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Ustad Sultan Khan

Technology brings alive Dream

It seems nothing is impossible in this technologically advanced world. And the music world is no exception. Technology has brought Ustad Sultan Khan’s dream of singing together with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan alive.

Ustad Sultan Khan singing together with the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan? A mere pipe dream? No way. And the proof is Pukaar, the new album which uses ground breaking technology to bring together two of the world’s greatest musicians. It was Ustad Sultan Khan’s (a renowned exponent of the Sarangi) lifelong dream to sing and play his instrument along with Nusrat, one of the leading singers of Sufi music.

They even met a couple of times when Nusrat was alive but were not destined to perform onstage together. Sultan was a great fan of Nusrat’s singing, while Nusrat reciprocated that by attending many of Sultan’s concerts. Sadly, Nusrat passed away in 1997 and it seemed like Sultan’s dream had collapsed. Thanks to technology, it has been realized. Before recording for this one-of-a-kind album, Sultan Khan listened to the recordings of the great Sufi master and felt that he could play the Sarangi and sing with the maestro. However, he was still hesitant to undertake such a venture since it could appear that he was trying to spoil the original version. Many renowned musicians encouraged Sultan to take up the project. Thus, Pukaar (The Call) was born.

Pukaar is indeed a different project – the cover of the album describes it as separated by time, space, life and death. Previously, there have been remixes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s songs, but only Pukaar features a classical instrument and a voice with Nusrat’s Qawwali.

Qawwali, which literally means ‘utterance’ in Arabic, was the music of the Muslim mystics, known as the Sufis. Sultan Khan has added a number of verses together with the Sarangi, giving Pukaar special Bhakti touch. During the medieval period, the Bhakti Movement in Hindi poetry originated as a protest against religion, which stressed only upon the scriptures. Both the Sufi and Bhakti movements shared common features including that of a loving and benevolent God rather than a cruel one. It is noteworthy that while Bhakti Bhajans sing the praise of the Sufis, many Qawwali sing about the love of Lord Krishna and Radha.

The 19^th century saw the Sarangi replaced by the Harmonium, which did not require frequent retuning like the former. Since this process continued into the 20^th century, the Sarangi almost disappeared. Thankfully, the latter half of the 20^th century saw the revival of the unique music instrument.

Sound engineers in London and Mumbai have made sure that the original rendering of Nusrat is not lost. On the contrary, Sultan’s Sarangi matches the beauty of Qawwali in an awesome manner. One may even feel that both men sat together and sang this composition. Sultan Khan has added verses and improvised Nusrat’s traditional lines from poets like Khusrau. The magicians (recording engineers) of this album are Kulhit Bhamra, Salim and Suleiman Merchant.

In conclusion, Sultan opines that he has tried not to upstage Nusrat in any way. It is more of raga rang (exploring a raga) rather than raga jung (ragas battling each other). More importantly, it is the realization of his personal dream. On both counts, Pukaar is a great success.