Pakistani Video Challenging Extremism Becomes YouTube Hit (VIDEO)
An upbeat satirical song by three young Pakistani men has gained widespread popularity in the beset South Asian country.
The song entitled “Aalu Anday,” which translates to “Potatoes and Eggs,” comes from a young liberal activist band known as Beygairat Brigade, or Brigade Without Honor.
The song is about more than merely potatoes and eggs and challenges extremism, militarism, and religious conservatism in the country.
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The video for "Potatoes and Eggs" is fueled with social commentary that confronts perceptions and beliefs widely perpetuated by the Pakistani media and hailed by highly conservative thinkers, and in the video uploaded on YouTube the three young band members are dressed in school uniforms with their faces painted.
Some of lyrics of the song, in the Punjabi language, include a statement about modern Pakistan that vividly illustrates the contradictions evident in the conservative society.
The lyrics include, “Where Qadri is treated like a royal, where Ajmal Kasab is a hero most loyal, where the Mullah escaped in a veil, Abdus Salam is a forgotten tale.”
The details behind the lyrics are highly political.
The song criticizes the reality that in Pakistan a man like Qardi, someone widely hailed for killing the governor of Punjab after he opposed Pakistan’s blasphemy law, is treated as royalty.
It further criticizes the reality that Ajmal Kasab, the only remaining gunman alive from the 2008 attack on Mumbai, is considered a hero.
However, the satirical song says that Abdus Salam, Pakistan’s only Nobel-Prize winning scientist, is a “forgotten tale.” Salam is commonly ignored because he comes from a minority sect.
In the video a young band members carry posters that read, “This video is sponsored by Zionists” and “If you want a bullet through my head, ‘Like This Video.”’
The young group has gained popularity in the country for its satirical jabs that question the state of their country and the video on YouTube has had over 350,000 viewers.
One commenter for Pakistan’s Express Tribune said of the video: “Here are a bunch of kids who are having fun with the world that gives them constant grief.”
He added, “The boys are our heroes because they have chosen to laugh in the face of a world that wants them to be all-serious all the time.”
To view the satirical video please click below.
