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The Story Behind Kamlee Da Dhola
Kamlee Da Dhola opened Hadiqa Kiani's 2017 album Wajd, Vol. 1 as the project's first chapter, returning a folk song she had loved and sung since childhood to a live studio setting. Irfan Kiani produced the recording as a single-take performance, while Hadiqa composed its opening melody and began with words by the Sufi poet Baba Bulleh Shah. Her interpretation deliberately gives the song a personal color rather than copying earlier renditions associated with Reshma and Musarrat Nazir. The arrangement stays rooted in acoustic texture: Steve George's Turkish lavta and Ustad Baqir Abbas's bansuri weave around harmonium, dholak, backing voices, and Hadiqa's commanding lead. That spacious eight-minute form lets a familiar regional melody move between intimate longing, qawwali intensity, and the reflective spirit of Wajd.
Meaning & Translation
Kamlee Da Dhola can be understood as "the beloved of the love-maddened woman," with kamlee describing a woman made almost mad by devotion and dhola naming her beloved. The singer speaks from inside that surrender: love has unsettled her, separation hurts, and yet her bond remains a source of identity rather than shame. The repeated address to the beloved makes the song feel both intimate and ceremonial. In a folk reading, it is a woman's plea to an absent lover. Within Wajd's Sufi setting, the same longing can also point beyond human romance toward a seeker's desire for the divine. Bulleh Shah's opening words strengthen that spiritual resonance without closing off the earthly one.
Details
- Artist
- Hadiqa Kiani
- Category
- Single
- Collection
- Wajd, Vol. 1
- Released
- 2017
- Language
- Seraiki
- Mood
- Romantic, Melancholy, Devotional
- YouTube Views
- 7.39M
Artists & Credits
- Hadiqa Kiani singer
- Hadiqa Kiani composer
- Baba Bulleh Shah lyricist
- Steve George musician
- Ustad Baqir Abbas musician
- Irfan Kiani musician
- Imran Ali musician
- Asif Ali Goga musician
- Irfan Kiani producer