The ageless wonder and pride of Hyderabad, the Chowmahalla Palace, was beautifully lit up. The clock tower almost became a metaphor for the timelessness of the soulful renditions under its watch as a part of the Union Ministry of Culture’s Sangeet Natak Akademi initiative, Jashn-e-Qawwali. The event featured six groups of Qawwali singers slated to perform in this three-day festival, as a celebration of culture, tradition, art and history.
On the second day of the event, during the first 45 minutes of the evening, it was Nasir Hussain Sabri and Khalid Hussain Sabri and group from Bhopal who enchanted the audience. They performed one of the most adored compositions of all time, ‘ Chhap Tilak’ that really brought the place alive and created the right ambience for the next offering. The Sabri brothers also performed ‘ Tajdar-e-Haram ’ and ‘Qaul – Tarana’, to celebrate the great Amir Khusro’s unmistakeable contribution to music. The term ‘Qaul’ refers to a word or saying, sung by a Qawwal, leading us to the term Qawwali. So, the rendition was apt for the occasion.
The evening reached its crescendo when the Qutbi Brothers from New Delhi, Mohammed Idris Qutbi and Mohammed Ilyas Qutbi, took centre stage. The All India Radio ‘Top Grade’ artists, kept reminding audiences of the importance of national integration — they have in the past performed Krishna bhajans, they said with great delight, during a brief chat before their performance. The Qutbi brothers are well-respected for creating a record for a non-stop 12-hour Sufiana Qawwali singing programme, also organised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi to promote the Qawwali tradition, in November 2016. That stamina was on ample display when they took the audience through waves of enrapturements with Shayari and qawwalis. The spellbound audience were especially joyous when the Qutbi brothers dedicated one of the most famous couplets of all time to Hyderabad — ‘ Tumhare sheher ka Mausam bada suhana lagey, Main ek shaam chura lun agar bura na lage’ .
The group performed several energetic qawwalis interspersed with solo pieces of dholak and delivery of shayari . The Qutbi brothers continued the tradition of singing the qawwali Mera piya ghar aaya , a Punjabi song written by Baba Bulleh Shah, an 18th century poet. They followed it up with Dama Dam Mast Qalandar , probably the most famous of all Qawwalis, originally written by Amir Khusro. Apart from a farmaish from the audience, they also performed Rashq-e-Qamar , conflating a hint of romance, a hint of mischief and plenty of elegance, and Aag daman mein lagi to give the audience an evening they wouldn’t forget.
Tracing their roots to Ajmer’s Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, the brothers who have been training since the age of eight, also displayed their rapport and camaraderie with the audience, an integral part of the ethos of Qawwali which feeds from the energy of the ambience and the performers. The programme ended on a high note with dozens thronging the brothers for selfies.
