The Curious Case of Tu Jhoom

Karachi: We live in a world of greys. Since the story broke of Nirmala Maghani’s claim, who by the way is a very gifted singer from Umerkot, that she had sent a melody for the song ‘Tu Jhoom’ to Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan (Xulfi) back in June 2021, hoping to land a spot in Coke Studio Season 14, there has been a lot of confusion.

The nation was busy relishing ‘Tu Jhoom’ and this controversy certainly dampened my enthusiasm and anticipation for more good things to come from this season. To ensure that I was doing due diligence before commenting on the matter I did listen to Nirmala’s version, a short clip, and didn’t miss the uncanny similarity. A lot has since been written and said. While the Tu Jhoom number begins with, ‘Peeraan nu mein seene laavaan, te mein hansdi jaavaan’, Nirmal’s piece bagn with ‘Mein hoon heer tum era ranjha, Kaisa hay tu ye tou bata ja’.

I spoke to Nirmala whom I have known now for over a year and have been following on social media. She indeed has a beautiful voice and deserves every bit of recognition for that. In our recent telephonic conversation, she sang for me both the songs, line by line, explaining bit by bit how it was more than just the raag being the same for both, that is Pahari raag. Pahari is essentially a Kashmiri folk melody in its origin and it is pretty simple as just about any note in the octave can be used in its composition but it still retains a distinct flavor all its own. Hundreds of songs have been composed in this raag in the subcontinent such as ‘Jo wada kiya wo, nibhana parray ga’.

In her conversation, I felt that Nirmala was hurt and disappointed but not bitter. All she is looking for is a credit of ‘Melody by Nirmala Maghani’ in Tu Jhoom’s credit list. She claims that Xulfi had seen opened and heard her demo song that she sent on WhatsApp to him in June 2021 along with five other compositions. “I don’t want money. I just want credit. I appeal to everyone to be my vice.” Nirmala appealed on Twitter. Salman Ahmed of Junoon took to Twitter to directly appeal to Xulfi, “Please give credit to the young composer from Umerkot, Nirmala Maghani. I introduced you to her and she’s extremely talented. We have to encourage our youth.” He further said, “We have to protect the weak and voiceless with evidence.”

As social media and press went for a field day with this debate, producer of the previous seasons of Coke Studio and one of the most prominent musical minds of the country, Rohail Hyatt also took to Twitter to share, “A lack of understanding about raag based folk tunes usually ends up in controversy with someone claiming their idea has been copied. Songs in the same raag always sound similar. Even the melodies can be near identical, Lyrics matter.” He further went on to say, “Regardless of the controversial circumstances under which I got to hear @nirmalamaghani’s voice, I feel blessed to have heard it. There’s indeed a silver lining to every situation and I pray she becomes a siring star in our industry IA.”

I personally reached out to get an expert opinion from one of the giants of Pakistan’s music industry, a singer who has an outstanding music career and understanding of musical intricacies. She shall remain unnamed as per her request. “I would appreciate it if you don’t quote me with name as one doesn’t want to feed into a controversy and damage anyone.”

When pressed, this is what she had to say on the matter, “Nirmala is a very young aspiring and a passionate musician and I am regularly in touch with her. Her song is beautiful too and the opening 4-5 notes (of Tu Jhoom) may match with what she did and being very young and not seen enough of music scales, probably she believed it’s a copy. I sent her a voice message explaining this a few days ago when she mentioned the same to me so that should tell you that young people need a lot of guidance. I support her endeavors a lot and have been promoting her work to various people.”

On my wanting to cancel Tu Jhoom based on the allegations of plagiarism, she had this to say, “A few opening riffs, especially when done on a scale, can always have a few bites that match. I heard both the songs and in years of music one has encountered so many similar melodies that are scale-based. Maybe five bites, in the beginning, are similar but the whole song Xulfi did is completely different. Naseebo herself sings in that Punjab folk style and sometimes if you follow a raag it may sound like a song someone else has done. There is no one to guide them (young aspiring singers). Someone egged her on. She lives in a very remote place, has been badly wanting to be in shows, and rightly so, and she truly believes this is her composition they copied, just like a child who is adamant. That’s the sadness about having no formal music industry in this country. The point is that Nirmala has been wanting to present her work. She is driven. She is good but doesn’t get any platform to show her talents. She has been vying for coke studio for the longest as well. I think she has her heart in the right place but this one she missed. I do feel for her.”

All said and done, a thing of beauty remains a joy forever. While the verdict is still out on if Xulfi actually got inspired by Nirmala’s demo song while creating Tu Jhoom’s opening or not, I am going back to listening ‘Tu Jhoom’ one more time after this.