‘The World is Coming Down’ may not be the best song ever composed for a World Cup but for us Pakistanis, it is at par with any patriotic song since it reminds us of the World Cup victory in 1992. It reminds us of Imran Khan holding the Cup, Rameez Raja running in to catch Richard Illingworth, Wasim Akram dismissing Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis off successive deliveries and Mushtaq Ahmed bamboozling the English batsmen with his googlies. It also began a ritual where the arrival of the mega event was treated as a national event, something that almost rivaled Independence Day!
It all began when Vital Signs’ ‘Hum Hain Pakistani’ was released in the mid ’90s - the song wasn’t even treated as a World Cup number when its video was aired. Except for the lyrics in the first stanza, the song had nothing to do with the mega event that was being held in Pakistan-India-Sri Lanka in 1996. In fact, words like ‘Pyar kay dushmanon se’, ‘Zeher badan main hoga’ and ‘Khoon nahi bahega’ aren’t associated with cricket and I am sure that lyricist Hasan Akbar Kamaal had no idea that his song would be interpreted as a World Cup number, but it inadvertently was. Why was the song treated as a World Cup song then? Mainly because ‘Har maidan main, har toofan main, har mushkil main jeetain gey" sounds so cric-appropriate, doesn’t it?
Music band Junoon, however, did a better job and ‘Jazba Junoon’ became the World Cup anthem although Wasim Akram’s visuals had to be removed from the music video as he was the brand ambassador of a rival soft drink company. There were others who tried to welcome the mega event into their own way as well. One of the pioneers of pop music in Pakistan, Khalid Waheed did a song ‘Hum Jeetain Gay’ that was released just days before the World Cup and was even liked my many; in fact it helped launch a music album Hum Jeetain Gay where musical bands like Dr. Aur Billa, veteran Saleem Javed and popular artist Moin Akhtar sang songs welcoming the tournament. Needless to say, all the welcoming and morale-boosting led to nothing and in the quarter final of the event, the defending champions were given a ticket back home by India, who themselves were routed in the Semi Final by eventual winners Sri Lanka.
Three years later Pakistan went to England with a squad that was as usual, over-confident of winning the World Cup. A few months before the tournament, captain Wasim Akram had picked a couple of hat-tricks in Test Cricket against Sri Lanka, which were teased on television with Junaid Jamshed’s voice crooning ‘Jazbe Se … Himmat Se … Mehnat Se …. Mohabbat Se’ from the song ‘Dil Mangay Aur Zyada’. The Bilal Maqsood directed music video was aired on every possible channel and it motivated the people into thinking Pakistan could actually win. Alas there was no sign of ‘Jaan Lara Denge Saray’ in the team’s final performance. It was the same year that Rustam Fateh Ali Khan sang ‘Aye Khuda,’ a popular song about World Cup cricket that on to become quite a hit. The music video had a young kid morphing into Wasim Akram with the trained classical singer going pop with lines like ‘Phir usi shaan se aaj de de fatah’ and ‘Har maindan main kamyaabi de, aye Khuda!’ Needless to say, the win that could have gotten them the Cup never happened and the team came back home with a runners up trophy.
Fans of the game waited four years for the World Cup and they weren’t disappointed when in 2003, the soft drink company that sponsors the Pakistan team released two super hit numbers - ‘Hai Koi Hum Jaisa’ and ‘Tu Hai Kahan!’ While ‘HKHJ’ remains one of the best World Cup numbers due to its Calypso styled beat and teenaged-inspired lyrics, it was ‘Tu Hai Kahan’ that stole the show since its music brought together Wasim Akram and Junaid Jamshed. Yes, the two giants shared the screen and set it on fire while youngsters played cricket and won matches after being coached by the masters. The presence of Haroon (of Awaaz) and Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia (of Strings) further consolidated the song’s position as the best amongst the rest and whenever it gets played even now, it gets the attention it deserves. Even in the final of the first Battle of the Bands, the contestants who sang the song ‘Tu Hai Kahan’ better was adjudged the winner. Aaroh won, EP (featuring Fawad Khan) lost!
As for the Pakistan cricket team, it lost in the first round of the 2003 World Cup and Wasim Akram retired from the game. Waqar Younis was also shown the door and Inzamam ul Haq was asked to go back and get his act right before being recalled one year later. Four years later the team also exited the World Cup in the first round and people forgot about all the songs that were prepared for the mega event because of Bob Woolmer’s death. Four years later, pop star Ali Zafar came up with ‘Yeh Duniya Hai Dil Walon Ki’ and the dil walay proved their worth by reaching the semifinal of the World Cup, only to lose to eventual champions India.
As they say, all things come full circle and this year Strings have managed to reinvent ‘The World Is Coming Down’ by coming up with ‘Phir Se Game Utha Dein’. The song is catchy as it matches the sponsor’s requirements but after two humiliating defeats, the team needs more than a morale-boosting melody to up its game. It needs much more if it wants to return to a hero’s welcome because if it fails again, heads will roll and music of another kind will play.