....otherwise another reporter can come up as an art critique and spoil the career of people like u, instead of thanks u are complaining...u should eat a handful of mud that a paper like tribune gives u coverage....mean it.
@Baraan De: your emotional argument is invalid, reporting done on anything, needs to be backed with proper research, small mistakes are alright, but such gross mistakes? and if your gonna play the emotional card, where is the sympathy for the band of your own people? what if we loose a buncha gigs based on this article, what if the video gets attributed to someone who hasn't actually made it? if he really wanted to pay us heed, if he really were 'our own people' than the article wouldn't have such mistakes, but hey, its the tribune, they put shahid afridi in squash and printed the poster of an indian movie with the same name as a pakistani movie, although the report was on a pak movie, so please, dont play the emo card, its whats destroying careers for artists.
@Sparlay Rawail @Usman Kiani : nobody even pays heed to you and when your own people do, this is how you pay them back.
The music is soothing and very devotional. The good thing about music without words, is that you don't need a video with it. You just need to close your eyes and feel the instruments clinging peacefully together.
Khumariyaan deserve a lot more better article than this. This band is one of the top bands in music industry of KPK, and in top ten all over Pakistan. As I know Bela song is not about green fields and mountain; it has more deep thoughts. What I think is that Bela is a try to tie and bring peace between two soul who have hatred for each other for no reason.
Nice music and a great video ! Good job guys.. Applaud ! :)
hello, im sorry but that is one poorly written article with incredible mistakes. You managed to get the spellings of the band's name and both the video directors' names wrong, than you didn't bother asking if the band wanted to be in the mainstream music scene or not, and on top of all that, the video was not meant to highlight the green areas of KP for goodness sake! How can you write something so poorly! You went through the bother of going through our description and changing the words to make it your own, but didn't bother to check the spellings written right on the top of the description. You've made up quotations from yourself and be sure that i will follow this through, this is unacceptable!