With Holi wishes for their Hindu brothers and sisters from the Muslim singers, the eighth edition of the annual Samarpan Sufi music festival witnessed a fitting finale at the Rabindra Mandap here on Sunday.
“Like a garden that showcases flowers of various colours, our country nurtures and respects all religions. We are Sufis and love is our religion. We celebrate Holi with enough excitement.”
As the Qawwali troupe leader Jenab Saleem Hasan Chisti from Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Pradesh introduced himself wishing for the ensuing Holi, some in the audience were in tears while many were in cheers over the pride and joy of India’s composite culture celebrated through the unique music festival.
Second son of renowned Sufi, Qawwali and folk singer Noor Muhammad, young Saleem has been following his late father’s footsteps. “Like a duck takes to water, I got into music since childhood. This is my passion, profession and mission. I have a long way to go,” shared the singer who is an A grade Qawwali and Sufi performing artist for the All India Radio.
Qawwali is a form of Indian Sufi music that has a great tradition of over 700 years. It has been immensely popular in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan besides in Hyderabad, Delhi and other Northern regions of India. It is also popular in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet regions of Bangladesh, he informed.
His eight-member troupe comprised Jenab Suhail Hasan, Jenab Shamma Khan and Jenab Sarfaraz Hasan as supporting choral singers while the accompanying instrumentalists were Jenab Danish Ahmad on Tabla, Jenab Mohammad Sakir on Dholak and Jenab Mohammad Saleem on Benjo. Their concert showcased several songs set to Hindustani classical ragas like Bhopali, Yeman and Tilak Kamod.
Earlier, New Delhi-based singer Suresh Kumar Sethi, who hails from Odisha and is a staff artiste of the Song and Drama Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, performed Sufi kalams with support of Basant Kumar Thiady on octapad, Narendra Kumar Mahapatra on keyboard, Prem Shankar Dash on tabla, Suresh Kumar Dalai on dholok, Basanta Mishra on harmonium and Biranchi Narayan Dash on violin.