The India-Pakistan Long Clash Is Melted, Thanks To Influencer's Five Minute Videos
JAKARTA - Nothing is impossible. Including for Pakistan and India to be united. And nothing is even more impossible because what unites the public of the two conflicting countries is a five-minute video.
Dananeer Mobin did not expect to become an internet star in both countries, when she uploaded a video on her Instagram page. What kind of video did achieve that impossible feat?
At first glance, there is nothing special about the video. Dananeer simply showed a group of young people having fun, saying: This is our car, this is us, and this is our party.
What makes it special is the context that we are aware of, that when most news reports about death and despair, the faces of Dananeer and the people in the video actually give encouragement to people in India and Pakistan. The two countries are usually at loggerheads on many points, given the long and deadly feud between the two countries.
"What could be better than sharing love across borders at a time when there are so many problems and so many divisions around the world," said Dananeer, as quoted by the BBC, Saturday, February 20.
"I am happy that my neighbors and I are partying together now because of my videos," Dananeer said, referred to the Indians.
The context in Dananeer's video
Dananeer Mobin is a social media influencer from the city of Peshawar in northern Pakistan. "Call me Geena," wrote the 19-year-old woman in her Instagram bio. She's not a political influencer. Dananeer's upload shows a lot of femininity with lots of fashion and makeup tutorials.
In the video, Dananeer utters the following sentences in Urdu: Yeh humari car hai, Yeh hum hain, aur yeh humari pawri ho rahi hai, which means, "You already know the translation!"
However, Dananeer also spoke the English word, "party," with a speech that sounded "pawrty."
Dananeer explains in the caption that she was making fun of the "burgers" who came to visit Pakistan's mountainous northern part on vacation. Pakistanis use the term "burger" to describe a wealthy elite who may have studied or worked outside of Pakistan and speak with an American or British accent.
"It's not my style to talk like this in burger style ... I just do it to make all of you (my Instagram followers) laugh," Dananeer said.
Dananeer, in her upload also said that the video content deserves to be distributed as a meme. She invited many people to use it.
Just right. Not many Pakistanis took offense to recreate the short clip and share it on Twitter as a meme. It wasn't long before several well-known actors and cricketers got involved.
The Pakistan Cricket Board shared a video of the Pakistan national team doing a video version of them after winning the series against South Africa.
In India, the popularity of Dananeer's video and the idea expanded after an Indian DJ picked up the phrase "ye humari pawri hori hai", which means: We party. He also turned Dananeer's video into a catchy song.