KARACHI: It has become almost a tradition that almost every major cultural centre in the city holds a series of qawwali programmes during the holy month of Ramazan. And it’s a good tradition, which must carry on. The qawwali session with Subhan Ahmed Nizami and his fellow performers on Saturday was first in the series at T2F.

Speaking before the performance, Subhan remembered the founder of the cultural space, Sabeen Mahmud. He said she was the one who first asked him to perform in Ramazan in 2013. Indeed, Sabeen initiated many such worthy ideas, which one hopes will take root in the time to come.

Subhan began with the aarifana kalaam ‘Khusha naseeb mujhe jo ata kia tu ne’. It was a nice effort, but one could sense that the artists had not fully warmed up to the task. Obviously, it takes some time for them to get into the vocal groove for a two-hour event.

The second piece was the soulful ‘Kab tak merey maula’. This is where Subhan and his companions sounded in their element.

The next act was the famous naatia kalaam often rendered by the Nizami family (Subhan’s forefathers) ‘Kya tum se kahun ay Arab ke kunwar’. It was done with a lot of feeling and passion that rubbed off on to the audience, which by now had begun to sway with the beat of the percussions.

This was followed by the famous number in which qawwal groups add two different naatia kalaam. It started off with the Arabic ‘Al Habibi’ preceded by a beat pattern that represented typical middle-eastern style. The audience immediately acknowledged it, because Subhan included in the same track the beautiful ‘Lam yaat-i-nazeer-o-kafi’. It was their best act of the evening.

And how can any qawwali programme not have ‘Mann kunto maula’? Subhan rendered it at the right time when, perhaps the audience was expecting him to render it or the momentum for it had been built enough. It is one piece that every major or minor qawwal group in the world has performed and whoever does it, it never loses the intensity of the kalaam or the spiritual force of the composition. Subhan too did a decent job. The best thing about ‘Mann kunto’ is that the audience recognises it the instant the qawwal recites a few Persian couplets to set up the melody. It’s always wonderful to hear and see that.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2018