Vital Signs: My Childhood Ecstasy

I

t is very hard to flashback old memories, but I’ll try my best to portray them. It was an uninteresting and droning evening somewhere around mid of 80’s. My dad was posted in Azad Kashmir and then to Siachen. We were staying at our grandparents place in Baffa. Life was quite slow and boring at the village house, with little creativity and almost no entertainment for young kids. Village folks use to have food around 8 pm and went to sleep around nine pm. Television transmission programs used to be quite dreary and un-enjoyable for young kids. 

One evening, we were watching local television routine transmission. It aired a song with four teenage boys, holding musical instruments and singing in an entirely novel style. We kept watching the song called “DIL DIL Pakistan” and didn’t move until the song finished. “WOW, that was amazing”, said my little 4-year old brother, “I love it’. I had the same thoughts as well.

They just mentioned the singers’ names. They later came to be known as “Vital Signs”, a top-notch and first official band of Pakistan. They produced some more hits like “Chehra”, “Tum Mil Gaye”, “Gorey”, “Sanwali Saloni”, but “Dil Dil Pakistan” was a skyrocket hit, which brought them under the limelight. National songs aired those days were usually picturized indoor in PTV studios. “Dil Dil Pakistan” set a totally novel trend in the history of Pakistani patriotic songs. It was something stunning for the new generation. We later came to know about all the four enigmatic boys of the band. The two young teenagers Shahzad Hasan and Rohail Hyatt were the pioneers of Vital Signs. They beautifully composed a ghazal “Chehra” by late Parvin Shakir, which I found amazing too. There is a slight difference between the “Chehra” composed first and the later one. The one composed earlier is a bit speedy and fast, with six young men sitting and enjoying at the side of Lotus Lake Islamabad. One can see glimpses of a much peaceful Islamabad and outskirts of much cleaner Rawal Lake very clearly in the video.   

Later Nusrat Hussain (guitarist) was replaced by Salman Ahmed, a student at medical College. Vital signs kept producing rocking hits like “Aisa Na Ho”, “Rahi”, “Yehi Zameen”, “Hum Tum” and “Aitebar”. Their videos even sketched swinging moods, ranging from ecstasy to extreme angst. “Dil Dil Pakistan” showed patriotism, “Tum Mil Gaye” depicted marital failure and ending relationships. “Wo Kaun Thi” depicted a typical college boy’s flirtatious attitude, with writing love letters, standing outside college gates, and talking to girls on the phone. “Gorey” and “Sanwali Saloni” had cultural roots, shot in Kailash and Thar, respectively. All of these were luminously directed. One thing that I liked about their videos was that females were never exploited. They even used to model in their own videos and almost eighty percent of the videos were shot without any female models. Even then they were big miraculous hits. Videos like “Wo Kaun Thi”, “Yehi Zameen”, “Chehra”, “Do Pal”, “Aise Hum Jiyen”, “Mera Dil”, “Maula”, “Musafir”, “Yaad Karna” and “Dil Dil Pakistan” didn’t have even a single female model.

My younger brother was so inspired that he decided to play the cover for “Dil Dil” on his Parents’ Day in 1989. He asked us to get the same kind of jeans and shirt, that Junaid was wearing in the song and a small guitar as well. For the whole night he kept practicing the song, though he was so young that couldn’t utter words properly.

Developing a youth culture was not a cup of cake in 80’s; it was a time when no one could talk openly about musical shows or concerts. The credit goes to some highly innovative and fresh musical programs like “Music 89”, which introduced/promoted many upcoming singers and bands, including Vital Signs and Jupiters. Late Nazia Hasan along with sibling Zoheb and Uncle Sargam hosted it and another program “Dhanak” as well. It aired songs like “Aha”, “Paisa”, ”Dosti” (Jupiters) and ”Do Pal”, with music of “Do Pal Ka Jeevan” in the background. Songs like “Gorey”, and “Do Pal” were blockbusters and picturized in 90’s, with more vivid directorial efforts. (Shoman) Shoaib Mansoor was the first one to depict the exceptional caliber of the young men, and directed a mini-series “Dhundlay Raastay”, featuring all the four members of Vital Signs, Tabinda Sheikh and Nayyar Kamal. The play was written by legendary Hasina Moeen and directed by Shoman. I felt that it could have been made in a better manner, because it was comparatively meager than other masterpiece works of the two legends. Though it managed to show well how members of Vital Signs worked together towards achieving their objectives. The mini play threw light on the early stardom journey of the four young enthusiastic men, their interests, passions and priorities. My favorite dialogue in the play is, “Are you mad? Kia hum loag tere liye sirf musicians hein?”

 

Even today, almost after two decades, they have a huge list of fans, listening to their songs and playing covers.  They managed to create relishing and mesmerizing music in a highly Islamized era, where there wasn’t any concept of concerts and shows, Vital signs had euphoria and charisma of their own. They were different individuals with their unique set of traits.

Until now, every night I loved listening to the songs of VS. But after the sad demise of JJ, listening to his songs makes me gloomy and tearful. The everlasting memories of my childhood and teen years bring tears. 

Just quoting some lines from the song "Yaad Karna"..

Main apni awaaz aur apney saaray geet...
tumhain day jaoon ga..
Meri sab cheezon ko yoonhe rehnay dena..
jaise shaam hote he..
main laut ke aaon ga..
mujhe kho kar bhi kabhi na khona..
mat rona..
beeti hoe batoon ko..
jagi hoe ratoon ko..
yaad karna..
yaad karna aur jee lena..
Mar bhi jaoon tau mat rona...

At times I wonder, many of his lyrics talk about his departure.

Do pal ka yeh jeevan hai..

Kuch kerna hai tu kar guzro..

Har Lamha ek sapna hai.

Kia jane apna ho  na ho..

Another song..

Tum chale gaye iss tarha..

Baadal udey jis tarha..

Laut ke phir na aane ko..

Kaheen aur ki pyas bujhane ko..

Koi aur jahaan mehkane ko...