KARACHI: Those who made it to the baithak session organised by the All Pakistan Music Conference (APMC) at the Pak-American Cultural Centre on Saturday evening should count themselves fortunate. Reason: they got to hear some rare compositions and kalaam of the genius the world knows as Hazrat Amir Khusrau by virtue of the brilliant Najmuddin, Saifuddin brothers’ qawwali. They presented, with artistic panache, those compositions that are not often sung at such events.

Before the programme, one of the brothers informed the audience on the genesis and art of qawwali. He said it started from the time Sufis came to this part of the world. The tradition formally began from Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti but at the time it was called samaa, which was confined to the Sufis and their devotees. Complying with the orders of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia, Amir Khusrau merged the genre of samaa with Turkish, Iranian, Arabic and Indian music and established qawwali as a distinct art form.

The idea was also to introduce the genre to the public and not just limit it to a select few. Khusrau trained 12 qawwal bachas. The Najmuddin Saifuddin brothers, he claimed, were the 26th generation of the leader of that group tutored by Khusrau.

The brothers performed for nearly two hours on Saturday and there wasn’t a single moment in the concert that did not have the audience’s undivided attention. Their rendition, especially of Khusrau’s kalaam, spoke volumes for their devotion to the great man but at the same time gave ample evidence of their talent. For example, they sang ‘Guftam ke roshan az qamar gufta ke rukhsar-i-manast’ with exactly the kind of mirthfulness and poetic zeal that’s required for the inimitable kalaam.

They displayed their classical roots with ‘Aaj tona main aisa banaon gi’. The composition had a difficult beat to carry the tune, and the long sonorous taans that the brothers used to create the image of the raga in which the composition was made, were equally complicated. But they did it with great facility.

The poem ‘Khabaram raseedam imshab’ that they chose to perform that evening was no mean feat either. The enunciation of each word was crystal clear and complemented the tune.

Next up was ‘Phool khiley bagyan mein’. Here the vocal talent of the qawwal group came to the fore with aplomb. They subtle harkatein, the clean murkian and the mellifluous taans were quite a treat to listen to.

‘Ishq mein terey koh-i-gham’ had a light-hearted touch to it which proved to be a nice little departure from the raga-heavy but effortlessly sung performances.

And how could a qawwali show with Khusrau as the main inspiration not have ‘Main Nizam se naina lara aee’? It had all the ingredients of a creative work borne out of spiritual quest.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2017