Paying tribute and doing it right Strings – ‘Titliyan’

The ‘Titliyan‘ video is undoubtedly one of the most poignant videos to have been released this year. The song itself gained a new lease of life this summer via the reworked version for Coke Studio’s second season. But this newly released video will definitely compel fans of Strings to revisit the original on the 2008 album.

The video itself is a fitting tribute to Pakistani icons that have passed away – some long forgotten and scarcely remembered, and others, who have left us so recently that the shock of their departure hasn’t settled in yet.

Shot entirely in black and white, the ‘Titliyan’ video intersperses shots of Faisal Kapadia and Bilal Maqsood performing on a set akin to a photographer’s studio. It opens with a couplet: ‘naseem-e-subah ke jhonkay humein bhee choo ke guzar / humein bhi yaad hai kuch mausam-e-bahar se log’. Beautiful photographs of icons flash by; from musical legends like Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Iqbal Bano to the actors Saleem Nasir and Khalida Riyasat and literary icons like Parveen Shakir and Ashfaq Ahmed, to mention a few. And the video has its literal moments too: as the verse ‘rangon mai mujhse kuch kehti jaayein’ plays, a photograph of the painter Gulgee appears.

A painful reminder of the loss this country’s cultural landscape has borne, replete with the sadness that reflects from every note of this song, the ‘Titliyan’ video isn’t just poignant because it reminds us of who we have lost. It is poignant because it is a reminder to all of us to keep their memories alive – and to honour those who are still amongst us.

And so Strings – in their fourth video from the Koi Aanay Wala Hai album – have managed to produce a heartrending effort with the promising Soheb Akhtar at the helm of affairs. If only all tributes were as soulful and well-meant as this one…

– Saba Imtiaz

Source: Instep Today