Prayer whirl

NCPA’s Sufi music festival, starting next week, also features film, poetry and dance.

The annual three-day Sufi music festival “of the soul, by the soul, and for the soul” will be staged at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) next week. “Sama’a: The Mystic Ecstasy” promises to unite listeners with the divine, with the help of Sufi lyrics and music, which is said to deal with the pain of separation from the Creator.

The festival is conceptualised and curated by Suvarnalata Rao, Head, Programming (Indian Music), at NCPA. “In the two years since the inception of the festival,” she says, “we have featured the Sufi Qawwali tradition of Indian music. This year, with the Wadali Brothers, we are presenting a style of Sufi music that comes from the Punjab-Sindh provinces.”

Last year’s festival also featured artistes like Kabir Bedi, Nuba Awamrya from Tunisia, Haji Aslam Sabri and group, Roopkumar and Sunali Rathod — these performers drew full-house audiences.

This time, the festival will begin with a documentary titled Mevlana Celaleddin-I Rumi: Dance of Love. It is based on the life of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi.

Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian and Sufi mystic who composed the Masnavi, six books of Persian poetry that illustrate and explain the Qur’an from a Sufi perspective. The work has been called one of the crowning glories of Persian literature.

The Mevlawiya order of Sufis, which is based on Rumi’s philosophy, is also known as the order of the whirling dervishes, and is recognised for its practice of sama’a — an Arabic verb meaning “to listen”.

This documentary offers an “insight into the life and work of the man who changed the world with his message of divine love”.

The documentary will be followed by a presentation of Sufi gospel, based on poetry and music by Sonam Kalra. The Sufi Gospel Project combines traditional Western gospel music with Indian classical instruments, and Indian spiritual texts with elements of Western poetry, to create a music designed to erase the barriers of language and religion.

On the second day of the festival the Wadali Brothers will perform. The Wadali Brothers are fifth-generation Sufi singers, and are considered among the foremost proponents of Sufi music in India. They sing in the Punjabi tradition of Sufi music and will present Sufiana compositions, including traditional works and songs from their popular albums and films. The NCPA’s Rao points out that “The popularity of Sufi music is because it has been taken out of its ritualistic realm, and given an entertainment value.”

The festival concludes, fittingly, with whirling dervishes. The evening will feature “Sama Ayins: Whirling Prayer Ceremonies”, by the Konya Turkish Tasawwuf ensemble from Turkey. This event is presented in collaboration with Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The documentary film Mevlana Celaleddin-I Rumi: Dance of Love will be screened at 5.30 pm in the Godrej Academy Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point, on November 11. It will be followed by the music and poetry of Sonam Kalra and the Sufi Gospel Project, at 7.30 pm in the Experimental Theatre. Entry is free but first come will be first served. The Wadali Brothers perform at 7 pm in the Tata Theatre, on November 12. Tickets are priced at Rs 150 and Rs 250. The Konya Turkish Tasawwuf Ensemble performs at 7 pm, in the Tata Theatre, on November 13. Tickets are priced at Rs 200-800.