Source: The Indian Express
A fragmented world
Boundaries, borders, and more. That’s the world we live in today. The most prominent of them being (if you are South Asian) the one between India and Pakistan. Citizens (a word with heavy political connotation) slander each other on social media. Politicians spread hate to further their nationalist agendas and people follow.
Discourse on such issues and the so-called ‘differences’ is so narrow that it is only done through a nationalist perspective. But we have many other identities, many other ways of being that can lead to finding more commonalities than differences. Ali Sethi, a Pakistani musician and writer, is a man, who despite growing up in the same polarised world as the rest of us, stubbornly emphasizes those commonalities through his music.
Though it is hard to completely fathom the depth in his music, I shall try my best. So let’s dive into his musical universe or in his words aa Chale Leke Tujhe, Hain Jahan Silsile.
Ragas, Ghazals and Vision of a United World
Although he has had a long, intimate relationship with music, he only recently came into people’s knowledge through a rendition of Ranjish Hi Sahi, a ghazal originally sung by the legendary Mehdi Hassan. A single hearing of the riffs and runs in it would tell you how extremely talented he is as a vocalist and how he deftly improvises through his knowledge of ragas. But that’s only one layer of his knowledge or rather a culmination of it.
If you’ve ever seen an interview of his or one of those awe-inspiring but beautifully raw Instagram lives of his, you’d know that a ghazal is much more than just the melody or the superficial meaning of it. Sethi explains how something that sounds as romantic as Pehle se Marrasim Na Sahi, Phir Bhi Kabhi Toh Rasm-O-Reh Duniya hi Nibhaane Ke Liye aa can actually be alluding to strict borders, politics, and divisions.
All of this gives us a new and alternative lens through which we can view society and bring about change from the extreme exclusionary nature of it to a more welcoming inclusive society– a society where we can be who we truly are.
We can’t discuss Ali Sethi (who is regarded as the modern king of ghazal) without discussing the genre of ghazal itself. The most notable thing about it, especially when translating to English, is that it uses vague genderless pronouns.
Isn’t that exciting? That means it can be about anything– the romance between two women or two men or any gender really (it is the original woke culture in this aspect), or the relationship between a devotee and god (like a lot of other Sufi and folk songs) or politics and countries or literally anything on earth you can imagine depending on where you are geographically or temporally. It is the ultimate relatable stuff because whatever you’re going through you can fit it in between the couplets of the ghazal. That’s the beauty of it.
I’ll give you an example. One of my most treasured ghazals is Mujh Se Pehli Si Mohabbat Mere Mehboob Na Maang by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. This can be read as someone falling out of love with their beloved. But I read it as someone falling out of love with their country or the ideal of nationalism which was once cherished because of something as violently catastrophic as, taking, for example, the partition. Once you see the ghazal through this lens, it adds another layer of depth to it. This reading and re-reading of the ghazal can go on forever. That’s the fun.
A Safe Space to be Ourselves
Sethi’s aim behind all his work is to get people to congregate no matter where they are from and get them to recognize that we are similar despite all our differences. There is also the hope of creating a safe space for marginalized individuals and the urge to strive to be a more inclusive society. The best example of this is Chandni Raat.
The music video features Sethi singing to a bunch of people visibly from different regions, ethnicity, and sexual orientation sitting and helping each other out in a deserted building in someplace where probably borders don’t exist and differences don’t matter. Or they are all outcasts who have been thrown out of society and exist in a sort of limbo state. Anyways, it is proof of how Sethi pushes the envelope every single time.
“Maang rakhi thi badi der se jo wasl ki shaam
Woh mere haath badi der ke baad aayi hai”
Source: YouTube
In Conclusion…
I discovered Sethi’s music about 2 years ago and it re-introduced me to the seemingly uncle-aunty genre of ghazal. Let’s address it. Ali Sethi makes ghazal cool and more appealing to youngsters through modern arrangements. Since the discovery, I have been head over heels in love with ghazals. They made me feel like I was finally home –like I finally found my music. I hope I have at least piqued your interest and that you will check out some of his amazing work.
Here are the links to some of his works
Written By- Anika Sharma
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