Opinion Shot of Coke,Hopefully

As a YouTuber,Coke Studio Pakistan was always different in many ways. We saw a small,plump unshaven man called Arif Lohar play his chimta and croon Jugni — a never heard version of the famous traditional Punjabi song. No mood setting through alaaps. The melody just hammered in with simple rhythm patterns in an intimate set up. The drums,guitars,dholaks and keyboard joined along with a jazzy oomph thrown in by Meesha Shafi (her red lipstick as unmistakeable as her wonderful voice) and the result — a cult track that suddenly raised the bar from the fusion (I do not agree with this word) that we were being fed by raunchy remixwallahs. I am not for up-tempo numbers with heavy orchestration,mostly,but as I watched this man play a few bars on one of the numerous videos floating around on YouTube,I swayed to the groovy hook and stopped only when the video buffered. And as immediate as this music was,there was little doubt that it would go on to become. The video has been hit more than five million times.

Other interesting acts and the characters we have encountered,have ranged from cafe musicians and little known folk artistes from the interiors of Pakistan to faded stars,all of them doing their thing. There were artists like Saieen Zahoor and Noori singing Aik Alif ,Arieb Azhar singing Na Raindi Hai,and Zeb Bangash and Haniya Aslam — two Pashtun women singing rebellion songs.

With Coke Studio Pakistan,you heard it,you liked it. Then you saw it and gradually swayed with it. And there it was — a different world — even fresh,where we not only found music,but a cackle of laughter in the sound that we heard,something that lacks in even class acts today. Everybody seemed happy there. The camaraderie on that live stage so contagious that it became more than a music show.

It was suddenly a liberal and slightly-indulgent philosophy,a kind of social revolution at a time when Pakistan was going through more than what it deserved. It captured the imaginations of a nation as the musicians were singing Faiz’s poetry. Like Iqbal Banos in General Zia’s dictatorship asking for redemption from the current everything.

Musically,It did most things right. It got acclaimed musicians to pull the audience. It roped in bands from the underground music scene,the ones still wearing their Woodstock bifocals,in turn getting that niche Internet audience and then it mixed it with the little known folk traditions and allowed it all to be presented together. The music also did not allow one to settle for any broad categories of music. It went beyond progressive rock here. Even beyond those,who consider anything other than classical music a dreadful din. A musical balance on the larger spectrum of politics.

As a nation,we Indians love songs that we can sing with,the songs that can make us sway. And Bollywood has done that for a long time by influencing the popular tastes of India and pervading a slew of aspects of Indian life. I am extremely interested in the line-up that has names like The Raghu Dixit Project,Sabri brothers,Bombay Jaishree,Wadali Brothers,Shankar Mahadevan,Rashid Khan,Advaita and a host of some unknown folk musicians. But it also has singers like Shaan,Sunidhi Chauhan,KK,who are brilliant at what they do. But they will have to really transcend all boundaries to make it all work,with no theatrics.

So from what I saw in the first episode,Harshdeep Kaur can’t get away with the popular naat/shabad like Hoo,merely by giving the song an echo effect curtsey the sound engineers and a really unpleasant execution,or Sunidhi Chauhan will have to go beyond Salil Chaudhury’s paapi bichua from the Madhumati ,or Shaan has to sing more than Rabindra Sangeet and nothing from his films to create that impact and as brilliant a singer as KK is,the Chadta Suraj performance was way out of line. And I am not even counting the voice crack in the end. The sound mix is a huge let down and so are the flashing disco dandiya lights. It isn’t giving me goose bumps for now.

Having said that Coke Studio at MTV will definitely have its moments. It is already being given the credit for reviving interest in folk music. Even MTV may get its M back,by moving beyond the bleep of the four letter word that it has come to be known for. I am excited,so is the whole of India. But will we struggle to bring alive that sense of passion and not go off-key? And then there is Delhi-based Nokia Studio,which wants to be a stiff competition. Lets wait and see. Round 1 may have gone to Rohail Hayat. But for now we are tuning in.