Daily Times

Coke Studio releases the second song from Season 15, 2AM, featuring Star Shah and Zeeshan Ali. An educator by day, Coke Studio debutant Star Shah, born Amir Shah from Okara in Punjab, has his music deeply rooted in life’s trials and familial complexities, laden with narratives of enduring nafrat (hatred) and blossoming hope. His fifteen-year journey, marked by struggle continues as acommitment to impacting lives with authenticity. 2AMresonates this, with Star Shah’s lovelorn lyrics filtering through the late-night mist, reminiscent of the metaphorical nocturnal wanderer making his way through the subdued, rain-sodden, moon-lit streets of an equally nocturnal old city. The song title, 2AM, speaks to that fateful time of night – to the hour of laying down your defences, shedding allpretenses, and offering yourself wholeheartedly to the realms of vulnerability. The atmospheric music is arranged and produced by Aksel Carlson & Thomas and Xulfi.

Star’s rap, with its sharp-shooting signature Punjabi-English slick, bares a fragility, speaking of falsity and its pain that purifies even as it punishes, leaving him in pieces; fragments too minute and sharp to recover.

2AM Director, Awais Gohar’s frame-within-a-frame narrative takes wing with Art Director, Hashim Ali, referencing cultural terms of endearment such as a husband braiding his wife’s hair, a mother ironing her children’s school uniforms, an elderly book-seller contemplating letting go.

Answering Star’s lyrical lament is Coke Studio newcomer, Zeeshan Ali. With an air of seasoned serenity, the classically trained composer and vocalist responds to Star; he shares what existence and inwardness have taught him – that Love requires Time and Time relies on Hope. A third-generation migrant from India, Zeeshan Ali’s musical roots trace back to the spiritual rhythms of his spiritual upbringing and the ancestral echoes of his Sikh great-grandfather from Punjab. His passion for music, ignited by listening to verses on the Divine during his childhood, led him to the enchanting world of ragas. His fastidiousness is evident in his mastery of Farsi, Punjabi and Sindhi.

Coke Studio producer Xulfi first heard Star’s lyrics and brought them to Zeeshan to answer. Though yet strangers, Zeeshan’s answer had already been written; inspired by Sarfaraz Ali’s poetry. But how does one explain an answer written before its question was asked? Perhaps it would befoolish to try; such profundity can only be felt. And perhaps most keenly at 2AM.