Contempranising Bulle Shah with Rabbani Mustafa Khan

As Rabbani Mustafa Khan's latest single makes waves Yogesh Pawar goes looking for the back story

It had been years of prodding by his legendary musician father Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan that he should pursue music. “I dabbled in all kinds of other things and even lost a lot of money in making a film,” says singer-musician Rabbani Mustafa Khan till he had a moment of epiphany five years ago and recorded a scratch version of a traditional composition by Sufi mystic Bulle Shah - Aaoni Saiyyon - to surprise his father. “Even as I heard the final cut of that scratch version I knew that I had been playing football on a cricket pitch all along.”

He remembers how his father and music teacher was over the moon to hear the song. “Extremely pleased I was taking on the mantle of his legacy, he drew me close in a hug and blessed me,” he remembers. In the intermittent years while Rabbani got busy with performances, reality shows and even released a love song Naina (which garnered 1.5 million views in a short span). “But Aaoni Saiyyon kept haunting me, playing in the back of my mind,” says Rabbani who says apart from the brilliant music composition by Harpriet Singh Vig, this could so with the lyrics which beautifully speak of love, romance and longing.

“The voice is feminine and celebrates the sighting of her lover. While the tender sensual longing is by itself enchanting, it is the deeper allegory of the soul rejoicing at thought of union with the divine that really moves me,” he says modestly deflecting from the praise coming his way for his rendition. “This is the magic of the words of the Sufi saint-poet Syed Abdullah Shah Qadri who is better known as Bulle Shah and what the music composer has done with the Kafi.”

The challenge while rendering the song was to keep it festive and celebratory without losing its deep spiritual and philosophical core. “Most people who have heard it have found both these elements markedly standing out,” he admits.

While another composition is slated for release in the film track for Fauji Calling coming soon we ask him why he is not singing more for films. “That's because people have several hang-ups about the classically trained and don't give us work,” he rues and adds, “And when they do, they want us to be background song where the visuals and story are more important than the song. Or call us to add sargams, alaaps or murkis to somebody else's singing.”

He feels the monopolies of the concert circuit and the insistence on vocal acrobatics instead of soulful melodies makes singers like him feel boxed in. “I am hoping that widening tastes will change this for the better.”

We can only hope he's right.