My Sanity My Soul Brought Down To A "FINE LINE"
Entity Paradigm WAQT (The Video) Reviewed
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Waqt, a soft melodious track
from the debut album of [eP] and has finally been materialized into a video,
directed by a promising upcoming director Umer Anwar who also directed the
video of ‘Aadat’ by "JAL". [eP] has always been imagined as being revolutionaries in the rock scene of the country for their concept oriented lyrics and abstract philosophies which has contributed to the voyage of the mature listening through those distracted dimensions of imagination which demand the deep insight of interpretation. |
The opening of ‘Waqt’ with the headline “a youngster survived car accident”
and Zulfiqar in a state of coma, on a wheel chair dragged by Fawad, enters that
room where they used to jam in the past. This immediately quivers the emotional
attention of the viewer right from the beginning. “This is how the story goes,
in and out… one minute you’re there, the next time runs out… it’s a figure of
speech as a matter of fact… did you ever really think about the time you had…”
the shots of Ahmed, not only explains the phenomena of the situation at display
but are also most experimental by post production effects. This is right after
the shots where the story unfolds of a young, thoughtful and imaginative person
on a wheel chair, caught in the flashbacks of his past- depicted through a young
girl skipping. His disability has deprived him from the continuity of his
desires and dreams. He reflects through his past when he was healthy and was
able to create wonders. Zulfiqar’s perplexed expressions of deep grief and pain
are amazingly natural and genuine. “Girta raha, sambhalta raha… iss khamoshi
mein, mein merta raha… umeedon kay mein sayay talay, khwabon ko tarasta raha…”
The way he has shown depression and struggle through a haunting realization, the
comparison between his energetic past and confined present, are awesome- sad and
moving (though Fawad’s emotional rollercoaster ride depicts as if it is actually
he, who is more frustrated on this fact). The over-display of emotions by Fawad
are more like theatrical acting than acting for a video, except for the lines
‘iss dhool kay khumar say… nashay mein rahay… giray jin diyoon pay perday… jalay
na bujhay’, the rest however, is highly over-acted to say the least.
The location is simple and refreshing as well as very well captured. The camera
work is brilliant and the effects, breathtaking. The video speaks highly about
the visual creativity and technical spark of the director. However, for any
conceptually emotional track, the director must understand what he actually has
to focus on, in order to avoid the blunder in the essence of tenderness and
imaginative crux of the story revealed. There are some important sensitive
details which are unexpectedly marginalized by the director on Zulfiqar’s
vocals. This song was a hit because of the surprise display of soft and deep
vocals of the lead guitarist, the portions of which are ruthlessly slaughtered
by accumulation of useless scenes of the band jamming and that too repeatedly
from the same angle and same focus (where some of the band members are even out
of focus, as extras). Waqar, is perhaps the only other band member that the
director considered worth decent coverage. His drumming shots are well dealt
with; otherwise the camera has shown Fawad in every minute detail neglecting the
main character of the story even at those times where he was most required.
Moreover, the color scheme is monotonous; it’s a clear adaptation from his
previous hit, which makes the director too predictable. Furthermore, the closure
of the video is non-serious and abrupt. With the accumulation of repetitive
indoor shots of the band, from the same angle and attempts on hilarity when
Ahmed is doing tricks with his hat are kind of silly and immature for the mood
of the song. The recalling of the memorable past at this point should have been
depicted through energetic and enthusiastic jamming practice of Zulfiqar with
the band, rather than lazy shots in order to enhance the feeling of loss by the
person on the wheel-chair.
| But overall, the video has fairly filled the
void on the electronic media scene which is accumulated by suffocating
bhangra, shaddi and rock-band-publicity-stunts for a long time now. The
choice of an unbiased channel for the premiering of the video is also a
right choice to teach the monopolized local wannabe music channel a lesson.
In short, this is one video which will market the band and will put it on
the commercial scene. A long awaited refreshing relief is out in the open-
the sanity; the soul of time is brought down to a fine line to explore its
enduring mysteries! |