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Carried on the wings of qawwali

Photo:Thulasi Kakkat

Powerful rendition Hyderabad based Iqbal Hussain Khan Bande Nawaz and party

I ’m still reeling under the heady experience of a live qawwali. This genre of music, so hard to get here ‘live’ was simply mesmerising. Think Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan or think Amir Khusru, think ‘Allah hu…’ or ‘ ;Parda hai…’ qawwali will surely transport you into another world.

This magical musical evening was by Iqbal Hussain Khan Bande Nawaz and party from Hyderabad. It’s sad, but we plain lovers of music still relate qawwalis to those in films.

So, I was in mood with ‘Khwaja mere khwaja…’ that fantastice piece from ‘Jodha Akbar’, when the performance started with the ‘hamd’. Amir Khusru’s ‘Man kunto maula, Fan Ali-un maula…’ and the shift began, from filmi to original Sufi music, from the ordinary to the sublime.

Iqbal Hussain, who seemed less formidable, what with his powerful voice that took me over sands of time, said, “filmi qawwali is in the lover’s style, whereas Sufi music will introduce you to the spiritual.” He claimed that he experiences God and is transported to another world when he sung.

Rising popularity

And is this genre going strong or fading in popularity? Iqbal Hussain refuted the latter and said it’s gaining in strength and the young are taking to it. His party of seven is a young group of men, who learn under his father, Ustad Kurban Husain Khan. “I trained under him too, since the age of seven. We are from the Gwalior gharana, which has retained the pure, traditional form of qawwali,” he said.

And then under the lights, on the stage, Iqbal Hussain was a different man, dressed to the nines in his chikankari kurta, his lock of hair falling in gay abandon on his dark forehead, his hands thrown in the air when rendering, ‘jo thujpe mur gaya, woh ji hi gaya,….’ (The one who died for you, lives on).

The haunting music lives on in my mind. The concerted clapping, supported by the splendid percussion of the dholak and the tabla, the intone of a range of voices, the rise and fall of melody, the full throated exuberance of Amir Khusrau’s poetry, the couplets of love and union, the lament of loneliness, the thrill of spiritual ecstasy, it was all there in that hour long music concert. In the end a burst of more familiar and popular songs, ‘Mera piya ghar aaya, O Lalni…’ and the ever popular ‘Jhulelal, dum a dum mast kalander…’ It was a ‘jadoo’ moment, a mystical evening that flitted into a different time, a distant world.

“The soul needs qawwali. When you listen to it your soul is refreshed. This is the effect of a qawwali,” and Iqbal Hussain couldn’t have said it better.

Bande Nawaz’s party comprised Sabir Habib on the harmonium, Mukarram Khan on the tabla, Syed Arif with his long locks on the tabla, Rabi Ahmed, Naseer Taj and Muhammaed Mujahid formed the chorus.

They were brought down to the city by Spic Macay, which does exceptional work in initiating the youth into the tradition of Indian music by holding such special concerts.

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