Kashmiri music to make international debut next year

Forget fatwas, Kashmiri music is all set to make a global debut.

For the first time, a Kashmiri musical album ‑ encapsulating the romance, pain and the pathos ‑ is flashing on the international music scene. Bewfai Tche Mushkil, the six-song video which will go on floors sometime next week, is slated for a world-wide release in London in July next year.

Sung and composed by Waheed Jeelani, the album will also contain a narration in Urdu by well-known lyricist Bashir Dada to highlight the essence and pain of Kashmir. The album is the first of its kind which will have the English sub-titles for a wider-stream of audience in the West.

“The main objective to produce the album is to highlight the pain and sufferings of the people of Kashmir through the medium of poetry and music. The album will encapsulate a variety of moods through different subjects ranging from romance to pathos to togetherness to separation and so on,” Jeelani told dna.

Natural beauty of Kashmir will form the essence of the album. The video will be shot through different seasons capturing different moods of human nature in the Valley. “This music album is dedicated to the rich cultural heritage and music of Kashmir,” he said.

The highlight of the album will be a song about the separation of the people, including the Kashmiri migrants who had to flee from their homes at the onset of militancy in the early nineties.

“The album is a story of every Kashmiri. We want to project the feelings of the people. In one of the songs, we are discussing the separation. It includes the feelings of migrants who had to leave the valley,” said Jeelani.

The album comes nine months after Grand Mufti of Kashmir Bashir-ud-din Farooqi issued a fatwa calling music un-Islamic and forcing the all girls rock-band `Praagaash’ to disband. The new album also comes against the backdrop of the controversy over Zubin Mehta’s concert Ehsaas-e-Kashmir.

“Music of Kashmir has now been confined to certain pockets of Srinagar. We want to take it to the global audience. People living in different parts of world want to know about our music. We have made this effort to reach out to the world audience to regain the glory of our musical heritage,” said Jeelani.