August Playlist: Why 'Dil Dil Pakistan' is the greatest anthem ever

Just how brilliant is the most iconic Pakistani hit of all time?

SLOUGH, ENGLAND:

As a Pakistani, what forms the core of your identity? Besides being the proud owner of a plastic CNIC, what does it truly mean to ‘be a Pakistani’? Is it weeping over electricity bills? Revelling in newfound javelin glory? Is it trying to telepathically beam cricket greatness onto literally any one of the boys in green on the field in your TV? Or is it a foolhardy declaration to, like the captain of the Titanic, go down with those boys in green after they studiously ignored your telepathic instructions?

The answer is NO to all of the above. You can beam as many telepathic tips to a wayward cricket team as you want, but if you do not have the words Dil Dil Pakistan tattooed somewhere inside your brain, you are not a true Pakistani. Go away and study the course material, and then come back.

This should take you approximately ninety seconds. As a hallmark of the ’80s, Dil Dil Pakistan, written by Shoaib Mansoor and performed by the OG Pakistani boyband Vital Signs, is many things, but ‘complex’ is not one of them. A total Urdu dunce can memorise the chorus in a minute and a half. And thanks to its inadvertent – but now eternal – association with cricket glory, Dil Dil Pakistan is the blueprint for what an iconic patriotic hit should be, and the national anthem you can sing with your hand on your heart without anyone batting an eye.

Simple, yet so effective

If you are craving a glimpse of what the ’80s looked and sounded like, you could do a lot worse than Dil Dil Pakistan. Behold the tilted camera angles, the helmet-free motorbike guys careering through the countryside, and the late evening sun-dappled fields. Observe the obligatory green backdrop (you are not spoilt for choice, colour-wise, in a song about Pakistan), the surplus electric guitars with their magical power supplies, and the little 44-key piano. Soak in the synth-laden melody (and harmonies), and a bass line you could play in your sleep. Devour Shoaib’s simplest of lyrics brought to you by Junaid Jamshed’s soft, yet alluring, voice. Hoard it all, because this song is a treasure the likes of which we will rarely see again. There are zero moments of musical trickery or limelight snippets of genius blazing through. There are no powerhouse vocals reaching for the heavens. There are no glory-seeking soloists blitzing their way through the neck of the fretboard. Here is a simple unpretentious take-it-or-leave-it track.

We, as Pakistanis, choose to take it. As the de facto, unofficial 1992 cricket World Cup song, Dil Dil Pakistan is inexorably linked with the special brand of sweet victory we are, let’s face it, unlikely to ever witness again in our lifetime (unless divine intervention takes pity on us.) Dil Dil Pakistan was never meant to be a World Cup anthem – that honour belongs to Who Rules The World, not that your ordinary cricket fan off the street has a hope of knowing or remembering that little factoid. As far as rose-tinted glasses are concerned, Dil Dil Pakistan is, and forever will be, the cricket victory song. Pakistan may not yet have reached gladiator status on the cricket pitch, but does Pakistan have a monopoly on cricket pitch music? Ask any of the thousands of fans present at a Pakistan cricket match, and you will have your answer.

Linked forever with cricket glory

“I always thought Dil Dil Pakistan came out with the ’92 World Cup,” says Sohaib in surprise. Sohaib is a teenage cricket fan born long after the flames of 1992 had been extinguished (and further trampled to death in 1996, 1999, and 2003.) He is not alone in harbouring this charming delusion.

“But it’s such an iconic cricket song!” says Mayam, yet another teenage cricket fan. “Why else do they sing it at stadiums everywhere?”

Why indeed? For a start, it is easy to sing. It is so simple that even ex-non-Pakistani cricketer Michael Vaughan can fluently reference it on X. “I presume Dil Dil Pakistan wasn’t played in Chennai today,” he noted sagely on X after yet another crushing heartbreak delivered by the Pakistani cricket team. With the word ‘Pakistan’ interspersed at regular intervals, in conjunction with the twice-repeated monosyllabic ‘dil’ that even a toddler can learn, you would have to be laser-focused on something really, really gripping for Dil Dil Pakistan to slip through the net when floating past your synapses.

But it is so much more than just simple lyrics. After all, what is the point of having simple lyrics if they are accompanied by a tune that makes you want to cut off your ears, or at least run far away? Dil Dil Pakistan has simple lyrics, and a suitably simple, sweet melody – albeit a melody set, inexplicably, in D minor, widely regarded as the saddest key in music. There are those of us who disagree on whether D minor deserves such a title, but what is of note here is that the song is set in a minor key at all. Minor keys, by default, have a melancholy feel to them. To not opt for a happy major key when putting together a patriotic hit was a bold move by Shoaib.

And yet it works. It works so well. The very fact that Dil Dil Pakistan is set in D minor is the crucial, magic factor that has kept it alive all these years. Set in a minor key with a happy message, it is the ultimate defibrillator for a broken heart. When you have been stabbed in the back after yet another cricket mishap, here is a song that effectively wraps its arms around you and says, ‘Yes my child, you are sad now, but there was a time when cricket brought us great happiness – hold on to that.’”

With 1992 fast slipping ever further away in our rearview mirrors, those who were alive to witness that moment first-hand are fewer and fewer in number. But there are still fans in whom Dil Dil Pakistan lights a fire – and that is the true power of music. To resurrect long-buried memories, rekindle emotions burnt to ashes, and bring to life feelings you desperately need to keep you going. Thank you, Shoaib, and thank you, Vital Signs. To you, we are truly indebted.

August Playlist is a series that recalls old songs that continue to fuel the Independence Day spirit.

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