Adil Najam
Like so much of Michael Jackson’s life, Michael Jackson’s death has come as a shock to so many. Including many Pakistanis who grew up to the shadows of his soundtracks.
Do you have ‘Pakistani’ memories of Michael Jackson? Do share.
I must say I have been surprised by how many ATP readers have written to me saying that we should do a post on Michael Jackson’s death. I was not, at first, sure what the ‘Pakistan connection’ was. But one was made to reconsider as one heard of the MJ memorial set up in Karachi (photos below)and it was apparent how so many were so influenced by the personage of the ‘King of Pop.’
Indeed, there was a time when – irrespective of your economic and social class – the was to be ‘tich’ was to be like Michael Jackson. From Saab ji’s son to Saab Ji’s driver’s son, if you were ‘in’ you had to be MJ: the hair, the walk, the white socks, the tight pants, the persona at large. And no stage show from Peshawar to Karachi would ever be complete without the ‘performance’ of a Michael Jackson clone.
To me, the immediate memory of the Michael Jackson influence on Pakistan is embodied in the famous Fifty-Fifty skit above. Elsewhere on this blog, I have argued that this may be the funniest comedy skit ever in the best Pakistani comedy program ever. But the point I wish to make today is different. It is a point about Michael Jackson and the deep and varied impacts he has left all over the world in so many different ways!
I must confess, I was never a Michael Jackson fan, never owned a single track of his. But there is no one who has lived in the times I have lived in who could be unaware of or uninterested in the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson. I think he led a sad life, but a life that is worth celebrating becuase it gave the joy of music to so many.
May he rest in in peace.
We were lucky to have lived in the era of Michael Jackson- the true King of Pop and truly the artist of the millenium.
May he rest in peace. Inanilahi wa inna ilahay rajioun.
Michael Jackson will remain a universal icon, regardless of geography people will remember him as someone who has left us his music and dance moves, his out of this world videos and the story of his incredible yet sad life. I don’t know anybody who hasn’t heard his songs or doesn’t know him. May he rock the world he’s in now.
Adil, you got it down pat! When I gave a moment’s worth of
thought to the idea of the connection betwee MJ and Pakistan,
guess what was the first thing that popped into my head? Why
the very 50/50 skit that you have just posted. Uncanny!
However, poor MJ had yet another connection to Pak Watan
which may not be visible to the casual observer: through the
last 2 dcades of his life, he got the same kind of treatment
that the mainstream Western media routinely metes out to Pakistan, i.e., everything he said or did was givn a negative
spin. And now thy are milking his death for all it is worth!
The other thing that occurred to me was the following
Urdu verses. Writing Urdu in English is such a chore for me
that I can only muster a translation. I’d let ATP readers
guess the original lines:
Lord, don’t give me th long lasting rankle of a thorn
I’d rather have the fleeting, pinkish intoxication of
flowers
Don’t curse me with a long life,
Just give me a few rollicking nights and days
(Alas, I can’t offer you any prize for guessing it right!)
Last, but not the least: MJ died on a Thursday. There is a
common superstition in PW that Munker and Nakeer go
easy on people who are lucky enough to die on Thursdays.
The height of the Michael Jackson craze in Pakistan was exactly when this album and 50-50 skit came. After that it went down. But at that point Michael Jackson was king in Pakistan too. May he rest in peace.
Yes, the influence of DISCO on Pakistan was really an MJ phenomenon. Wasn’t there also a stage actor who named himself Michael Jackson and had this bad moonwalk routine for stage dramas?