The Junoon group Ho Ha

THE NEWS
AUGUST 10, 1998

When the Junoon video 'Sayoone' was debarred from the holy waves of PTV many moons ago, there was general confusion as to what had offended the high priests of morality this time.  Those of you who saw the offensive video which apparently outraged whatever little modesty we still had, may be forgiven for having seen it in the first place and secondly actually failing to detect what depths of depravity it portrayed to deserve such a resounding ban.

As is the case when censorship crosses all limits of reason, the ban only resulted in two things.  One, it created a curiosity in the minds of all who heard about this who made sure they saw the offending film and secondly it forced the group to seek alternative venues and opportunities.  And when that happened, the moral high ground from where this farce was being enacted resounded with cries of outrage and treason (that favourite ready reckoner when all else fails).

Rage turned to hysteria when the band, in India, made strange noises about peace and brotherhood, while India was blasting nuclear firecrackers and we were digging tunnels in the mountains of Balochistan to dig out our buried pride.  Quite a mouthful all this, wouldn't you agree?

So what's all the brouhaha about? First, there was never anything offensive in the video.  On the contrary, it was rather well done. You may not like the sound of Junoon, but the subject was a child's abduction and the despair of a life ruined in the bargain.

This should have come as no surprise to the high priests since rape, abductions, torture, incest, murder, robbery and mayhem are all very standard features on the Pakistani landscape.  A country where children struggle to survive in chain gang slavery camps and where slave trade not only lives, but flourishes happily, what was so terrible in the video that it got the sack?  If the censors saw meanings where none were intended and if only filth and hypocrisy reside inside their little gray minds, even the sight of a tree can send them into convulsions of ecstasy.  After the video was banned as being unfit for man or beast and after Junoon threatened to take recourse to law, there was vague mumbling from the nation's electronic conscience-keeper, the end shot of which was to throw some more wool in more eyes, cause general confusion and profess complete innocence.  Whatever, the bottom line was the video did not run and eventually the entire blessed video scene was gagged to save the nation from burning in hell's fires.

This achieved the just slept like babes in Islamabad.  Junoon, on the other hand, ventured across the border where they were soon playing to packed houses, signing autographs, giving media interviews, showing up at all the 'in' places and cutting a few lucrative marketing deals.  The band, quick to spot an entry, soon enough dubbed themselves as a "sufi band' whatever that means.  Invoking the wrath of the conscience-keepers back home was but a small step.  It is true that their arrival in India coincided with the lowest of the lows where Indo-Pak relations were concerned, and it may have been prudent to have played the music and kept the media at an arm's length, but then when success is pounding on your door and there are hungry fans out there waiting to see you, hear you, feel you, can you really blame them from shooting off about love, brotherhood, peace, and the rest of that rigmarole?  The minute they did that, there was baying in their home country where the more moderate sections demanded death penalty and the like. It is a sign of our society's broad mindedness (a phrase which acquires altogether new meanings in Liberty Market, Lahore) that their houses were not gutted, their properties not confiscated and their relatives not taken on a guided tour of the rest and recreation clubs run by the cops.

The truth of the matter is that Pakistani youth, both boys and girls, are amongst the most repressed and ill-adjusted people you will find anywhere. There are such weird notions in play that were they to be put down in black and white, this column could well be regarded as advanced science fiction. There is frustration, anger, disappointment, boredom and plain despondency in young people because there is virtually nothing for them to do. Those who practice a craft, well or badly, like Junoon, are constantly at the receiving end of indifference and discouragement that eventually ends in despair or migration. There are literally no openings

for even an ant to get through. In the pop market, there are more sharks than in the entire Atlantic.  With gross indifference from the state, opportunities that you can count on one finger of one hand, most young men either give up without achieving anything or battle on but with growing cynicism keeping another side profession going to stay alive.

Those who specifically choose the line of music, feel even more deprived. It is not difficult to see that this is the norm, that almost all the great artists that we have produced have led lives dogged by bad luck and financial hardship. Those in authority have always treated this nation's most talented artists in the most reprehensible fashion. That list of shame is long and it's gruesome.  Leave everyone aside. Nahid Siddiqui has danced in the shadows, Zia's best years spent abroad, Manto still not forgiven, Faiz never given the place that belonged to him ten times over, even Madam Noor Jehan, the supposed darling of the nation, never given the status she deserved. Now as she fights for breath, it is chilling to learn that she has virtually never been captured in glorious detail on film, about her life, her craft and her music.

Junoon has done the right thing, as has Ali Haider. More will follow, because life has its own rules. You block people and frustrate them beyond reason, and they will find a way to defeat the system. It may be across an ocean or beyond a mountain, but it will happen. The losers are always us, the common people. The high priests live on.

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