Here's Shamim Ara from the film Hamraaz serenading a moonlit Swat in better times with Khwaja Khurshid Anwar's haunting melody and Malika-e-Tarannum Noor Jehan's voice...
But how poignant are the lyrics...!
"Jaane kal talak teri hayat ho na ho
Jhoom le jhoom le
Jhoom le ke phir ye chaand raat ho na ho..."
Dance of death? A noticeably disturbed Shamim Ara sings defiantly in a dark room alone at the dead of night... Outside is a mournful, mist-enveloped, moonlit Swat... The acopalypse could never have been captured more poignantly than in this clip from the 1960s Pakistani classic Humraz. And no one but the incomparable Nur Jehan and Khwaja Khurshid Anwar could have encapsulated the mood of foreboding with more sheer emotion. This is a reminder of what we were once capable of, of the power of music, poetry, dance and film --laced with madness and intoxication -- that is now the only ammunition we have on our side to ensure that the chandni raat has not abandoned Swat forever. Jhoom le jhoom le... jhoom le ke phir ye chaand raat ho na ho...
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