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The
short video shot by Dananeer Mobeen in the Nathaigali mountains
of northern Pakistan and uploaded onto Instagram shows a group
of youngsters enjoying themselves by a roadside.
Swinging around the device she is filming on, Mobeen gestures
behind her and says in Urdu, "This is our car, this is us, and
this is our party taking place." /
Seemly innocuous, she deliberately mispronounces the English
word "party" as "pawri" to poke fun at South Asians who adopt
Western accents. It immediately struck a chord in both India and
Pakistan, sparking top trending hashtags on social media, and
garnering millions of views and hundreds of spin-offs.
"It was the most random video. I initially had no intention of
uploading it," Mobeen said, expressing surprise at how viral it
had gone and adding the trend showed the power and reach of
social media.
"Pawri" monologue renditions have been used by police in India
and the Delhi Commission for Women in their social media
outreach campaigns.
In one video, two Indian soldiers deployed in snowy mountains
give it their own spin with "This is us, this is our gun, and we
are patrolling here", while popular Bollywood actors Ranveer
Singh and Deepika Padukone each did a version that also went
viral.
Indian dairy company Amul, known for inculcating trendy takes on
current issues in its advertisements, did a "this is our pav-tea"
version, in a nod to a popular bread snack eaten with tea.
Even politicians jumped on the bandwagon, with a leader from
India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party using the catchy hook at
an election rally.
"I'm honoured and grateful for all the love across the border,"
said Mobeen, expressing her happiness at fostering some rare
friendly cross-border dialogue.
India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed nations, have fought
three wars and often had tense relations since gaining
independence in 1947.
Relations had most recently soured over developments in the
northern region of Kashmir, which both countries control in
parts but claim in full.
Last week, their militaries released a rare joint statement
saying they had agreed to observe a ceasefire along the disputed
Kashmir border, after exchanging fire hundreds of times over
past months.
Since the video went viral, Mobeen said she has been inundated
with acting and modelling offers, along with requests for
product endorsements. Instead, she says she aspires to join
Pakistan's foreign services.
(Reporting by Syed Raza Hassan; Additional reporting by Nivedita
Bhattacharjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Gibran Peshimam and
Karishma Singh)
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