Moving Beyond National Symbols

Moving Beyond National Symbols

Dil Dil Pakistan by The Vital Signs (1987)

                The clear anomaly among the patriotic videos we watched: what exactly is ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ by The Vital Signs trying to achieve? The emphasis of the video is not on the country itself; which one would consider the logical subject of the video. The emphasis, rather, is on a group of boys with musical instruments performing various feats. There is no use of national symbols other than the random graffiti on the rock which reads ‘I love Pakistan’. There is also no such interaction with the ‘nation’. While in ‘Main Tou Dekhoonga’ by Strings, there is a strong connection of the band members with both the children of the nation as well as the landscape – as they deliver the message of hope, the landscape changes from barren to a field of flowers. These boys are more or less performing activities that have no connection with the national – riding on bicycles, playing Western instruments, riding on a jeep, performing in a studio with funky lighting. These activities are not unique to ‘Pakistan’ – the boys could easily have been filmed undertaking tasks that are considered more ‘Pakistani’ – doing the bhangra, roaming particular street markets, eating a gulabjamon etc.   

                Their appearance also suggests that they are not overtly patriotic: they wear Western style clothes with sunglasses and carry Western instruments. They clearly associate themselves with a youth culture that did not originate in Pakistan. Yet in some ways, it is more genuine than what we see in the Strings video ‘’Mein Tou Dekhoonga’’. In the Strings video, band members wear deliberately ethnic clothing. Given their elite backgrounds, the attempt comes off as artificial and just…odd.

The landscape in which these boys roam is anonymous. There are green fields and wide roads and hence the viewer cannot exactly place the video in one exact city or country depending on the visuals alone. While some of the videos we saw, such as the national anthem, use deliberate images of national buildings and structures  

The point that I am making is that visually, the video is devoid of any overt attempt to be part of any nationalist feeling and this is exactly what makes it genuine. It moves beyond superficial notions of nationalism and the singers do not endorse ostensible national symbols for the sake of appearing authentic. This is a different kind of nationalism: it is quite clear that the nationalism they espouse is – just as indicated in the song – in the ‘dil’.