bol kaffaaraa kyaa hogaa
About this song
- Singer
- Sehar Gul Khan
bol kaffaaraa kyaa hogaa (Urdu: بول کَفّارَہ کیا ہو گا, Hindi: बोल कफ़्फ़ारा क्या होगा) "Say What the Penance Will Be", is the title song for the Pakistani soap opera "Parlour Wali Larki".
The song style is a "qawwali", and it is a love song with some religious undertones. The lyrics were written by Azim Raza, and the music was also composed by him in collaboration with the band "Soch" (Adnan Dhool and Rabi Ahmed).
Most of the song is interpreted by Sehar Gul Khan for the female voice; a male chorus is provided by the traditional qawwali band "Shahbaz and Fayaz Qawal".
The general idea of the lyrics is some lover apologizing to his or her beloved because of a misstep. The lyrics contain several puns and word-plays that are difficult to appreciate in a translation. Also, many verses are written in such a way that, some of the words are repeated, but with an opposite of totally different meaning as before;
For example:
chalo ham farz karte haiN ki tum se pyaar karte haiN I assume that I am in love with you,
magar is pyaar ko bhii kiyaa hamii pe farz honaa thaa but how (come) this love had to be made mandatory (precisely) on me?
A "farz" is a (divine) mandate. In the first verse, the expression "farz karnaa" means "to imagine, to assume", but in the second, "farz hona" means "to be mandatory, obligatory".
The song conveys the idea that, despite the singer's repentance, it is unclear who has to apologize the most.
For example, the chorus says:
tuu bol kaffaaraa kaffaaraa bol kaffaaraa [x2] You tell the penance, tell the penance [x2]
kaffaaraa bol o yaaraa kaffaaraa kyaa hogaa The penance, tell it, friend, what the penance will be
In the beginning it seems that the singer is asking the beloved to "say/tell the penance".
Later, it is clarified that the beloved has to say "what the penance will be", so that the singer can comply. (By the way, this waiting for further words to clarify some meaning is a device typical in Hindustani poetry).
The video clip shows the singers and the cast of "Parlour Wali Larki" in traditional dresses with the backdrop of the Hiran Minar, a Mughal-era complex and park in the Pakistani city of Shekhupura.
The actors shown are Momina Iqbal, Aqueel Khan, Jana Maliq, Zaib Khan, Kiran Haq, and Humara Ali.
Special thanks to Professor Majid Wahab for his help with the translation and proofreading!