Adil Najam
All Things Pakistan was launched with a remix video I had made back in 2006, based on Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Hum DaikhaiN Gay, as – in some ways ATP was launched because of that video. More than four years and more than three hundred thousand views later (on YouTube) that video still seems to be relevant, and this blog keeps going on.
I had not remixed another video since then. Until now. (Or view at YouTube).
This one is not quite as sweeping a political commentary as the first video. But I hope that it is relevant – on Pakistan’s Great Flood of 2010 – and maybe the song and words in the background will also move you in the same way that they always move me.
That the song was itself written as a response to a similar tragedy some 30 years ago makes it even more relevant today, and tragically so. All I would add about the song – sung by Shahnaz Begum (written by Asad Mohammad Khan; I think the music is by Sohail Rana but have not been able to confirm that) – is that I have always loved it (see this post from four years ago) because it takes a refreshingly real view of why we love our country: because it is our home. That is all we need to know. That is all that matters.
In this video, as on the first one, I was moved by the song and how relevant it was to the many thoughts going on in my own head at the time. In this case, those thoughts have been about the floods, but also about our own attitudes of depression and despondency around those floods and everything else happening around us. This song is a response to these attitudes. And so are the words of Mr. Jinnah that I use in the background to the song.
Let me let the song, and the words of Mr. Jinnah, speak for themselves.
Excellent work.
Saw this here and then went to YouTube and saw it on a big screen. Second time was even more effective. Reccomend seeing it in full screen mode.
Excellent work on making sure that every picture relates to teh words.
Adil, you continue to amaze me with your many talents as well as your passion for Pakistan. Great video.
It is not the floods that make be concerned for Pakistan today. It is our political system and the no end in sight to those problems. I despise military rule and will never support it. But I have to have a better reason that just my dislike for the military to support the politicians!
Despondency and depression are negative emotions that are natural, but for many who pride themselves on their analytic abilities, the more apt emotion is expressed in an Urdu word “Muztarib” which is rarely used in conversation but I remember using somewhere in my FSc Urdu exam. Muztarib is an emotion that has within it a call to action, a call for change and something of a force of nature. But Muztarib people, unless they are poets, are also a dangerous people who can respond unpredictably.
Adil, this is really powerful. Thank you for putting it together. The message is clear and powerful. I specially like the pictures at the end of people rebuilding houses.
I wish our TV channels would run things like this instead of adding to the national depression by always cribbing and crying on how bad things are.
YES THINGS ARE BAD. But lets start looking at the future and how to make things better.
Beautiful song.
I remember it from long ago and you are right it is so very relevant to current situation.