The legendary
qawwal performed at the wedding of Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh. It was
possibly his first performance in India. This is what happened...
Long before
Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was invited to sing or compose by well-known Indian
music directors, it was showman Raj Kapoor who introduced him to the stalwarts
of Bollywood. How? By inviting him to sing for his second son's sangeet
ceremony in 1979.
This was confimed by Rishi Kapoor's wife Neetu Singh in an interview, where she said: “My reception was at RK Studios. All other festivities — and they went on for 20 days — were at RK House. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan performed at my wedding, which is when people got to know of him.” She added: “Papa [Raj Kapoor] had heard him casually somewhere and kept him in mind and invited him for my sangeet. He sang all night. The guests were stunned by his performance! The gaana bajaana [musical celebrations] went on for days.”
A 2007
documentary by Pakistan's Geo TV on Khan's life and career, revealed this bit
of trivia: Raj Kapoor was already an admirer of Nusrat's father Ustad Fateh Ali
Khan and uncle Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan, both accomplished qawwals in Pakistan.
He happened to hear Nusrat's voice in a recording in Birmingham, and promptly
decided to invite him for his son Rishi's upcoming wedding.
The invitation
was, in fact, extended to Nusrat by famous Pakistani actor Mohammad Ali.
Khan was thrilled,
more so for the chance to visit Ajmer Sharif Dargah, the famous shrine of sufi
saint Moinuddin Chishti, in Rajasthan. The wedding party boasted of a number of
artists and musicians from that era. While introducing Nusrat on stage, Kapoor
said that, while he had not personally heard the young singer's voice, his
father was somebody he admired. This led to a flurry of emotions in Nusrat, who
had been a professional qawwal for more than a decade and was quite a sensation
back home. At the last moment, he decided to treat the guests to Indian
classical vocals rather than his trademark qawwali. It is said that his
performance created a flutter, with senior musicians climbing to the stage to
personally congratulate the then 31-year old.
A few months
ago, Rishi Kapoor shared some photos of that performance with this tweet:
“...All actors of that time producers music directors were spellbound till 7 in
the morn (sic)”.
Nusrat went on
to sing live and perform at a number of concerts across India in the years to
come, but it was only with 1994's Bandit Queen that he first composed music for
an Indian film. His first recorded Bollywood song came about in 1996, thanks to
Aur Pyar Ho Gaya, starring Aishwarya Rai and Bobby Deol.
