Truck art: Runaway bride

Pakistan’s signature ‘chalti hui dulhan’ of the streets gets its first racing game.

KARACHI:

Since March 10, more than 10,000 truckers from all over the world have taken to the streets in towns and cities across Pakistan as they race each other. Haven’t spotted them? That’s because the race is entirely online, in the palm of your hand, via a game called PK Cargo Transport.

Released last month on the Google Play Store, this Android racing game – the first truck racing game created in Pakistan – has been downloaded more than 10,000 times.

The game’s creator, the Pindi-based THM Apps, is thrilled with the response it has received in a little over two weeks since the game was released. “We wanted to put something in the market that reflected Pakistan’s rich culture, and trucks – featuring their artwork – seemed to be the perfect vehicle to do so,” explains Tahir Mahmood, the founder of THM Apps. “This chalti hui dulhan, a beautifully decorated truck, shows the colourful chehra of Pakistan to the world,” agrees truck artist Haider Ali, who worked with Mahmood on the game.

The company’s developers tweaked the format of a standard racing game to incorporate a bespoke Bedford Rocket – the vehicle of choice among truckers in Pakistan since the 1950s – designed by Haider Ali, who has been honing his craft since the age of seven. “Chalti hai gaari, urti hai dhool. Jaltay hain dushman, khiltay hain phool,” the back of the truck reads, under a portrait of a snarling tiger. The music of Attaullah Khan Esakhelvi and the lilting tunes of the rubab accompany the truck as it trundles from one level to another in the game. “We wanted to use the music that truck drivers listen to on their journeys and include all the things they’d see on the roads,” Mahmood says. This includes signs for the best chapal kabab and ‘Billu Petroleum’, as well as winding roads edged by velvety green forests or arid mountain ranges.

For Haider Ali, the game is a means to present truck art on an international platform, but more importantly, to spark interest in the art locally. “There is a perception within Pakistan that this art form is simplistic or not worth studying,” he explains. Haider is the founder of Phool Patti, a troupe of truck artists who are trying to revive interest in their craft. While Haider’s work has been extensively exhibited internationally, he says artisans are not as appreciated within Pakistan. “The people with fancy degrees, those who come from classrooms, they do not think we are true artists,” he says.

Haider worked for free on the racing game as he believes it will help drive interest in truck art right back to its roots. This mission is reflected in the name of his company, Phool Patti, he explains. “From the 1970s up until September 11, 2001, we would get so many foreign visitors in Karachi’s Garden area where we work that it looked like any street in Europe,” he recalls. “These foreigners gave our art the name ‘truck art’. Before that, it was simply ‘phool patti’.”

Tahir Mahmood is just as interested in reviving interest in a flagging local market, albeit a different one. Earnings from mobile games and applications in India are expected to touch $433 million by 2016, he claims. When Mahmood founded THM Apps a year ago, he found this difference is largely due to a gap between industrial requirements and academic training. “What is being taught in our universities is not applicable in the industry as it is outdated,” he says.

With games like PK Cargo Transport, Mahmood is hoping to show that Pakistani game developers are just as talented as their peers across the border in India and to assure local budding developers that their skills have a market waiting to be tapped into. He acknowledges that this isn’t an easy task – PK Cargo Transport alone took 45 days and up to Rs300,000 to develop. It seems when it comes to promoting Pakistani talent, it’s not all fun and games.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2015.