Watch Wah Jo Kalaam
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The Story Behind Wah Jo Kalaam
Wah Jo Kalaam arrived in Episode 8 of Coke Studio Season 11 on 12 October 2018, the season Zohaib Kazi and Ali Hamza took over as producers. Asrar Shah wrote the words and Ustad Sultan Ahmed set them to music, and the real story is who Asrar brought with him.
Shamu Bai and Vishnu are a brother and sister who sang bhajans in Sindhi at local festivals until Coke Studio Explorer, the field recording series that travelled the country earlier that year, found them and carried them to the main stage. It was the first time the three had recorded together, and the arrangement stays deliberately bare: Shamu at the harmonium, Vishnu on tabla, Asrar strumming, nothing standing between the voices and the verse.
Meaning & Translation
Kalaam is the Sindhi word for verse, specifically the sung poetry of the Sufi tradition, and wah is the sound admiration makes when a line lands. Together the title means something close to poetry that pulls a wah out of you.
Asrar writes it as an invitation rather than a sermon: he asks the listener to sit and hear the kalaam, and offers the first salutation of a son of this land. The Shah whose poetry he points to is not himself but Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, whose Risalo is the bedrock of Sindhi verse. The song is less about any single poem than about the act of handing one on.
Details
- Artist
- Asrar Shah, Shamu Bai, Vishnu
- Category
- Coke Studio
- Collection
- Coke Studio Season 11
- Released
- 2018
- Language
- Sindhi
- Mood
- Devotional, Motivational
- YouTube Views
- 1.85M
Artists & Credits
- Asrar Shah singer
- Shamu Bai singer
- Vishnu singer
- Ustad Sultan Ahmed composer
- Asrar Shah lyricist
- Zohaib Kazi producer
- Ali Hamza producer