Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Hidden Gem

Sometime last year, I just heard strains of "Allah Hoo" in the promos of the movie Khuda Ke Liye. Those were enough to convince me to buy the disc and to this date the haunting voice behind Allah Hoo plays in my car almost daily. Unfortunately, the CD did not carry any credits for the music, but after a little bit of hunting, I came across the man behind the song - a voice so great that I was left wondering to this day how was I unaware of him till recently.

The voice in the song belongs a man called Zahur Ahmed, better known as Sain Zahur. He is an absolute illliterate, but it is said that he knows more than 10,000 songs. Most of us are familar with Sufi verses due to the likes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Abida Parveen, Wadali Brothers or more recently through Rabbi Shergill or Junoon. But that's not his what is so special about him. What makes him special that he sings those Sufi verses as they were perhaps sung by the real Sufis - the wandering minstrels who roamed all over the subcontinent, an ektara in hand singing in praise of their Murshid. He ladies and gentleman

is the Real McCoy. His voice is unlike that of the classical trained Sufi singers that we know - he sings the way the songs were really sung.

He won the BBC's "Voice of the Year - 2006" purely on word of mouth - He hadn't cut a record to date. He learnt his music at the Dargah of Baba BUlleh Shah of all people, and has wandered from dargah to dargah since he was young boy. His attire is those of the Sufis of old, with ghungroos on his feet and tassels around his ektara - dancing his way into a trance. Hear him - for he is the voice of the great men themselves.

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3 comments:

Sidhusaaheb said...

Bohat wadhiyaa!

Khush kar dittaa!
:)

Sidhusaaheb said...

Er...BTW, I believe the instrument that he plays, which is known as ektaara in Hindi, is known as the toomba in Punjabi.

I might also add that the dress he wears is the traditional kuRtaa and chaadraa that men in rural Punjab wear to this day.

:)

Anonymous said...

HELP ! I know this is irrelevant but need help badly.

Actually few months back I disposed my Pentax slim digicam and bought a Panasonic Lumix TZ5. I thought I was upgrading but the results were so damn pathetic. Every picture was a shade of Red. And when I switched off flash to counter that, there was a lot of blur even in evening light.

Now I went to the store again and looked for a semi-professional camera. Actually, one of the salesmen had warned me about the red shades in all Panasonic cameras.

Now he's given me two options
Canon G10
Nikon Coolpix P80

Do you have any idea about these cameras? Can you help me out here? Or suggest a good semi-professional camera. Just need it to click pics of family and kids as a hobby, no special needs.