Short Notes from Book:::::

Part 1 & Part 2 Notes

 L to R: Rohail, Salman, Shahi & Junaid

L to R: Junaid, Shahi, Nusrat & Rohail

L to R: Shahi, Rohail, Salman & Junaid

Sanwali Saloni video shoots at desert of Thar, Sind

L to R: Junaid , Rohail

Shahi & Rizwan

(Famous model Iraj Manzoor

was also in the video and dressed in a

Typical Thar outfit, little traditional

dance “Jhummer”)

Rizwan joined after Salman

 Ahmed quit in 1990

L to R: Shahi, Nusrat, Junaid and Rohail

Shoaib Mansoor was ingenious enough to judge the talent of young boys and asked them to prepare a song. The song was deeply aesthetic and patriotic, thus making new ways to serious pop music in Pakistan. Though Nazia & Zoheb had already initiated a pop music culture, but they were known as siblings, not a band. Nusrat later quit and joined PIA as a pilot, suggesting Salman Ahmed in place of him. The first album was a great and jubilant success, as a result of VS members’ and Shoman’s effort. Two songs from the album “Musafir” and “Yeh Shaam” leave a very nostalgic impression on mind.  “Tum Mil Gaye” from first album was shot with Junaid and Andaleeb Iqbal, with other VS members missing from the video. Some songs like “Do Pal”, “Samjhana” and “Yeh Shaam” were used in “Dhundlay Raastay also”.

Song Chehra: L to R: Rohail, Nusrat, Shahi and Junaid

The video was shot at vicinity of Rawal Lake, produced by Rana Kanwal, a student at Pakistan Television and edited by Dost Muhammad Iqbal. Besides Vital signs, the video also had two other musicians namely Sarosh and Zaheer. The beautiful ghazal was written by Late Parvin Shakir. The song initially composed had different music, from the “Chehra” re-composed, in terms of more bass riffs and healthier rock. The song composed first has a soft and jolly tune attached to it, whereas, the re-composed version has a melancholic and romantic effect. Both are equally invigorating. The concert performance in 1994 had Aamir Zaki in it.

L to R: Shahi, Zaheer, Junaid, Sarosh & Nusrat

About The other two boys, people have little information about, since they only appeared in “Chehra” and no other song of Vital Signs. These were the times when the song only showed singers’ names. Nusrat afterwards released his own album in 1993 but unfortunately the solo venture didn’t do very well as expected. 

“Wo Kaun Thi”, L to R: Rizwan, Rohail, Shahi & Junaid

The song typically depicted college boys’ attitude, busy writing letters, talking till late nights on the telephone, gazing at every pretty girl. There is a scene where Rizwan is on his bicycle and looking at some girl, without looking ahead, he collides with a man and falls from his bicycle. There is a scene that Rohail gets so absorbed to look at someone that the cold drink he is holding in his hand splashes on earth. Without any model or girl in the video, the direction is remarkable.

Vital Signs......Concert Memoirs

 Part 3 from My book

I remember we were posted in New Delhi, my father was counselor (culture) and there were some nice plans about celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of Pakistan. Most of us recommended having a concert at Taj on 13^th of August, 1997. It was a dazzling evening and indeed one of the most memorable evenings of my life. The High Commission staff ordered a big cake of Pakistan’s map for the golden jubilee anniversary.  Vital Signs started the evening with their hit songs like “Sanwali Saloni”, “Mera Dil”, “Gorey” and some other famous tracks. The show was nicely hosted by Junaid Jamshed. They were looking really stunning and were all dressed in black. Before the VS show, there was a series of some comical skits and parodies. We were anxiously waiting for Vital Signs’ performance. I remember some ladies muttering to each other, “God, I can’t believe that Pakistani men are so dashing and stunning, I am ready to go to Pakistan today”. The show continued for two hours and VS were requested to sing “Dil Dil Pakistan” in the end. Junaid was a bit reluctant and asked his audience before singing the song. But the Indian audience convinced him and they sang their most super hit patriotic track joyfully. 

 

Some old women in their late 70s started developing a crush for Junaid. He laughed and said,

”Well, I have young girls going mad in my concerts, but this is the first time that I can see some old ladies as well”.

The show was followed by a cake cutting ceremony. The cake was specially designed like Pakistan’s map; the white area had thick white cream dressing and the green portion was topped with green jam. I still remember being the first one to ask for the biggest piece and still dreaming of some more pieces. Upon returning home, I excitedly told my brother about the autographs. He started making fun of me, “You and autographs, I wonder how Vital Signs gave you autographs, you were dressed like a nerd geek, wearing big glasses on even such a multi-colored event.” I had a fierce fight with him, telling him that I wasn’t a celebrity, just a fan of them, so they gave me the autographs. Next day, I anxiously waited for the pictures. Even my Indian friends were a great fan of the band; they kept asking me questions about the show.

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.  The band produced only four albums in its eleven years, with very few of the songs going dreadful flops. Towards the end of 90’s, the members started drifting away and shifted their core energies to different fields. They are still legends, but the way they set a fresh trend in a dictatorship epoch, was distinctly appraising. Even today, little is known about the band’s disbanding reasons, but they will always be admired by millions of aficionados all over the world. Even after the disbanding, the VS legends have a whole list of fans. Shahi shifted his energies to music production and mastering, whereas Rohail’s amazing work can be seen at Coke studio. Many bands emerged and disbanded during 1990s, leaving meager information to the fans and world, but people still remember and want to read more and more about Vital Signs, even after twenty three years of band formation. 

I attended one concert not of Vital Signs, but of Junaid Jamshed at Services Club Lahore, in 1999. Tickets were selling like hot cakes and we managed to get them only one day prior to the concert. Mom showed keen interest to attend the concert and we both attended it. I initially declined to attend the concert, but agreed afterwards. When the concert started, mom asked me,” I don’t see the dashing guys who came to India with Junaid,” I explained her that the band had disbanded and the members had drifted away. 

We got seats in the last rows and were quite unhappy with our sitting plan. The show was organized by Col. Nawazish and some other Army people. When suddenly a junior of my father came to us and asked my mom, ”Bhabi, why you are sitting in the last rows, I guess Sadaf is getting quite bored, let us move to the VIP rows.” Mom declined to go but I agreed to proceed to the front rows. Later the audience created so much ruckus that Junaid asked girls to come forward and sit on the carpet, just in front of the stage. I remember it was pretty cold and there weren’t any proper heating arrangements, but the girls felt glad to sit on the carpet. We even sang some songs like “Us Rah Par”, “Aanknon Ko” and “O Sanama” with him. My father and little dog came to pick us when the show ended at 11 pm. Mom and I were very exhausted but kept discussing the show and other things till late at night. 

Since only two of my class fellows attended the show, we had some very narrow-minded and customary teachers in our college, who were informed that we had attended the concert. The grapevine traveled so easily. One of them asked me especially next day, “Did you attend the concert; I wasn’t expecting it from you at least.” I felt a bit appalling, but didn’t say anything to him, since he was unaware of my fanatical likeliness for the band. In fact some brats came from very conservative and traditional families; they kept pointing and telling me that it was quite ghastly to go to concerts and musical shows and kept making stupid points. Even those who weren’t able to get the tickets exhibited the same attitude. It was a typical “Sour grapes” attitude, indeed and I could feel their envy easily. Even some other teachers kept speaking ill about bands and concerts. Those who had attended it merrily reached a conclusion that it was much better to have that day off from the college. At least we could have saved ourselves from nerdy criticism and orthodox remarks, but there wasn’t any way to avoid the nemesis.

Early Works: Vital Signs Rock the World

Part 2 from my book......

I

t is very hard to flashback two decades 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 9 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 new style. We kept watching the song called “DIL DIL Pakistan” and didn’t move until the song finished. “WOW, that was amazing”, ejaculated my little 4-year old brother, “I love it’. I had the same notions 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.   

When my dad came from Siachen, we insisted on buying a cassette of Vital Signs. “But how are you going to listen to the song? You don’t have a music player.” He replied.

 Shahzad Hasan was light-eyed, camera-shy bassist, and an energetic Rohail Hyatt was on the keyboards. They worked really hard on the song and it was rated “The World’s 3^rd most popular song” by BBC World in 2003. It is indeed a highly patriotic song. 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?”

The first album was a super hit with songs like “Do Pal” , “Dil Dil Pakistan”, ”Samjhana” ,”Musafir”, “Chehra” and “Yeh Sham”. All these tracks depicted different moods. It is indeed one of the most memorable VS works. It also included an instrumental track “Samina”, which is an amazing piece of work and was used as a soundtrack for “Dhundlay Raastay” too. The second album best tracks are “Mera Dil”, ”Bazaar”, and “Tere Liye”. It also had “Rahi”, “Aisa Na Ho” and “Ajnabi”, “Rahi” was a very romantic and heartrending track, whereas “Aisa Na Ho” was somewhat related with the political situation. “Ajnabi” was a very slow, romantic and gloomy song, with a charming Seema Rizvi in it. In 1993, the band came with a startling program named “Guitar 93”. I remember it used to be my favorite program and next day in school, we used to discuss their songs and hum during the recess. The third album had magnificent tracks like “Aitebar”, “Challa”, “Wo Kaun Thi”, “Yehi Zameen” and “Yarian”. “Yarian” and “Sanwali Saloni” tunes were even copied for Bollywood films in 1990s. The last album “Hum Tum” had tracks like “Jana Jana”, “Guzray Zamane Wali”, “Der Ho Gai”, “Main Chup Raha”, “Unka Khayal” and “Namumkin”. If one analyzes critically, there is a colossal difference between the first and last VS albums: The change is not only noticed in terms of dressing only, but also in compositions as well. From plain college boy-like dressing to heavy jackets and long hair, VS depicted much mature looks, and a Pink Floyd style in their last album. 

Fake Ban Culture or What?

Some days ago, someone forwarded me a video of a very famous VJ Mathira. The other clip showed that she was kind of abused and harassed by some live callers. At times she is projected as a very smart and outspoken at times. Most of the times I would say, she does it that way. At first I got quite annoyed with the live callers, but if watched closely, the poor live callers aren’t there to be blamed. Or shall they be blamed?  or 50 % both are to be blamed? The lady dresses up very cheaply and at times uses indecent facial gestures during her live call sessions. The only thing I could praise about her was the way she bashed the live caller very confidently. 

There shouldn’t be any objection on the yoga show that she used to do some time back.  Or there should be? One should be able to digest the yoga sessions by her. The vulgarity and obscenity standards are even relative: they vary for different people.  There may be a set of well- defined and written procedures for defining obscenity one is talking about the simple obscenity standards that are formed in human mind. One can understand very quickly if something is obscene or vulgar. 

Coming to the team, some media people are like that such live calls are usually dropped. The moment they find someone exceeding his limits, they usually drop the live call. How come that they didn’t get it dropped this time? Was it a deliberate attempt by the team? First of all, why can’t the team i.e. producer or any other stop her from using such free-style language and gestures? Isn’t there anyone to watch her dress code or language being used? Keeping a check on the live calls? What regulations and code of ethics is being followed by the channel and host? Does the channel team encourage her to get more and more live calls? Are they trying to compete with MTV Love line? What’s the objective?

An old video by a band Rushk was banned after receiving several months of airplay. Even a report in 2006 said the same that Pakistani channels were banning music videos without any logical reason or valid justification to the musicians. The videos Behti naar, Pal do pal, Jalan and Main nahi hoon received criticism. Why not ban or criticize the obscenity shows by this particular channel? Let’s flash back: The Hasan siblings’ “Hum aur Tum” was even criticized badly in 1980s. All these never really deserved banning. Why double standards of banning are being followed?

Coming back to the show is the image projection done. Either the VJ or the channel is responsible for it? If the channel is, the lady is being exploited by her. Is this a publicity stunt or promotion kind stuff by the channel or the channel is exploiting her as an entertainment product for giving them more viewership? Or is the channel just trying to get a niche with her? Now if PEMRA blocked some channels, what about this one? Is there some well defined code of conduct or ethics for this one? What it could be? Flash Back again to 1990s where most of us would use to wait for Music Channel Charts. The VJs were dressed perfectly. Was there any element of obscenity or vulgarity to make the show better or gain more viewership? There wasn’t any obscenity. Being liberal and broad-minded is good, but promoting vulgarity and obscenity through something could never be taken as a symbol of appreciation and liberalism.  Such shows hardly present any open-mindedness or progressiveness. 

The Post was published in Express Tribune, with some changes......