Political Parody: Mein HouN Naa

Adil Najam

Some of the best political commentary anywhere in the world is done in humor. In Urdu we have a great tradition of political commentary in verse and some of the best poetry (a la Faiz Ahmad Faiz) is of this variety. What I present here is no Faiz – not even close. But it is a fun parody.

I found myself laughing out loud and replaying it immediately. Especially the first minute or so is very good (then, I thought, it became repetitive and maybe too long). But all in all, it is good fun, a nice spoof, and captures an element of truth about Pakistan politics today.

It is from the Geo TV show ‘Hum Sab Umeed Say Hain.’ As I had written earlier, this show along with ‘4-Man Show‘ and some others, is part of a “a new breed of television comedy skit shows – edgy, young, political, and irreverent.” The quality of these shows can be erratic, but I do believe that they are part of Pakistan’s ‘new political reality’ where people are now willing and able to say things out loud that they used to earlier share only with their close friends. (We have been writing about elements of this new political reality at this blog and I recently outlined some of its elements on the radio show Asia Pacific Forum when they interviewed me about this blog in their special August 14 transmission).