Junoon's World Cup anthem is out and it only has its heart in the right place

The video ticks all the right boxes but the song will take its sweet time to grow on you

KARACHI: After a long and gruelling two decades, everyone's favourite local rock band Junoon has finally made a comeback.

Just last week, the terrific trio of Ali Azmat, Salman Ahmad and Brian O'Connell recently announced that they are all set to release a brand new single as an ode to the unheard communities of Pakistan. Additionally, they said that the song would be Pakistan's anthem for the upcoming cricket World Cup.

And Junoon is no stranger to cricket anthems. It's 1996 World Cup single Jazba Junoon was a huge hit amongst fans and it brought out all the right emotions.


But the new song, Choolay Aasman, unfortunately, fails to bring out the same jazba and junoon in us. Don't get us wrong... The video is beautiful. “This song is for all Pakistanis. For all its citizens, specially for people who are marginalised,” Ali had earlier said and he makes good on that.

Choolay Aasman manages to highlight the marginalised communities of Pakistan well. We see Hindus, Sikhs and Christians rooting for our team to win. We see transgenders. We even see the mute. Junoon has truly got its message across in the best possible way.

But the song itself will take its sweet time to grow on you. "I dig the video. I really do. May not be high on production value but I'll take this over all the clichéd ones with ghissa pita concepts and inserts of match highlights. The song will grow. Slowly but surely," a Twitter user wrote.

I dig the video. I really do. May not be high on production value but I'll take this over all the clichéd ones with ghisa pita concepts and inserts of match highlights.

The song will grow. Slowly but surely.#Junoon Choolay Aasman https://t.co/5q6vQlQqs3

— Riz (@rizwanfarooq) May 26, 2019

Others, however, weren't all that happy. "Did Junoon's WC 2019 anthem do it for you? A big no from me. The video is also very artificial," said one.

Did #Junoon's WC 2019 anthem do it for you?
A big No from me. The video is also very artificial.

— Faiza Khan (@faizakkhan) May 27, 2019

"Junoon's World Cup song is just like any other Junoon song. Nothing new. Nothing 'worldcuppy'," wrote another.

#Junoon's #WorldCup song is just like any other Junoon song. 🤦‍♀️
Nothing new. Nothing "worldcuppy".#CWC19 #Pakistan 🇵🇰

— Saima Saleem (@saleemsaimaa) May 27, 2019

Do we see Choolay Aasman playing on our television sets at home? Yes. But do we see it bringing out cricket fervour in a stadium full of enthusiastic fans? We're not certain. Does it come anywhere near Jazba Junoon? Definitely not.

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