The Story Behind Kamli
Kamli is Hadiqa Kiani's Punjabi rendering of poetry by Baba Bulleh Shah, released in 2017 as the fourth chapter of her Wajd project. Conceived as a journey through regional folk traditions, the album was produced by her longtime collaborator Irfan Kiani, with arrangements that foreground acoustic and classical instruments. Here, Steve George's saz baglama and Baqir Abbas's bansuri circle around harmonium and qawwali-style responses, giving Kiani's voice space to move from intimate reflection to full-throated devotion. The official release presented the song as a tribute to Bulleh Shah and part of Kiani's effort to revive cultural heritage through contemporary recordings. Wajd later received the Album of the Year award at the 2018 Lux Style Awards, adding formal recognition to a project built around living folk memory.
Meaning & Translation
Kamli is the feminine Punjabi word for someone who is mad, crazed, or consumed by love. In Bulleh Shah's Sufi frame, that madness is not simple romance. It is the loss of ego that comes when the seeker longs for the divine and accepts that ordinary reason cannot contain the experience. The repeated image of becoming kamli therefore carries both anguish and release: separation unsettles the speaker, yet surrender brings her closer to the beloved. Hadiqa Kiani's performance lets that ambiguity breathe. Her quieter phrases sound like private yearning, while the swelling qawwali responses turn individual longing into communal devotion. The song's meaning rests in that transformation, where love first disorients the self and then becomes a path beyond it.
Details
- Artist
- Hadiqa Kiani
- Category
- Single
- Collection
- Wajd, Vol. 1
- Released
- 2017
- Language
- Punjabi
- Mood
- Devotional
- YouTube Views
- 23.27M
Artists & Credits
- Hadiqa Kiani singer
- Baba Bulleh Shah lyricist
- Steve George musician
- Baqir Abbas musician
- Irfan Kiani musician
- Imran Ali musician
- Asif Ali Goga musician
- Irfan Kiani producer