Bunche Hall, Rm 10383 & online
ABOUT THE PRESENTATION
Although qawwali is popularly considered a Sufi or devotional Islamic song type in South Asia, the Bombay cinema used it as a means of witty entertainment and light romantic expression in most movies, stretching it far from its ‘Islamicate’ identity. The song lyricists of Bombay composed a wide variety of qawwalis over the last 80 years, often borrowing from or parodying the popular Urdu verses of the masters like Ghalib, Jigar, Iqbal, and others. While filmi qawwali was one of the modes by which the classic Urdu poetry was made commonplace in South Asia, it is not necessarily all mystical or ‘Sufi’ in its content. Their lyrics ranged from devotional to romantic and celebratory to ludicrous, as illustrated through some song samples from Yousuf's digital archive of cinema qawwalis.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Yousuf Saeed is an independent filmmaker, author and archivist of arts and culture in South Asia. His documentary films like
Khayal Darpan, Basant, Campus Rising, and A Feast in Rampur have been shown at various international film festivals and venues. He is the author of
Muslim Devotional Art in India (Routledge, 2019) and
Partitioning Bazaar Art (Seagull, 2023). Yousuf manages several online archives such as
TasveerGhar.net,
Ektara.org,
TasveereUrdu.in, and
CineQawwali.in, among others.
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Sponsor(s): Center for India and South Asia