Background: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is no stranger to the audience of Indian and Pakistani communities the world over. Born in 1974 at Faisalabad, Pakistan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan was tutored by his uncle, the late Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, in the art of classical music.
An extremely gifted child, he started his musical raining at the tender age of seven. Under the tutelage of his illustrious uncle, he went on to do his first stage performance at the age of 11. After two decades of captivating performances for international audiences, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is today a star in his own right, one whose art is thoroughly appreciated worldwide.
Amongst his most notable achievements is his contribution to the soundtrack for the 1995 Hollywood film Dead Man Walking in collaboration with Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, alongside his uncle Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. In 2002, he worked on the soundtrack of Four Feathers in collaboration with James Honor.
More recently, he has worked with Mel Gibson, providing backing vocals for the soundtrack of Apocalypto. In addition to the above, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan has received many nominations and awards in India for his soulful music. (Quoted from the sleeve of the album Charkha).
The Album
Upon learning that Rahat Fateh Ali Khan has come out with an album, I decided to give it a listen. Having heard his mesmerising vocals in at least one song in every hit that comes out of Bollywood these days, my best bet was that the album wouldn’t disappoint.
Rahat sounds at best to be ‘going through the motions’ on what is supposedly his debut non-film album (excluding his qawali volumes). He appears to be having an off day(s) while recording the album as there is no way one can compare his efforts on this offering to earlier hits such as Jiya Dharak (from the film Kalyug), Jag Soona Soona (Om Shanti Om), Naina thug lainge (Om Kara) and O Re Piya from the lesser successful (Aaja Nachle).
The fluency with which one witnesses him deliver hits is just not present here. Some of the tracks appear too influenced by his recent attempts to sing for Hollywood, which unfortunately puts spirituality in the background rather than in the foreground. Songs such as Rang Rangeela, Tere Bina and Kanday Utay seem to suffer from this phenomenon and are in non-conformance to the greater scheme of this qawali-pop album. Even Rahat seems aware of his shortcomings on the album and has attempted to make up for it by adding his biggest hit to date, Jiya Dharak Dharak, as the finale on the album.
Negatives aside
Dunga Pani, a song penned by Rahat himself, is a harrowing ditty with a bluesy composition that stands out among songs that appear mediocre at their very best. It definitely does justice to Rahat’s mantle of being the sole-successor and pupil of the legendary maestro Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. So does the pop-rendering of the sufi-folk kaafi number, Sainyaah (written by mystic poet Shah Hussain).
Another saving grace is the album’s title track which sounds divine (even the remix-techno version) simply because of the poetry of Bulleh Shah.
Another positive is that the composition of the entire album is credited to Rahat which means that unlike certain other Pakistani musicians, he hasn’t yet succumbed to the charms of Indian composers.
Bollywood state of mind
At times, Rahat’s ‘please Bollywood’ frame of mind seems to dominate certain compositions and they appear more made-for-Bollywood rather than this album. Such filmi songs include Morre Aangan, Aaj Hum and Na Janay Kahan which lack the otherwise free-flowing rhythm that is a requirement of qawali music.
Instead Rahat appears to be trying to impress with a more eastern-classical ghazal style mixed with filmi-pop. Hopefully, this isn’t going to be his future direction for musical production. It is pertinent to note here that this frame of mind seems to have an impact on the entire spectrum of Pakistani music and is responsible (partly) for the shuddering halt (of late) to the progressive development of the Pakistan music scene.
Why remix?
As regards remixes of two of the album’s songs, a note of caution: Anyone who has heard originals will testify that remixing never actually improves the quality of the original song, although at times it does create a work of art on a very different scale. Then again, why remix when the original isn’t the best song in the world to begin with.
In short, this album isn’t his best piece of work and will please only the most ardent fans of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.
By Savaiz Bukhari
Dawn
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