Meri Kahani

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Meri Kahani

Studio album by Atif Aslam

Released

Jan 08, 2008

Recorded

Sound Master and IC records

Genre

Rock

Atif Aslam chronology

Jal Pari
(2004)

Meri Kahani
(2008)

Doorie
(2006)

1 Background
- 1.1 Rabba Sacheya
2 Controversy
3 Tracks of the Album
4 Related
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Background

Meri Kahani is the third album by Pakistani pop/rock singer Atif Aslam. The album was officially released on 8th January, 2008. It was reported to be leaked on the Internet before release. Like his earlier albums, this one also got a huge response and is the best-selling album in Pakistan at this moment. The album has a total 12 tracks.

Atif Aslam avowal of the commercial influence on his previous album, Doorie, led him into making an album to authenticate his status as a rock musician and not just a backup vocalist for Bollywood movies. The songs of "Meri Kahan (Hungami Halat)" cover a broad band of aspects of life such as spiritualism, politics, and love.

[edit] Rabba Sacheya

"Rabba Sacheya", third song in the album, is an adaptation of Faiz Ahmad Faiz's poem in Punjabi, which incorporates the corrupt behavior of the society and a man's expectations from God. This adaptation can be viewed as an amalgamation of the singers viewpoint with the base provided by Faiz.
The song represents the broaden view of a civil personnel struggling for minimum wage for his daily life. Often in subcontinent poverty conflicts with religion; for generation lower wage earners had to face brutal corrupt acts from both police and the government of the country. The first line of the poem is identical with the first line of this song. Rabba Sachiya too tay Akhiya si, 'Ja Oye Bandiya Jug Da Shah hai.n Too.n' which means "O' true God of all, you have said, 'O' human, you are the king of the world'". The focus of the lyrics follows through few logical requests to God (Rab) from the singer, mostly the basic requirements to live.

A track that represents inequality the bond in-between a lower wedge earner (a worker who works foot to mouth just to sustain a small smile from one of his family member) and God, ‘Rabba’, almighty proclaimed by the holy scripts. Very hard to composite a general view for this track, is it the silence in between verses or the rebel shout from a farmer, asking to God with polite but burnt heart, asking over and over for a piece of bread. ‘No, I said, I said no so many times, I don’t need the kingdom where I am the king without respect, ruler without principle, emperor without food!’ a very appropriate way to translate one part of the lyrics, the lyrics has borrowed from a famous Pakistani poet, curved with extreme talent by the artist. Many different points of view is clearly visible in this track, if the singer sings the song from a civilian and towards the government that could mean a complete different meaning of the track, but inevitably any point of view concludes to an identical summery. Confusion, anxiety, greed are common human nature, works in very extreme level in sudden parts of sub continent, even extinct east India company has left the concept of torturing the farmers when they use to hold the brown soil there, these extreme nature and insecure mentality still at large in economically bust and educationally prejudice society. Corrupted cops are another big issue in whole subcontinent, the artist brought up the bribing and inducement issues by the law enforcements as much as he focused on the fact complaining to God on the similar issues. The poet’s point of view was religiously rebel and very aggressive towards the typical Pakistani society, the artist of this song also held a certain level of rebel attitude. Which combined with thick sound of progression. Musical value is very bold and meaningful, firstly it’s a song from a poem, and on top of that artist performed the whole track in fairly fast tempo, used fair amount of power progressions and alteration on major to minor, in another word a gentle metal touch. Critics say sounds like Irish drinking songs when you don’t know the lingo and the typical south eastern melodies.

[edit] Controversy

The upcoming album was leaked by an unknown user on one of Pakistan's most influential websites in February, 2007. Although removed by the website officials within 24 hours, its powerful user reach had done the damage, and apart from being found on small unofficial websites these days, many users have also reported finding the album being sold on cds in Pakistani markets. It is not yet clear on who is to be blamed for such a violation of copyrights, although many fingers have pointed towards someone Atif knew in the past.

However, Atif said in a statement that there were tracks not leaked which will be included in the album, so all was not lost.

[edit] Tracks of the Album

  1. Meri Kahani 3:13
  2. Kinara 4:19
  3. Rabba Sacheya 4:35
  4. Maan Hota Hai 3:50
  5. Joug 5:57
  6. Chhod Gaye 3:48
  7. Humrahi 5:31
  8. Mae Ne 5:10
  9. Kaun Tha : Kapkapi (feat.- S.K.J.) 3:33
 10. Chodd Gaye (II) 3:51
 11. Yarro 3:34
 12. Hangami Halat 3:06