Published 15 Mar, 2022 01:41pm

Kubra Khan raises a valid point about love songs praising physical appearances

Listening to songs means listening to an artist going on about someone's physical appearance and the connection they build off that. What's missing is praise for the person's personality, and actor Kubra Khan agrees. The Sinf-e-Aahan star took to Twitter to ask why songs can't highlight inner traits instead of "qatilana ankhen (deadly eyes)" or "zulfen (hair)".

In her tweet, Khan wrote, "You know how we have these beautiful songs that always talk about qatilana ankhen, jism jaise ajanta ki murat, zulfen or khusboo. How come we never talk about the inner traits? Like how someone is kind, has a beautiful heart or how someone is inspiring."

Khan wrote that while she's a "sucker for these songs like the next person" and knows that even when she's in her 70s she'd want to be told that she's beautiful by her partner, she still wonders why people aren't praising "the beauty within".

"Like, I’m sure like me many of you would love it more if your dude or dudette said to you 'yaar, khoobsurat to hai he, lekin insaan Kamaal hai, dil kamaal hai [they are beautiful but also a wonderful human being with a wonderful heart]' or am I wrong? Again just thinking out loud so don’t kill me."

Khan raised an important point and provided food for thought about how even though personality traits are far more important than the way a person looks, they aren't highlighted in music.

Physical appearance has always been valued in songs that go way back to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's time, or even before that. Even the recent Coke Studio song ‘Thagyan’ that talks about being smitten by someone's gaze alone. Recent release 'Peela Rung' from the film Parde Mein Rehne Do talks about the complimentary nature of the colour yellow.

There's nothing wrong with praising someone's physical appearance, but beauty isn't always skin deep. We can call someone beautiful without highlighting their physical features. Qualities such as kindness, acceptance or being humble also deserve to be praised as poetically as eyes, clothes or even figures.

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