How ‘Peshawar Ka Larki’ was born

Sibti talks to The Express Tribune about his new single and the making of the video.

KARACHI:

The virality of Ali Gul Pir’s satirical single “Waderai Ka Beta” is proof that our audience appreciates wit and sarcasm in music. Muhammad Sibtain aka Sibti from the band RamLal has released his new solo track “Peshawar Ka Larki” with hope of a similar response.

The funny lyrics and expressions and catchy melody of the track have created quite a stir online, receiving 35,000 hits in less than a week. “Peshawar Ka Larki” is the humourous tale of a Pathan girl who stole the singer’s heart.

“I never fell in love with a Peshawar ka larki,” laughs Sibtain, in a deliberate Pashto accent. “But my friend who actually wrote this song did! He felt quite strongly about it, so the lyrics come straight from the heart.”

While the song sounds contemporary and fresh, it may come as a surprise to listeners that it was written and composed approximately almost a decade ago. “I had come up with the beat and melody almost eight years ago but then became busy and forgot about it,” says Sibti. “A great friend of ours, Zain Ahsan [producer of the music video] from the band Poor Rich Boy, insisted that we record the song instead of being lazy,” he adds. “But I guess it worked out well.”

Stereotyping Pathans?

Sibti talks to The Express Tribune about how the making of the video was as hilarious as the actual content. “I was in Karachi and preoccupied with my performance at the Lux Style Awards,” he says. “Some friends came over to meet me at the hotel I was staying at. They liked the song and the next thing you know, the whole video of ‘Peshawar Ka Larki’ was being shot within the premises of my hotel room — in just a matter of six hours,” he exclaims. “It was very random and not planned at all.”

He then describes the antics in the music video: “A Pathan is shown twisting a mole on his cheek while he stares and checks out a burqa-clad woman dancing in front of him. The video ends on a humourous pun where the mole turns out to be a piece of hashish and the person in the burqa turns out to be a man.”

The director of the video, Jasir Abro then steers into a more serious conversation, explaining how the video content had to be tackled with extra care due to the sensitivities and precautions that need to be considered when dealing with stereotypes. “The first thing that came to my mind was that the video had to be funny, but at the same time, it shouldn’t offend any Peshawaris or Pathans,” Abro admits.

Abro further justifies his actions by explaining how the moment where the mole turns out to be hashish was actually quite creative yet unpredictable from a viewer’s perspective. “People associate burqa-clad women with Peshawar and similarly also rave about the special kind of hashish that comes from that city,” he continues. “ Presenting the concept of Peshawari hashish as a ‘mole’ on the actor’s cheek was an aesthetic way of combining the two stereotypes [burqas and hashish] in a humourous way — this is why we show the character acting surprised when he realises it [that it’s not a mole but a piece of hashish].”

All in all, the video is simple but well-executed. Details like the tambourine player’s shoulder shake and occasional lip-biting moments; the tabla player’s perpetual smile; the random clips of a banana and another of a  man itching his hairy arms; the highly-charged dance performance of the man wearing a burqa and finally, the line “Camera humara ko waapis karo, iss me humara izzat ka tasveer hai” — all are simply hilarious.

Correction: An earlier version of the story said "a decade from now" instead of "a decade ago". The error is regretted.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2012.