Daler Paa ji's Pop Sufism

The other day, our editor showed me a clipping of Murli Qawwal’s performance on youtube.com. In the small clipping, the Lucknow-based qawwal demonstrates the technique and power of repetition and chanting of phrases, one of the most powerful and potent tools of the genre. Apparently, Ustad Nusrat fateh Ali Khan was a fan of Murli. This is written in the caption of the clipping that is more than thirty years old, with a bedsheet on the wall, and the singers lookingly visibly ‘not-well-off’.

The other image of a qawwal that’s struck me is that of the singers at Haji Ali in Mumbai. The blind father and his son sing in the afternoons and get some alms for their performance from the visitors. A R Rahman’s Piya Haji Ali is most probably inspired from their singing style. I spend the entire afternoon listening to them whenever I am in Mumbai.

Qawwali’s taqdeer is no longer stuck with the faqeer image; it has had its renaissance to the extent that it’s now a fad. When I met Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, he said he was happy that qawwali has entered the imagination of the elite class, so that it pervades across the society now. But when something enters the elite homes, the fear is of ‘no-return’. So an average person with an average income cannot go to Jahan-e-Khusrau now.

Everyone in the singing world who wants to be someone must have a qawwali tag these days. So Daler Pa ji came to perform Sufi at the Central Park in CP with huge posters shouting “Daler Sufi”. The park was jampacked, the atmosphere electric, the guest list included Sheila Dikshit. So Daler, in his black shirt and shiny silver overcoat started singing Sadde Naal Rahoge Te Aish Karoge. He realized it wasn’t quite Sufi, and peppered his pop songs with a few lines of Nusrat songs here and there. Na Na Na Re…Ali Da Malang…Sadde Naal…Mast Qalandar. Junta whirled with hisses, flying kisses. Rag tag hiss hass people, Shakespeare would have said. The crowd, however, had variety, with whistle blowers to oglers to foreigners to couples. After a while, after the chief guest had left, the compere announced, “I request families and children to slowly move out of the main area as we are increasing the tempo now. We want you to enjoy.” And Paa ji dropped Sufism for another day so that junta could do their dirty dancing to Na Na Na Na Re.

Sufism, one thought was all inclusive, and one also thought that Daler’s pop-Sufism is a countercultural movement to the elite Jahan-e-Khusrau. But it seems Bulle Shah’s or Amir Khusrau’s poetry cannot quite match Sadde Naal.