By Anisha Sharma - Lucknow Times/The Times of India
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
If love makes the world go round, it's no surprise that Sufi music dedicated to divine love is a hit in Lucknow, as it is all over the world.
Sufi music links Iran, Pakistan, Kashmir, Punjab, Bengal and Lucknow, not to mention the interest it has generated in the West.
LT explores how Sufi music fires the spiritual and sensual imagination all at once, for love per se is the subject of this traditional, purifying, unifying poetry, music and dance. Love for the divine equates with love for one's beloved and lo, Sufi music rocks!
"Film music has taken a lot from the Sufi spirit," points out Dr Nishi Pandey, who finds the "spiritual essence of Sufism percolating to its music.
Sufi lyrics in film songs like Kajra re kajra re where the verses go beyond addressing the lover as a woman, and Chaiyya Chaiyya with lyrics such as 'Main hawa pe dhoondhu uske nishan' are great hits because of the message of love communicated in spirit by great Sufi seers."
According to DJ Raghav, the popularity of Sufi music in Lucknow has a lot to do with the Punjabi population in the city.
"Though Sufi music is doing very well in Punjab and abroad, in Lucknow, Sufi music is only for a select lot. The party music in Lucknow hasn't changed in the last six years or so but theme parties and small gatherings do revel in Sufi stuff," he says.
Brijendra Srivastav, a singer in Lucknow who sings traditional Sufi numbers like Ho Channa Ishq Bada Harjai, claims that "Sufi music in Lucknow is different from the popular Punjabi strains that tie up with western bands to rock the world.
"We still keep the traditional folk music pulsating at places like Dewa Sharif and Khamman Peer's dargah among other places in and around Lucknow."
It is people like Muzaffar Ali who truly understand the soul of the music. "The Sufi message of love for the divine gets diluted if the music is rendered with a view to making money out of it," says he.
"The inner spaces of every human being crave for the divine touch, and music can reach those spaces. Commercial music does not always touch the inner core, whereas Sufi music in which each word is backed by experiential joy that the saint chooses to share with others, fulfills a quest for God – the source of joy.
It is the Sufi spirit that will finally bring the people of Kashmir together, or India and Pakistan together for that matter.
This music transgresses boundaries, cultures and languages to touch every heart.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
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Wednesday, November 01, 2006
The sound of Sufi!
By Anisha Sharma - Lucknow Times/The Times of India
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
If love makes the world go round, it's no surprise that Sufi music dedicated to divine love is a hit in Lucknow, as it is all over the world.
Sufi music links Iran, Pakistan, Kashmir, Punjab, Bengal and Lucknow, not to mention the interest it has generated in the West.
LT explores how Sufi music fires the spiritual and sensual imagination all at once, for love per se is the subject of this traditional, purifying, unifying poetry, music and dance. Love for the divine equates with love for one's beloved and lo, Sufi music rocks!
"Film music has taken a lot from the Sufi spirit," points out Dr Nishi Pandey, who finds the "spiritual essence of Sufism percolating to its music.
Sufi lyrics in film songs like Kajra re kajra re where the verses go beyond addressing the lover as a woman, and Chaiyya Chaiyya with lyrics such as 'Main hawa pe dhoondhu uske nishan' are great hits because of the message of love communicated in spirit by great Sufi seers."
According to DJ Raghav, the popularity of Sufi music in Lucknow has a lot to do with the Punjabi population in the city.
"Though Sufi music is doing very well in Punjab and abroad, in Lucknow, Sufi music is only for a select lot. The party music in Lucknow hasn't changed in the last six years or so but theme parties and small gatherings do revel in Sufi stuff," he says.
Brijendra Srivastav, a singer in Lucknow who sings traditional Sufi numbers like Ho Channa Ishq Bada Harjai, claims that "Sufi music in Lucknow is different from the popular Punjabi strains that tie up with western bands to rock the world.
"We still keep the traditional folk music pulsating at places like Dewa Sharif and Khamman Peer's dargah among other places in and around Lucknow."
It is people like Muzaffar Ali who truly understand the soul of the music. "The Sufi message of love for the divine gets diluted if the music is rendered with a view to making money out of it," says he.
"The inner spaces of every human being crave for the divine touch, and music can reach those spaces. Commercial music does not always touch the inner core, whereas Sufi music in which each word is backed by experiential joy that the saint chooses to share with others, fulfills a quest for God – the source of joy.
It is the Sufi spirit that will finally bring the people of Kashmir together, or India and Pakistan together for that matter.
This music transgresses boundaries, cultures and languages to touch every heart.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
If love makes the world go round, it's no surprise that Sufi music dedicated to divine love is a hit in Lucknow, as it is all over the world.
Sufi music links Iran, Pakistan, Kashmir, Punjab, Bengal and Lucknow, not to mention the interest it has generated in the West.
LT explores how Sufi music fires the spiritual and sensual imagination all at once, for love per se is the subject of this traditional, purifying, unifying poetry, music and dance. Love for the divine equates with love for one's beloved and lo, Sufi music rocks!
"Film music has taken a lot from the Sufi spirit," points out Dr Nishi Pandey, who finds the "spiritual essence of Sufism percolating to its music.
Sufi lyrics in film songs like Kajra re kajra re where the verses go beyond addressing the lover as a woman, and Chaiyya Chaiyya with lyrics such as 'Main hawa pe dhoondhu uske nishan' are great hits because of the message of love communicated in spirit by great Sufi seers."
According to DJ Raghav, the popularity of Sufi music in Lucknow has a lot to do with the Punjabi population in the city.
"Though Sufi music is doing very well in Punjab and abroad, in Lucknow, Sufi music is only for a select lot. The party music in Lucknow hasn't changed in the last six years or so but theme parties and small gatherings do revel in Sufi stuff," he says.
Brijendra Srivastav, a singer in Lucknow who sings traditional Sufi numbers like Ho Channa Ishq Bada Harjai, claims that "Sufi music in Lucknow is different from the popular Punjabi strains that tie up with western bands to rock the world.
"We still keep the traditional folk music pulsating at places like Dewa Sharif and Khamman Peer's dargah among other places in and around Lucknow."
It is people like Muzaffar Ali who truly understand the soul of the music. "The Sufi message of love for the divine gets diluted if the music is rendered with a view to making money out of it," says he.
"The inner spaces of every human being crave for the divine touch, and music can reach those spaces. Commercial music does not always touch the inner core, whereas Sufi music in which each word is backed by experiential joy that the saint chooses to share with others, fulfills a quest for God – the source of joy.
It is the Sufi spirit that will finally bring the people of Kashmir together, or India and Pakistan together for that matter.
This music transgresses boundaries, cultures and languages to touch every heart.
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