Hindko rap song on Peshawar creates buzz on social media

PESHAWAR: A rap song sung by a group of two youngsters in the Hindko language highlighting rich cultural norms, heritage, lifestyle, prominent personalities and cuisines of the ancient Walled City has created a buzz on social media.

Titled as `Peshor Di Gali’ (Street of Peshawar), the four minutes twenty seconds video song is getting viral on social media and attracted around 450 to 500k likes within a period of three weeks after its release.

People are expressing admiration and excitement at the lyrics, terming it a good effort for apprising people in a modern way about cultural, architectural and archaeological importance of the city, enjoying the distinction of being oldest living city in South Asia.

The rap song, first-ever in Hindko language, has been filmed at historical Sethi house, important bazaars and streets of the city besides featuring famous eateries.

Apart from the people of Peshawar, the song has received the accolade from dwellers of other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who have affiliation with Peshawar for being the provincial metropolis. “The rap song has effectively described historical background of Peshawar among internet users and apprised the youngsters about the centuries-old traditional and cultural practices of their ancestors,” remarked Abdul Rahim, a student at the University of Peshawar. “For the first time, I enjoyed the Hindko language by listening to the song sung in modern way and watching the video gave me a peep into the rich background of my native city,” the student told APP.

“Using music and rap-singing made the effort more effective and attractive, drawing likes from countless number of people,” commented Engineer Waqar Ahmad, an IT expert from Peshawar likes cultural pursuits as well.

He expressed the hope that the rap song would throw light on architectural and historical background of Peshawar and help promote Hindko which, he said is the second major language of KP and sixth of Pakistan. “This lyrics writing of the song took three months, it was shot in nine months and completed in one year,” disclosed Syed Mohsin Ali Shah, the main character in the song who introduced himself with his nickname of Shah Jee.

The idea behind the song was to present Hindko to the young lot of Peshawar through the use of music for making it attractive and catchy for them,” explained Shah Jee while talking to the APP.

He said he and his friend Hammad are amateur artistes and first time performed in a music song which attracted commendations from different parts of the world.

Shah Jee said all the expenditure for the filming of the song was incurred by him, his team members including Hammad (singer), Hussain Ahmad Khan (director), Adil (photographer), Sanan Sethi (producer), Nazeer Muqsood (music director).

Audio and video production had a big cost but and we did not get any sponsor even from those eateries which got a mention in the song, he added.

About the lyrics, Shah Jee said he wrote himself. He said he is an anchor at a private TV channel in a Hindko language programme so he has a good understanding of the language and issues related to the city and its dwellers.

In the song Shah Jee has mentioned some of the primitive and unproductive practices still prevalent among the residents of Peshawar on different occasions. He said it has been done to make people aware of the ineffectiveness of such acts.

Shah Jee, Hamad duo have also highlighted traditional dishes of Peshawar, including Jalil Chapplee Kabab, Charsi Tikka (Bar BQ), head and trotter delicacy of Nikay, cooked organ meat at Kohati Gate, rice of Shoba Bazar, sweets of Dita, etc. “The song helped in bringing to limelight the architectural as well as the archaeological background of Peshawar,” observed Nawaz-ud-Din, a senior officer at the KP Archeology Department and son of a presidential Pride of Performance winning late television artiste, Salahuddin.

Nawaz said the song begins with saying that `Peshawar is an old city and has a distinctive swag, giving a reference to valuable historical background and importance of the city in the region. “Being an oldest living city in South Asia, Peshawar is not only an important city in Pakistan but also in the entire region and deserves publicity and promotion of associated culture”, Nawaz stressed.

He elaborated that the city’s archaeological profile include its status as the capital of Gandhara kingdom and it also remained home to Greeks, Buddhists, Huns, Brahmins, Ghaznavids , Mughals, Sikhs and British. The official informed that a recent discovery about the first use of `Zero’ spotlighted Peshawar’s historical background.

A manuscript, mathematical text written on birch bark, taken to the UK from Peshawar in 1902 and researched at Oxford University discovered links of first use of Zero in the ancient city.