If you have just seen photos of Sufis dancing in abandon, you will wonder what drives them to such ecstasy. If you have heard the music too, you will have no questions to ask about this behaviour, because the pull of the rhythm is so enchanting that even an uninitiated person is drawn to it.

The beauty of the genre is that even those songs which one has been hearing for decades sound as if they were composed today only.

This album is dedicated to Maulana Jellaludin Rumi, one of the greatest Sufi saints, and sung by Kavita Seth, who travels the world, uniting a global community through the international language of music. Her firm grounding in Hindustani classical music helps her to tackle its intricacies effortlessly.

The cassette opens with Syed Zia Alvi’s Sanam Ab dil mein bhi tu hai, sar-e-bazaar bhi tu hai. Hang on to the lyrics and the full import will hit you in the solar plexus. Kabhi banda kabhi maula, kabhi dildaar bhi tu hai, sanam ab dil mein bhi tu hai, sar-e-bazaar bhi tu hai. Could there be a better expression of total love?

There is another one by Syed Zia Alvi, Badal raha hai jo shab sehar mein khuda wahi hai, Hai jiska jalwa nazar nazar khuda wahi hai. Beyond that it is all Rumi. What a master he is! Haan tujhe apna bana liya liya bana liya liya is as powerful as Yaar mera gaar mera ishq bana pyaar mera. But the feeling of oneness with God is at its strongest in Dilbare-e-jananemen kar de karam, jaise mumkin ho tu mera rakh bharam is reminiscent of Sakha bhava in Hindu bhakti.

Then there is the ever-green Damadam mast Kalandar and an instrumental version of Yaar mera gaar mera ishq bana pyaar mera (Rabab).

All these have been sung and composed by Kavita Seth.

Welcome (Junglee Music)

Too many cooks spoil the broth but too many composers do not spoil the music.

It is no high-brow stuff but each of them — Sajid-Wajid, Himesh Reshammiya and Anand Raj Anand — has contributed at least one song which is capable of sticking to everyone’s lips in the days to come.

Sajid Wajid have contributed only the title song which has been written by Shabbir Ahmed and sung with considerable flair by Shaan, Wajid and Soumya Rao.

Credit it to its Punjabi flavour, but the song with the brightest prospects is Ik uchcha lamba kadd, dooje sohni vi tun hadd. It has been composed, written as well as sung by Anand Raj Anand. Anand’s other contribution Kiya kiya (which he sings with Shweta Pandit) is less polished. Reshammiya jars more than usual in Kola laka vallari. What does that mean, Sameer? Insha Allah is more bearable, perhaps because it has been sung by Shaan, Krishna and Akruti Kakkar in place of the capped one. — ASC

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