Faakhir’s Kuttay: Shouldn’t have let the dogs out

The singer’s attempt at political satire is disappointing and offensive.

KARACHI:

For a pop singer who has thus far produced romantic songs, turning into a satirist requires a deeper level of understanding of what is actually happening in the country and also a vision of change that he or she wishes to portray through music.

Unfortunately, Faakhir’s Eid offering “Kuttay Bhi Tum Say Achay Hain” lacks that, causing the lyrics to sound like the ramblings of a confused Pakistani teenager rather than the work of a seasoned pop icon. From someone who has spent more than two decades in the music industry and has a commendable fan following around the world, we expected better.

“Kuttay” is a satirical number from his latest album Jee Chahay, the first video of which showed the gorgeous actor Mahnoor Baloch and Meekal together in a song called “Allah Karay”. It was not a bad start at all for Faakhir, but after a song as raw as “Kuttay”, our hopes for other tracks go down the drain.

The poor kuttay

The first verse of the chorus is “Kuttay, kuttay, kuttay bhi tum say achay hain” where Faakhir seems to be comparing politicians to canines. In his opening lines, Faakhir goes as far as referring to them as “zaleelon (shameless), ganday andon (bad eggs), khoon chooson (blood suckers)”, as the guitar blares in the background. Faakhir has stayed true to stereotypes by using the word “kutta” as a synonym for dishonesty — a trend that is largely noticeable during street protests where enraged mobs carry slogans that label their party rivals “kuttay”. As common as the slur may be, it is ironic that an animal that is popularly described as “man’s best friend” is being used as a standard of measuring corruption.

The charsis and bhangis

The second part of the chorus is all sorts of wrong: “charsi, bhangi, haan wo bhi tum say achay hain”. The song starts to spew discriminatory remarks against drug addicts and sweepers, which is strange since the latter actually contribute significantly to maintaining cleanliness on the streets. Making fun of our politicians’ standards of honesty can be seen as humourous and witty, but not in relation to other rather underprivileged groups of society. In doing so, instead of actually making fun of the politicians, Faakhir is indirectly stating that people from such ignored social classes are more honest and trustworthy, implying that truthfulness and honesty tend to disappear and disintegrate if you are a sweeper or an addict.

Not amused

YouTube comments under the video are also quite disapproving.

“Exceptionally stupid,” wrote one irate viewer. “We Pakistanis think that just by uttering bad words we can bring change, haha... what a c*** song.” Another right pointed out that this attempt at humour is not at all working for the pop singer. “This kind of song doesn’t suit Faakhir. Level gira rahay ho bhai aap apna” (you are really dropping below standard, brother).”

While these commenters openly expressed their displeasure, there were other funny ones (funnier than the song itself!) which read:

“Dogs protest against Faakhir — why you match us with politicians?”

“Shehzad Roy wannabe”

And one random one screaming in caps: “Only hope is Imran Khan, inshallah next prime minister.”

The brilliant one-liner from Spider Man effectively comes into play here, “With great power comes great responsibility.” It is pretty obvious that a star like Faakhir would never intentionally offend the public and all the humour was meant to criticise our leaders, but he should be responsible enough to carefully review the lyrical content of such a song before releasing it.

As a whole, the song does not offer anything new and is a big disappointment both in terms of composition and poetry. The good old days when satirical numbers such as “Mr Fraudiye” by Awaz were produced seem to have been long gone, because the concept of ‘letting the dogs out’ was certainly not a good idea by Faakhir. If he wishes to lean toward satire, maybe he should take a leaf out of Shehzad Roy’s book or stick to his romantic numbers for which he receives appreciation.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2012.