Kaaf Kangana has been in the news for one reason or another in the past month and not always the positive ones. This time around it’s under fire for Neelam Muneer’s risqué item song ‘Khwabon mein jab main Pakistan gayi‘ and a certain interesting tweet.
The song and dance sequence in question centers on an Indian woman crooning about her wild times in Pakistan (in her dreams) and is certainly not family-friendly. The number’s provocative lyrics and it’s setting amidst a crowd of revelers garnered some negative attention.
A few hours after it was released online, Neelam Muneer took to social media to say that this was her first and last item song, done only because the movie was a project of ISPR.
Neelam received a lot of backlash for the claim and Twitter had a field day ‘meme-ing’ the statement to their heart’s content.
DG ISPR steps in
The situation had barely blown over when it was resurrected by a tweet directed at the DG ISPR Asif Ghafoor. A collage of Neelum’s statement and a picture from singer Humaira Arshad’s performance, allegedly at GHQ was tweeted to him.
The DG replied to the tweet, clarifying that the picture in question was not from any GHQ function. Regarding Neelam Muneer’s picture, he said: “The item song is by an Indian girl in the movie as per her role, you may watch movie to know the context.”
Pic 1. The item song is by an indian girl in the movie as per her role, you may watch movie to know the context.
Pic 2. It is neither at GHQ (GHQ is at Rwp not Islamabad) nor of an event organised for ISPR as such.— Asif Ghafoor (@peaceforchange) October 28, 2019
The statement could be taken to imply that such dancing was the accepted norm within the Indian environment, with that country’s numerous bawdy dance bars and other cultural peculiarities, and was thus very natural within the film’s context (portions of Kaaf Kangana are set in India). However, some netizens were offended and took DG ISPR’s comment to imply justification for item numbers generally, which some feel are demeaning towards women and have been a hot subject of debate within Pakistan.
Final Word
The statement was meant to placate the Twitterati but ended up raising more questions. Perhaps the DG ISPR could have chosen his words more carefully or avoided commenting on such a trivial matter, altogether.
What do you guys think?
