Indian song 'Mood Happy' rips off Nabeel Qureshi directed music video 'Ki Jana'

Plagiarism comes in many forms; there's the subtle kind and then there's the kind that the music video for Indian Punjabi song 'Mood Happy' pulled off — incredibly obvious to anyone who's watching. The music video is an unapologetic copy of the music video for 'Ki Jana' sung by Shani Arshad and directed by Nabeel Qureshi.

The director posted about the plagiarism on his Instagram Story.

The song 'Mood Happy' is sung by Indian singer Brham and premiered on YouTube on September 4. While the lyrics speak of lifelong love, the music video shows a man and woman in love against the wishes of the woman's father. Although the father later consents to the match, the man to whom the woman had been promised to by her family feels bitter resentment.

Qureshi's video for Shani Arshad's song 'Ki Jana' also shows a man and woman in love against the wishes of the woman's family. The song was released in 2020 and stars actors Sonya Hussyn and Mohsin Abbas Haider.

The music video for 'Ki Jana' starts with Hussyn and Haider in a car, driving along a beautiful mountainous route in Balochistan. 'Mood Happy' shows a similar mountainous landscape in the video as well. While we could have brushed the matching choice in landscape aside as a coincidence, the scene of the woman sliding her hand onto her lover's while he's driving the car is exactly the same in both videos.

This scene in 'Mood Happy' is followed by another in which the man and woman come close for a kiss that doesn't happen at the end. Cue the exact same scene between Hussyn and Haider.

Soon, the woman's lover in 'Mood Happy' is shot by a gunman hired by the woman's father and the other man to whom she was promised. The father looks on at the scene of the incident from afar, protected by the sun by an umbrella being held by someone else. This storyline follows the one for 'Ki Jana' in its entirety. The actors playing the role of the father in each video are wearing almost identical clothes, looking towards the camera in the same direction, with almost the same scowl on their faces.

In 'Ki Jana' Hussyn decides to avenge the death of her lover. She dramatically pulls out a gun from the car and begins to fire at the assailants. The woman in 'Mood Happy' does exactly the same. In fact the cinematography is exactly alike.

While Hussyn kills everyone involved in her lover's death, she is unable to kill her father. The video ends with the him shooting Hussyn, a scene plagiarised to the dot by the music video for 'Mood Happy'.

Although the songs sung by Shani Arshad and Brham are completely different in both lyrics and music composition, the music video for 'Mood Happy' heavily plagiarises 'Ki Jana' in both storyline and cinematography.

We don't know if Qureshi or anyone else has reported the video or taken legal action yet but it certainly seems like they have more than enough evidence to back up their accusations if they do.