While much has been said about Pepsi’s much contested decision to eliminate indie band Sikandar Ka Mandar (SKM) from Pepsi Battle of the Bands, we are glad to see that the band is unfazed by the show’s decision and isn’t planning on going away any time soon.
NewSounds
The indie music outfit’s latest single will resonate with anyone who has ever had a nightmare.
While much has been said about Pepsi’s much contested decision to eliminate indie band Sikandar Ka Mandar (SKM) from Pepsi Battle of the Bands, we are glad to see that the band is unfazed by the show’s decision and isn’t planning on going away any time soon.
SKM just released a new single, titled ‘Gehri Neend’ with an accompanying video featuring the very talented Mariam Saleem Nawaz, who has been very viral on the Interwebs this year thanks to her appearance onstage at the Lux Style Awards, in Mooroo’s video alongside comedian Faiza Saleem and a short video that made fun of beauticians who work in Pakistani salons. Nawaz also happens to be married to the front-man of the band, Nadir Shehzad Khan.
Depicting the nightmare of the average Pakistani woman, the video of ‘Gehri Neend’ shows Nawaz cooking butter chicken on a cooking show. While initially all is going well, suddenly Nawaz finds herself putting strange things in the cooking pot, such as shoes and a clock. She eventually jolts back to reality, realizing that her nightmare has finally ended.
The treatment of the video is done to depict the jarring quality of the nightmare alongside images of the band members dressed patriotically in shalwar kameez, singing the tune in a very relaxed environment.
As usual, Nawaz is in her element and entertains us with her brilliant expressions. But the song itself is classic SKM style, with its ethereal and dreamlike essence. Ironically, the song is talking about a person who’s in such a deep sleep that nobody is able to wake him up.
The best thing about SKM’s lyrics is that they appear to be very ordinary but are always multi-dimensional. They’re open to interpretation; it really all depends on the imagination of the listener. At first, it appears as though the song is just talking about a man in deep sleep, who seems to be hallucinating or could possibly be having a lucid dream as well.
However, the song has been released just in time for Independence Day, which makes us wonder whether SKM is making a commentary on how the nation is sleeping. SKM is known to include socio-political commentary in their songs so it wouldn’t come as a surprise if that was their intention.
Or it could simply just be about a man who refuses to wake up easily. Either way, it’s brilliant.
