Alu Anday: sardonic schoolboys with a message

“Tehreek-i-Insaaf = Good-looking Jamaat-i-Islami?” “Mumtaz Qadri a hero?” Alu Anday indeed.

This song actually has very little to do with potatoes and eggs despite ‘Alu Anday’  being its title and part of its chorus.

Beygairat Brigade’s indie music video is ideally positioned for the social media community. It’s creative, funny, and unique; ideal traits for going viral (and it has).

Alu Anday starts off with quirky dork-humour: the trio transforms their geeky glasses and school uniforms to a punk-rock-meets-boy-band style complete with loosened ties, childish face paint and plenty of kooky behaviour. That is, until the urban Lahori slang-infused lyrics convey a darker socio-political reality (e.g. “Where Qadri is treated like a hero”) along with cheeky placards held by the ‘Beygairats’ (shameless) in various parts of the video (e.g. “Tehreek-i-Insaaf = Good-looking Jamaat-i-Islami”).

And the Alu Anday?

They were the contents of the boys’ lunch boxes that disgusted them in the opening scenes of the video. The Beygairat ended up jeering about a lot more than the stinky lunch that their ammis (mothers) had prepared for them; it seems the stench of socio-political hypocrisy is more unbearable than soggy, eggy potatoes.