MUSIC
A shared past
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"Junoon's" Salman Ahmad tells ANUPAMA SEKHAR about the band's new musical short film that explores ...
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WE are the stories we tell. Pakistani rock band "Junoon's" latest release, the musical short film "Ghoom Taana", redefines contemporary cultural storytelling through its exploration of shared pasts and common roots of Indians and Pakistanis.
Launched on August 14 and 15, to commemorate the Independence Days of both countries, the song is a musical collaboration between "Junoon" and Indian classical vocalist, Shubha Mudgal. Saqib Malik directs the video shot both in India and Pakistan, with cinematography by Sanjay Kapoor. It includes a narrative by actor Naseeruddin Shah and features Nandita Das in her first music video appearance alongside "Junoon's" Salman Ahmad.
Heartfelt approach
Though not overtly political in the style of, say, Junoon's "Ehtesaab", "Ghoom Taana" clearly makes a statement. The approach here is heartfelt and the appeal lies in the fact that somewhere along the way it stops being fiction and becomes true. The story is that of the storyteller himself. "Ghoom Taana" has been written and performed by "Junoon's" co-founder Salman Ahmad. (I personally missed Ali Azmat's familiar, powerful vocals on the song; then again, "Ghoom Taana" is in part Ahmad's story and is, perhaps, best told in his voice).
The film is based on the true story of the migration of Ahmad's family from Patiala in Indian Punjab to Lahore in Pakistani Punjab in 1947. It was a visit to Patiala, the birthplace of his mother that sowed the seeds for this video in Ahmad's mind. "I wanted to do something musically, visually with it," he says of his first trip to Patiala, that land of childhood fantasy built on the foundation of his grandfather's stories.
Salman Ahmad, currently the spokesperson for the United Nations' HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in Pakistan, has constantly redefined the relationship between popular and political. In "Ghoom Taana", he adds a third personal dimension. "I searched within my family for stories of partition," explains Ahmad. These snippets are combined with fictional characters and episodes to create a heart-warming story in the video, shot partially in Ahmad's ancestral house — Haveli Namdar Khan in Patiala — and in Lahore. "The house we were shooting in was my great-grandfather's. He left all his belongings behind and told the next tenants that all his belongings were theirs, " he reminisces.
Tracing a journey
The semi-autobiographical "Ghoom Taana" traces the journey of a Pakistani from Lahore across the Radcliffe line to Patiala in search of his past, his roots. Through its honest and personal approach to the question of a Pakistani's cultural affinities with India, the video shatters stereotypes about the other dominant in south Asian popular culture. Gone are the received meanings implicit in Bollywood stereotypes of terrorists and fanatics. Instead, the viewer watches a Lahori rediscovering his cultural roots in Patiala without having to change or betray any part of his present identity. As Ahmad rightly sums it up, "We live in parallel universes but we cannot cut the umbilical cord."
Shattering stereotypes _ Salman Ahmad with Nandita Das in Ghoom Taana".
For me, personally, what overrides both the song and story is the plot: that the Pakistani protagonist does indeed make the journey to India. That is the central point of "Ghoom Taana". The journey is the destination. Moreover, it may well be the blueprint for sub continental journeys to come. Perhaps, an Indian Sindhi will set off from Mumbai some day in the general direction of Karachi to reconcile the identities of her passport and past.
Transform the tone
As actor Nandita Das rightly points out in "Building Bridges", the making-of-the-documentary that accompanies "Ghoom Taana", no one song or film can completely alter mindsets or undo stereotypes. What it can do, however, is effectively transform the tone and the framework of the stories we tell about our neighbours and ourselves. "Ghoom Taana" does just that. It reminds us of our interconnected multicultural human identity even as we remain Indians or Pakistanis by nationality. "We are connected to different parts of the earth in our heart," says Ahmad. "We should not try to change our religions, identities... We have been living together as one people for 5,700 years, not just 57. Why not live as human beings?" he asks.
With "Ghoom Taana", "Junoon" radically swirls the popular culture kaleidoscope of our times to create an altogether new pattern with the same coloured glass fragments of culture-roots and people-trees. The result is a new point of reference for the two estranged siblings of the subcontinent to tell stories about each other.
The last word on the issue remains Salman Ahmad's. "In February, during the cricket series, there was spontaneous display of affection for the cricket team and the Indian tourists. What it showed was that when we let people be themselves, when we let them interact culturally in a warm, human, positive way, we can pave the way for long-term reconciliation."
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