As Bilal matures from his ‘Bachana’ days, he reveals some of his real self, but just enough to leave us guessing…
Manal Faheem Khan
Karachi
People loved ‘Bachana’: the song was addictive and spread like a disease. It was on everyone’s Facebook wall and on everyone’s tongue. Soon it got a fresh new video, and acquired more fans and admirers. However, it started losing its hold eventually, and perhaps Bilal Khan realized that the time had come to let loose another one of his creations, and then step back to study the effect.
Bilal seems to be a quieter person as compared to the other young successful musicians in the Pakistani music scene. But with his new single ‘Taqdeer’, he has managed to let us know him a little bit better.
The song is about his ‘lonely days’ in Islamabad, when he first moved from Lahore’s energy and bright lights to Islamabad’s peace and tranquility about a year ago. Bilal claims that the song is about his transition from being a boy to a man, where he was forced to earn himself and feed himself with no help from his mom (as he very pointedly adds in his song as well).
Adding humour to his tale, Bilal adds: “This one time I decided to order a club sandwich from this random food place. When the sandwich finally arrived, I saw that the bread was toasted from the outside but the chicken inside was actually completely frozen. But I realized that I have to eat this because I’ll die otherwise since I don’t have any money to spend on food. That was basically how my life was in Islamabad.”
His first set of lyrics perhaps elaborate this point even more as he sings ‘Na meri koi dukaan hai/ na mera koi samaan hai’ (I don’t have a shop, neither do I have any belongings) The rest of the song however reveals a positive outlook, instead of sympathy-seeking crying over his hardships. He sings about how he learns to enjoy his freedom and his independence, and accepts his fate happily.
The song is definitely more upbeat than ‘Bachana’, but we’re not sure whether it’s as captivating as his first masterpiece. It’s the sort of song that grows on you after it’s been heard a bunch of times, and then it finally gets stuck in the brain somewhere. The reason perhaps is because of the sheer simplicity of the lyrics, and the casualness of the way it’s being sung.
Bilal is perhaps building up an image and reinstating his laid back personality, as the song and the video both are simple to understand and relatable to for people who have ever had to live alone in a new city. Also, he sheepishly adds, that the video is still not on air. It’s only being circulated amongst the Facebookers. Why? “I’m lazy I guess. Plus I haven’t had the time to make sure it’s on air.”
In a video directed by Shandana Sarmad, Bilal introduces us to his life in Islamabad. Also, as he drives around in a red buggy (which we aren’t sure is his real car or not) and heads to all these local eating places and bookstores, Bilal shows something about himself; he becomes something more than just the LUMS boy who played on his guitar one night.
Rather than giving an elaborate interview about the kind of person he is in real life, Bilal sticks to telling his tale his way, by doing what he loves doing: singing. Apparently, his trip to maturity-land has made him even more dedicated to his music, which resulted in him recording his entire album while he was in Islamabad! Not only that, but he is already busy figuring out his next video for his next single, ‘Kabhi Gham Na Aey’. Clearly the ‘roughing-out’ life has made an impact on him.
“Overall, the experience was great. It was a lot of fun making this video, considering how camera-shy my friends are. Plus it was fun going to all the places I used to hang out at usually.” Either his friends were having a ball of a time shooting for the video, or were really shy as they can be seen helplessly giggling away in every frame.
We look forward to seeing more from him in the future. It would be a shame if this overnight success story doesn’t continue on and become an epic tale of his future career.
Source : Instep News
