With the World Sufi Music Festival, Jahan-e-Khusrau, back after two years, its founder Muzaffar Ali says that it was the natural desire of people that made it happen. By Team Viva
Artist-filmmaker Muzzafar Ali feels it is natural for Jahan-e-Khusrau, the world Sufi music festival, to be back after two years. Riding the crest of popular demand, he is planning some interesting Sufi jugalbandis.
“People missed the festival in the last two years. When they realised this, it naturally happened. What we need is their support, without which there would have been no festival. I have singers who are close to me, ones who sing their hearts out like Daler Mehndi, Satinder Sartaj, Sukhwinder Singh and Sonam Kalra. There are singers from Nepal too. I am thinking of creating a jugalbandi of sorts. Collaborating with both Nepal and Turkey, where Sufism prevails,” says Ali.
Around 15 musicians will take part in the festival which will take place from March 24 to 26. What differentiates this edition from the previous onesIJ Ali says each has been different: “We have never repeated the music or poetry. This year it’s dedicated to Baba Farid. Every year, we present 10 or 15 new Sufi lyrics. This year too, we are trying to do the same. This time , there is a Fakari Kalam written by Hazrat Raaz Niyaz, which will be sung by Shafqat Ali Khan. There is a poem on Holi as well, Jab phagun rang jhamakt written by Nazeer Akbarabadi, to name a few.”
“Human beings are looking for purity and commonalities not for differences. When I talk to you I am looking at what you and I have in common. Those commonalities have to be discovered and presented in a creative way. We are not preaching anything, but talking about love and surrender cutting across religious and physical divides. There is nothing more to it rather than opening one’s heart,” he adds.
Prominent international artists such as Pakistani singer Abida Parveen and Mercan Dede from Montreal, Canada, will be sharing the stage with Indian names. Other artists include Astha Dixit, Deveshi Sahgal, Pernia Qureishi and Nazeer Ahmad Warsi and a group from Hyderabad. “This year the attention is given to the youth. We have grown, become wiser, so has the festival. It is not commercial. It’s a celebration of mystics,” Ali says.
The festival this year, coincides with the 709th death anniversary of the Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia. Ali disowns his Bollywood links. “In Bollywood, things are commercial. The participants of Jahan-e-Khusrau are not competing with films, nor with Bollywood. Bollywood and Sufism are two different things. The event is a platform where artists from various parts of the world come together to promote the unique culture that we share with each other. Media makes the festival accessible to the masses. There is no question of whether the common man can afford watching it, but how I can afford organising it,” says Ali.