Kheriyaan – Niazi BrothersThe mythical character of Heer is one of the subcontinent’s greatest muses, and has inspired some of the region’s most iconic and celebrated songs, poems and stories. Yet even across this vast corpus
of art, stretching across centuries, Khairiyan de Naal stands as amongst the finest examples of its kind. Babar and Javed Niazi, global icons of South Asian folk and classical singing, have preserved the evocative performing style created by their father, Tufail Niazi. Tufail Niazi, himself a towering legend in subcontinental singing, honed his style while singing this at the innumerable melas or fairs which dot the countryside. Sung with a gusto that retains the sense of tragedy inherent to the song, the lyrics are from the perspective of Heer. She sings these as she is being married off to a groom from the Kher tribe, and she laments that she does not want to be sent off with them. She sings the virtues of her true love, Ranjha, and in the style of all Sufi poetry, both the declarations of her love and the descriptions of the Beloved are allegories for divine love itself. The Coke Studio version of the song captures the wistfully defeated melancholia of Heer’s refrain, with the tabla anchoring the musical arrangement, as the flute makes our pain for Heer take flight. The songs ends with the flute racing across a gasping percussion and a piano driven hope, evoking the spirit of Heer soaring above the confines of society for dreams never lived nor passions actualized.
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