Sufi Simplified - Kailash Kher

Music
Sufi music tops pop countdown charts across the country

By Kavita Bajeli-Datt

When Rabbi Shergill sang Bulla ki jaana mein kaun (I know not who I am), he not only found a place under the sun, but also trained the spotlight on Sufi music. In GenY-speak, Sufi music 'rocks'. But how could the song create such magic? The singer, who is being courted by the Hindi film industry, says the spiritual meaning of the words has caught the fancy of the masses. "Indians are instinctively spiritual," he says.

Song for the soul: Rabbi ShergillSong for the soul: Rabbi Shergill (above left)

Perhaps that accounts for the resurgence of the genre, first revived by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The soundtrack that the Pakistani singer composed for the Hollywood flick The Last Temptation of Christ woke the world up to the genre. "He is the only singer who had the range and the capability. No one can ever match him," says Madan Gopal Singh, a Sufi singer from Delhi who composed the score for Khamosh Pani.

Pakistani Sufi singer Abida Parveen agrees. "I can never take his place," says Parveen, who has often been compared to the maestro. The music has also become a symbol of peace between Pakistan and India. "Music acts like a bridge," she says. "It is a sign of brotherhood. After all, Sufi came from this great subcontinent." Shergill feels Sufi music has become popular because institutionalised religions have not matched the aam janta's spiritual aspirations in a world of increasingly complex morality. Music director A.R. Rahman is also full of praise for the genre. "There is meaning in the music and the lyrics," he says. Though Rahman has never attempted a Sufi album, his popular Chaiya chaiya number was influenced by Sufi lyrics that go Thaiya thaiya. "Sufi music can't be made for commercial purposes," says Rahman. "The inspiration has to come from above... a divine inspiration."

For all the bouquets, Sufi music evolved over a thorny path in India. The poetry of the mystics—Amir Khusrau, Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Kabir and Bulla Shah—did not find many takers initially. It was mostly heard at the Ajmer Sharif and Nizamuddin Auliya dargahs. Qawals like Gulam Sabir Nizami carry on the tradition; Nizami belongs to a family of qawals which has been singing at the Nizamuddin dargah for 700 years.

He feels singers who have no clue about Sufi gayaki (style of singing) are exploiting the art for money nowadays. "Real artistes suffer because of this," says the annoyed qawal. His younger brother, Mohammed Akbar, joins his brother in recitals.