The Andaaz

So much maza, khulle haath, khulla dil is indeed the definition of a true blockbuster, made with heart, not only marketing

The obvious hit of Coke Studio Pakistan S15 is Blockbuster. Multi-generational rizz: gabru jawan rap gambolling with older women’s giddas lachkoing alongside that raw belting child-voice. Unabashed delights of a single take video: layers of detail and style in one choreographed shot. Entertaining Hinglish/Punglish (“tu somehow mere’ich smaliya”). The sweet sentiment of hearing Indian city names in a Pakistani pop song—“Ve kurta laylya ni Ludhianyon, main suniya si kahnaiya, O marjaneya” (I’ve bought me a kurta from Ludhiana, they’ve got quite the reputation, my darling/And fixed a rickshaw so I’m heading in your direction my darling”)—reminds us that we each belong to lands, not just nations. So much maza, khulle haath, khulla dil is indeed the definition of a true blockbuster, made with heart, not only marketing. 

Blockbuster may be the season’s charmer. But the diva of the dance is Shazia Manzoor. Turi Jaandi, her song with Hasan Rahim, is set in a futuristic restaurant at the end of a queer universe. As she is revealed by a searching camera, she shrugs off some invisible velvet cloak and also, any ambiguity about who rules this song: it’s Shazia Manzoor, with the voice like a sweet smoked chilli.

Seeing Shazia Manzoor whooshed me back in time to the 1990s. We first encountered her then in the hit song Ghar Aaja Sohneya, remixed by Bally Jagpal. That video was part of a world of cross-border music that enlivened the times. The credit for creating this soundscape must go to Bally Sagoo and his hit album Bollywood Flashback. Melding familiar melodies and musical styles with new electronic sounds, it became a musical vernacular for those times, which travelled to us through Channel V. There we discovered singers from Pakistan, Bangladesh and the South Asian diaspora. I heard the haunting Chandni Raatein sung by Partners in Rhyme there, discovering later with a thrill that it was an old Noor Jehan hit. Channel V was our moon, as we devoured music videos into the night, our private chandni raatein.

But that hit Shazia Manzoor song had barely a glimpse of Shazia. The husky intoxications of her voice played over images of some conventionally good-looking model. Singers who didn’t fit the norm of thin hot chick, were rarely showcased in their videos— until Phalguni Pathak came along and gave that funda one kick. The sounds and voices were many, but the good looks had to be uniform and normative, hinting at worlds to come.

So, what a thing, to experience the full fabulosity of Shazia in Turi Jandi, and to show what we know - sexy is neither thin hotness nor even “all about that bass”. It is all about the andaz. Shazia is a chashmish queen with a knowing, amused indolence, her voice like a sweet smoked chilli, her body undulating over her notes. In a sexless world of desiccated sameness, she is a burst of sensual flesh and blood. We want more.

Coke Studio Pakistan, now posh and plush teeters on the edge of its faux Fellini desi hipster vibe. But it never tips over because it is all heart. It dares to love an intense variety of musical forms, the bodies that carry them, their andaz; to make great songs with great artists, so our feelings have a place to go, a place to grow. “What a wonderful thing the heart is” sings Shazia. It is.

Paromita Vohra is an award-winning Mumbai-based filmmaker, writer and curator working with fiction and non-fiction. Reach her at paromita.vohra@mid-day.com

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