The qawwali call!
ZIYA US SALAM
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Bollywood is embracing the once-popular qawwali - and quite eagerly so.
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EDGING OUT THE OLD: Sonya Jehan and Payal rohatagi have brought forward two facets of the timeless qawali.
Call up Payal Rohatagi, she with nose cringers like "Fun", "Men Not Allowed" and "Ek Se Mera Kya Hoga" in the kitty, and you hear "O Sikander, O Sikander", a Sufiana kalam as the ring tone. The phone of the film's director Madhur Bhandarkar rings with the same qawwali, inspiring the faithful to look within for salvation. Penned by Sandeep Nath, the qawwali of "Corporate" has been a steady presence in many discotheques in recent weeks.
You call up Shivam Nair, whose "Ahista Ahista" is being released this Friday and you will hear "Allah Kare". You call up the film's heroine Soha Ali Khan and you will hear "Akhiyan Jawan Akhiyan". Irshad Kamil's lyrics do not pretend to reach out to the Almighty but backed up by Himesh Reshamiyya's luck and pluck, the qawwali is said to be a chartbuster waiting to open.
Then try calling up filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, and his ring tone goes, "Ya Ali madad Ali". The qawwali from the hit film "Gangster" is still holding steady on the countdown shows and helping the film's audio make a brisk sale many weeks after the film was released.
Yes, veritably sufiana kalam is the order of the day in Bollywood, and qawwali is the spice making a belated comeback. At times with due reverence as in "Gangster" or "Tathastu"; at others with hardly a pretension to dignity, as in "Corporate" where Rohatagi gyrated to "O Sikander", or in "Humko Deewana Kar Gaye" where Bipasha Basu sizzled on the dance floor to "Mere Saath Chalte Chalte". Like it or lump it, qawwali is well and truly making many people tap their feet in Bollywood. Not everybody is happy though.
Changing form
Gone is the profundity of Amir Khusrau who gave qawwali its Indian form as he adapted an 8th Century Persian form to the 13th Century Hindustan. Moved away from shrines to discotheques, from urs to evening hangouts, qawwali is being revived, re-invented, repackaged. The style has changed, the words remain the same. Many call it evolution, others trivialisation.
Says Bhatt, "We need to be flexible when it comes to art. But at times the qawwalis have been handled with less than due reverence. The attempt to give the language of our ancestors a modern coat is understandable, but when it is done in a flippant manner, then it is a cause for concern. Some of the people picturising qawwalis do not understand the medium. Or the profundity of the kalam. It seems like an educated person's ignorance when you see a qawwali on the dance floor. There is a need to dispel that ignorance about this art form."
Bhandarkar defends, "Qawwali is being revived with a dash of modernity, which is necessary to tap today's audience. The pace and the canvas of the film have changed. I don't think we have marred the sanctity of qawwali by glamorised picturisation of `O Sikander' in `Corporate'. Its philosophy has not changed, only the get-up has changed."
Nair voices similar sentiments. "It is not calculated glamour in my film. We needed qawwali in `Ahista Ahista' as the film is based in Old Delhi where qawwali is still a popular medium of expression. The qawwali comes in the natural course of the film. It is not used as an item number. The lyrics are honest. Some people may not understand them, but they will appreciate the spirit." Calling "Allah Kare" as sufiana kalam with original words, he feels only "Akhiyan Jawan Akhiyan" is truly a qawwali in the film.
Rohatagi, who has never been suspected of any sobriety in her role selection or profundity of expression, has suddenly turned a new leaf. "After `O, Sikander' I realised how important it is to get up in the morning and do riyaaz. The qawwali opened the windows of my mind. Now when I see some of the films I have done earlier I feel ashamed. I am learning Kathak now, have learnt 20 finger movements. Thanks to this qawwali I have realised acting is not only walking up to the camera, showing your face, shaking your hips."
But isn't "O Sikander" itself down on the spirit of the kalam?
"Some change is inevitable as change is a reality. You cannot show a Madhubala kind of qawwali any more. The `O Sikander' qawwali is part of a revival of an old art form. I don't know if it is not done in accordance with the spirit of the kalam. I have only now started learning the importance of knowledge. With any sufiana kalam or anything to do with God, they should be very careful. They should not do it with vulgarity as that degrades the art form. If you do it with crassness it will not last."
Good old way
Well, last the good old qawwali did, right from the time of "Mughal-e-Azam" when K. Asif filmed it with such relish to today. Accompanied by Naushad's tunes and Shakeel Badayuni's lyrics, the Lata Mangeshkar-Shamshad Begum qawwali, "Teri Mehfil Mein Qismat Aazma Kar" is remembered to this day. As are innumerable others from "Amar Akbar Anthony", "Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin", "Nikaah", and the far more recent "Taj Mahal" where Naushad tried to reproduce the old magic, "Meenaxi" where M.F. Husain himself wrote the lyrics for "Noor-ul-Allah" or "Main Hoon Na" whose "Tumse Milke Dil Ka Hai Jo Haal" started the trend of qawwalis in a new garb. Never mind that the modern qawwali hardly ever starts with an alaap and instruments like the harmonium, the clarinet have been added to the dholak, tabla and the pakhawaj used in the past. And the length has been cut drastically, down from Aziz Mian's 115-minute long qawwali, "Hashr ke Roz" and a couple of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's more than hour-long works to a mere six minutes as in "Corporate", or less than five minutes as in "Ahista Ahista".
Meanwhile, Bollywood's dalliance with the changing qawwali is destined to continue. Coming up next is Mallika Sherawat with Rahul Bose and veejay Sophie in tow in "Pyaar Ke Side Effects". The film's qawwali, sung by the underrated Rakesh Pandit, "Dil Tod Ke Na Ja", is already on television shows. Very soon it might be in discotheques. Again, the letters in praise of the Almighty or bridging the gap between the beloved and God will all be honest. Again, the spirit is likely to be sacrificed. And qawwali (or utterance in Arabic) will continue to find newer definitions. As Bhatt says, "Woh samundar ko ek katori mein simta rahein hain." (They are trying to encapsulate an ocean into a bowl). Time for a sip?
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