Bollywood under the Sufi spell

By Farhana Farook - Daily News and Analysis - Mumbai, India

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Music composers are cashing in on the popularity of this ‘spiritual’ genre

From the ‘mehfil-e-sama’ of Sufi poet Amir Khusro to the shelves of our music salons, Sufiyana music (mystic tradition of Islam where love for Allah, as beloved is expressed through song) has outlived centuries.

Surprisingly, this stream of divine melody has seeped into Bollywood too.
And this metaphor-heavy medium has takers primarily in the youth.

To validate this, is the recent Mithoon composed number ‘Maula mere’, sung by Roop Kumar, from ‘Anwar’, which has whizzed up the music charts.

“Music is prayer. The young have their share of stress. Somewhere they find solace in this kind of music as the structure of Sufi lyrics is inspiring,” says the 21-year-old wiz musician Mithoon.

Associated with the cult classic ‘Ya Ali’ (‘Gangster’), 30 plus singer Zubeen Garg says, “I’ve always been inclined towards Sufi music. It has a meditative and trance-like quality. And when blended with club music, its appeal is massive.”

Veteran composer Anu Malik, whose ‘Mehboob mere’ (‘Fiza) flaunted a Sufi flavour asserts, “Melody is a strong pull. Couple this with modern sound design, good lyrics and you have a recipe for ‘swaying’ success. It’s soul-connect, so it’s eternal.”

Having grown up on Kabir’s dohas, Sufi-rock singer Rabbi Shergill attributes this to the Indian soil saying, “India is a spiritual land. Unfortunately, this was never expressed in our popular music. Fortunately, music is now echoing this.”

Unconventionally-voiced Kailash Kher (‘Allah ke bande’) calls this a ‘game of energy combined with contemporary sound’. “The youth relate to the madness of melody. But while sound is technical, feelings are divine,” reminds Kailash.