Bum Phatta and the Post 9/11 Discourse

The musical video of Ali Azmat’s Bum Phatta represents a popular discourse which attracted the attention of masses in Pakistan after 9/11. The proponents of this discourse treat the West as “nucleus of all evils” and national governments as corrupt troupes of politicians. The eventual remedy, for this discourse, is a revolution.

The ingredients of this thought appear at different intervals in the music video of “Bum Phatta”. Bum, or bomb, symbolizes the miseries and problems faced by the Pakistani people. The person at the center stage (Ali Azmat) is dressed as Uncle Sam and he holds an American missile throughout the video. The post 9/11 period and Pakistan’s alliance with the U.S. for the war on terror changed the dynamics of the region and thus this portrayal of United States in the video is essentially a reaction. The music video also shows military helicopters in the background at two intervals [Image-1], pointing towards the military operations against the Taliban. Therefore, I see this video endorsing the same mainstream thinking which blames the US and its war on terror for all the issues in Pakistan.     

Criticizing establishment and politicians, Ali Azmat has used the typical approach of blaming them for each and every problem, primarily their incapacity to provide the public with basic necessities like food, water and electricity. However, the music video uses an interesting style of capturing this issue. It shows these public provisions hanging through a wire which is controlled by a controller in a closed room. People try to catch them but fail in despair when the controller draws them back as soon as people try to catch them. The transition has been shown through kids and young people, struggling to get a doll and electricity/food, respectively. The whole process is similar to a game played at festivals where kids get sweets and toys, placed inside a closed jar, through a hanger whose control is in their hands. Ironically, the controller has been snatched from their hands by the politicians [Image-3].

Lastly, the video indicates the march towards bloody revolution where people first fight among themselves for food and then a revolutionary agent like Che Guevara appears who kills the guy controlling all the public provisions which symbolized the overthrow of the establishment. The video presents the similar situation through which Che brought the revolution in Cuba, overthrowing US-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista [Image-2]