Recreating Rumi's poetry
Sufi singer KAVITA SETH recreates Persian poet Rumi's magic in her new album Sufiana
Suparna Thombare
t_suparna@dnaindia.net
Brought up in Baraeli, Kavita Seth moved to Mumbai a couple of years ago to make a career out of her very "Sufi" voice. After the success of Ektara from Wake Up Sid and the release of her latest album Sufiana, Seth is rearing to go.
"I started getting involved in Sufi music after watching Sufi Fakir's sing at Durgah's in Baraeli. I sang bhajans and other songs, but I didn't feel the same intoxication of Sufi music," says Seth of her earlier days.
In Sufiana, Seth has recreated Rumi's poetry, even translated certain words into easy Hindi to make it easy for today's generation to understand. "Persian is for the intellectual crowd, it's for the elite. I wanted the common person to also understand the music. My aim is to take Sufi music to as many people as possible including the young."
What helped is that she has learnt Persian from the Iranian scholars. "You can't bring soul to Sufi without understanding the meaning of it," she says, adding, "I have sent AR Rahman an authentic Persian recording complete with the Arabic feel and accent."
How did the album come about? "I had performed at the international Sufi festival organised on the occasion of Maulana Rumi's 800th birthday. I performed on some my own compositions and there were many musicians from Iran and Afghanistan at the festival. People loved them. So after consulting people on the ones they liked the most, I recorded them for my album," says Seth.
Music directors have shown interest in her distinct Sufi voice, but Seth is all set to sing a completely different song for Amit Trivedi's next film as music director. "People will be surprised. He's made do something completely different from my Sufi style."
BOX:
GETTING FILMY
Kavita Seth's first popular song in films was the very intense song Mujhe Mat Roko from Gangster.