PAKISTAN - PASHTO LOVE GHAZAL - 'Pe Khap Lo Sta Go Khapal Aarman' - MUSARRAT SHAHEEN & ASIF KHAN

'MADNESS, THIS GREAT RAPTURE, BY GOD, THE RAPTURE OF YOU, THIS TORMENT', is a BEAUTIFUL HYBRID PASHTO FILM SONG that is MODELLED on a LAHORIE GHAZAL with the MAGIC of PESHAWARI RHYTHMS with RABAB LUTE. BEAUTIFUL SONG with, the then young, MUSARRAT SHAHEEN with ASIF KHAN. The TINY PASHTO FILM INDUSTRY is a UNIQUE. It is a GLORIOUS WILD FLOWER that STANDS on the BORDER, in PESHAWAR, between TWO GREAT CIVILISATIONS: HINDUSTAN to the EAST and TURKISTAN on the WEST. PUSHTO FILMS take on CLOTHING and IMAGERY of INDIA, but MUSIC, DANCE and LANGUAGE of TURKIC CULTURE. The PASHTO LANGUAGE is almost UNINTELLIGABLE to URDU, PUNJABI and SINDHI SPEAKERS to the EAST of the PATHAN WESTERN REGION. For this REASON, the PASHTO MEDIA is virtually UNKNOWN beyond ISLAMABAD going towards INDIA. However to the NORTH of PESHAWAR up into KALASH VALLEY [independent group of liberal people with KALASH RELIGION, LANGUAGE and CULTURE], SWAT and CHITRAL plus out WESTWARDS to AFGHANISTAN and the former TURKIC 'STAN' countries [like UZBEKISTAN etc.] and IRAN...PUSHTO LANGUAGE and PAKISTAN'S PESHWARI MUSIC INDUSTRY and CINEMA are RICHLY ENJOYED and DEEPLY INFLUENTIAL promoting SECULARISM, DANCE and ART. PASHTO LANGUAGE is a DIALECT of IRANIAN FARSI, as is KURDISH. PUSHTO has some SYNTAX SIMILARITIES with TURKISH where PERSONAL PRONOUNS are at the end of SENTENCES, the REVERSE of URDU and ENGLISH. Although PATHAN'S know URDU, it is very different from PASHTO, so they prefer NOT to SPEAK it. PASHTO DIALECT may PROTECT the PATHANS from the STRONG INFLUENCE of BOMBAY'S WESTERNISING HINDI CINEMA that some think has ERODED LAHORE'S CULTURE as PUNJABI is similar to HINDI in a way that PASHTO is not. The PATHAN'S have RETAINED a lot of CULTURE in MUSIC and CLOTHING that the PUNJABIS are rapidly LOSING. 'PE KHAP LO STA GO KHAPAL AARMAN', sung by KHAYAL MUHAMMED [b.1946]is BEAUTIFUL. PASHTO MUSIC is STUNNING, but, like KURDISH MUSIC, has a FEATURE that OUTSIDERS [particularly some PUNJABIS!] feel...that of MONOTONY and REPETITION. PASHTO MUSIC tends to be built on TWO ELEMENTS. One is RHYTHMIC OSTINATO, that is a PERCUSSION PATTERN that repeats, often a 'ROCKING' figure characteristic of PATHAN MUSIC. The other is a MELODIC OSTINATO or REPEATED MUSICAL MOTIF like a 'RIFF' on the RABAB [a TURKIC LUTE similar to the TURKISH 'SAZ']. These two OSTINATOS are put in place as a BACKGROUND for SINGERS to PERFORM MELODIES that have LIMITED TESSITURA or NOTE RANGE that are SIMPLE and REPETATIVE. PATHAN people grow up with this FINE MUSIC and its FEATURES and ADORE it. However, audiences from OUTSIDE of the PUKHTOON [local name] TRADITIONS sometimes find the RHYTHM UNFAMILAR and the REPETITION and NARROW MELODY quite CHALLENGING, particularly as the SINGING STYLE can be quite STARK [and RAW and WONDERFUL!] in a LANGUAGE that is UNKNOWN [even though PESHAWAR'S PUSHTO has a lot of URDU words MIXED IN but the SENTENCE INFORMATION runs in an opposite SEQUENCE to URDU/ENGLISH so can't be easily 'decoded'