PESHAWAR: Popular Pashto music show ‘Olasi Sandary’ of PTV, Peshawar Centre has attracted large audience across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

Twenty episodes of the music show have been put on air up till now in which around 60 new folk singers from Hangu, Kohat, Karak, Bannu, Mianwali, Swat, Nowshera and tribal areas have been introduced . The programme is aired every Monday on PTV at 4pm and 10:30pm on PTV National as repeat telecast.

Almost all genres of Pashto folk poetry including Tappa, Charbeta, Badala, Bagatai and Neemakai were presented by young folk singers in the show.

Young Pashto folk singers, who never performed on TV from different areas, were introduced for the first time to provide variety of flavours of voices to audience.

“I performed for the first time on PTV screen and sang a very famous folk song ‘Rawara Bandai Bandai Che Operoona’. It is still a very popular song. It was previously sung by Hanifa Begum in 1920. Noted singer Gulnar Begum had aired it on radio Peshawar way back in early 60s. I got a quite encouraging response from people. I enjoyed singing a folk song sung by a popular artist in the yore days,” Kainat, a teenage folk singer from Swat, told this scribe.

Mohammad Aslam Khan, the host of the programme, said that the music show received an overwhelming response not only from different Pashto speaking areas but also from Pakhtuns living in the Gulf countries and Afghanistan.

TV show ‘Olasi Sandary’ gives audience new insight into history

“Traditional musical instruments -- tabla, rabab, mungay, flute, sitar, clarinet, harmonium and sarinda -- were used to match the old folk songs of Pashto. I was not sure about such a widespread popularity of ‘Olasi Sandary’ because taste of youngsters has undergone a great change over the last few decades,” he said.

Aurangzeb Afridi, general manager PTV, Peshawar, told this scribe that the basic aim of the programme was to revive old Pashto folk songs which bore references to their history, values and tradition.

“It also included most popular romantic folk tales like Adam Khan Durkhanai, Yousaf Khan Sherbano, Momin Khan Sherinai, Sher Alam Mamoonai, Rabia Fateh Khan and Jalat Khan Mahbooba. Some of these tales have been made into Pashto movies in early 70s,” he said.

Yasir Ali, a young music buff, said that ‘Olasi Sandary’ gave him a new insight along with entertainment. He said that he came to know about different historical events through old Pashto folk songs. “It is education as well as entertainment. Folk songs are in fact, the embodiment of our past history and culture,” Mr Ali maintained.

Mr Afridi said that an open air hujra set was designed for the programme as folk singers used to perform there in the past on different happy occasions. He said that folk singers would spellbind audience with their ‘live’ performance. He said that introducing new talent in every field especially in drama, documentary and music was top priority of the state -run television.

“Not only young folk singers were encouraged to perform, Pashto folk literary genres that people had long forgotten, were also introduced to educate audience about its literary value and historical significance,” Mr Afridi said.

Elaborating the importance of Pashto folk songs, Mr Aslam Khan said that about 60 different traditional musical instruments were used to be played with Pashto folk songs. Pakhtun hujra, he said, used to be centre of all kinds of social and cultural activities.

“With losing of traditional music and folk poetry, we lost a precious national asset.

Most Pashto folk songs have reverences to various important incidents occurred in the past. They clearly define our national character based on mutual harmony, tolerance and peace,” Mr Khan said.

Senior music director Ustad Nazeer Gul said that ‘Olasi Sandary’ was altogether new experience as it was not a remix or fusion. “The attempt was to revive old songs embodying our history. All singers did justice with their performance and won hearts of viewers of Pakhtun listeners,” he said.

Nawab Ali Khan, the programme producer, said that more than 12 female singers were introduced to sing folk songs sung by popular singers in late 20s and 30s. Qayyum Khan, programme assistant, was of the view that the show might continue in the second consecutive quarter too due to its popularity.

He said that under the same title ‘Olasi Sandary’ PTV, Peshawar centre was going to record ‘Pashto Qawali’ in classical style for the first time. He added that senior Pashto folk singers Ahmed Gul Ustad, Akbar Hussain, Almas Khan Khalil, Shaukat , Ramdad Khan and Irfan Kamal would perform.

Published in Dawn February 4th , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play