ARTICLE
Humayun Saeed and Mahira fall
flat in Bin Roye’s music vids.
What went wrong?
W
hile upcoming film Bin Roye's trailer left us
wanting more, the teasers for songs from the
feature film are a testament to the expression
'be careful what you wish for'.Bin Roye is a tragic story
about love, hate, sorrow and how our worst colours come
out when we don't get the things we want. We couldn't
deduce much about the plot from the trailer or the music
videos except for the fact that Humayun Saeed's character's name is Irtaza.Dubbed a music-driven movie,
it has some big names behind its soundtrack, such as
Abida Parveen and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, to name a
few.Eager fans have been
given a sneak preview of
two songs from the movie,
Ballay Ballay and Tere Bin
Jeena. Maybe it's because
the movie, which will also
be turned into a television
show for HUM, has been in
the pipeline for so long that
everyone's
expectations
have sky-rocketed.I can't
speak for everyone else but
I was disappointed. So what
exactly do Bin Roye's music
videos get wrong?
Identity crisis: Is Ballay Ballay an item number, a wedding dance song or a commercial?
The video for Ballay Ballay
features your typical song
and dance performed at
a mehndi. One would assume a girl in a lehnga choli
dancing on a stage = item number, right? Wrong! Not
when it's the beloved Mahira.Sohai Ali Abro performs
her latest single from Wrong Number, Selfiyan in a
similar set-up. Compared to Mahira in Ballay Ballay she
shows off a bit more of her navel, coupled with dimmer
lighting which has led us to call her an item girl, which
makes me wonder: What makes an item number an item
number? Just the lighting? Or the amount of skin you
show?Well, you'd assume it's the latter but it seems like
that's not the case. Take Zhalay Sarhadi's Jawani from
Jalaibee — She showed even less skin than Mahira but
because the movie's theme was grittier, the song had
slightly more racy lyrics and the atmosphere was grimy,
that was categorized as an item number.Just because
Bin Roye comes off like a high-definition glitzy Dil Toh
Pagal Hai, Mahira is excused from that label.Maybe
it's because the song's too wholesome to be an item
number anyway. The main aim of an item number is to
entertain and this failed to do just that. The beat isn't
catchy, the lyrics are boring and the choreography is all
over the place; We see better performances at mehndis
these days so celebrities need to step up their game.I,
for one, am curious to see if Hamza Ali Abbasi has anything to say about it. He is the king of deciphering what
an item number is, after all! I guess we'll know in due
time.Somehow, I don't see this being the IT song of the
summer wedding season.However, I can totally imagine
Mahira and Adeel breaking out teacups at the end, in
typical Tapal style. Commercial it is!
Is our favourite leading lady to blame?
Clad in a stunning Feeha Jamshed ensemble (probably
the only redeeming quality of the entire song!), Mahira
Khan looks chirpy and happy... as usual.Mahira has established herself as the girl next door and it looks like
she has no qualms about sticking to that image. While
the trailer didn't promise us anything much different, I
was still hoping for more; more oomph, more spunk from
her, just more.Perhaps that's why the little exchange in
the beginning with Adeel Hussain falls flat; can we really
digest her flirting? I'm afraid Khan has pigeon-holed herself into a quintessential goody two shoes an