The Q-funk wedding

No, it’s not about lusty voices singing in praise of god at dargahs. Qawwali nights are now livening up the weddings of the swish set

The fragrance of the mogra is in the air. Guests lounge on four-poster beds with brocade cushions. Waiters clad in black shalwar kurtas and white crochet caps glide by carrying sherbets, besides the usual whisky and vodka, on trays. On a November evening, a hall in a Delhi five-star hotel has been redone to resemble a courtyard from the Mughal era for the qawwali night of fitness guru Vandana Luthra’s daughter Pallavi’s wedding. The 200-odd guests chat politely but everyone’s attention is focused on the platform decorated with sheer silver curtains, where a 31-member qawwali troupe sing lustily to the sounds of a harmonium and the electric guitar. The lead singer is resplendent in a red shalwar kameez, with a topi naughtily perched on her head. The members of her team, dressed in black satin, occasionally throw out a yellow handkerchief with a flourish. The guests, dressed in colourful ghararas and frock-style kurtas, clap at yet another rendition of Inhi logo ne.

The sangeet, an integral part of the great Indian wedding, had better watch out. It’s in danger of being upstaged by qawwali and mujra nights, now a regular feature in weddings where budgets are not an issue. No, you don’t hear the verse of Sufi poets like Rumi or Faiz; instead the 700-year-old vibrant musical tradition has got a Bollywood gloss.

The qawwals’ renditions of popular film songs, accompanied by mujra dancers, have struck a chord with wedding revellers. “This theme goes perfectly with the grand Indian wedding,” explains Meher Sarid, a wedding planner with Sound Of Music Entertainment, who, in the last year, has worked on over 15 qawwali nights at weddings across India. Recently, for the wedding of the relative of a former Delhi governor, trained kathak dancers from Jaipur and Delhi performed mujras to popular Bollywood tracks for the ‘Pakeezah Night’. Hiring a qawwali team or dancers for a mujra night can cost between Rs 50,000 and Rs 3 lakh. “If you have Bollywood stars or playback singers performing at a wedding, the attention gets deflected from the bride and groom,” says Amrish Pershad, another Delhi wedding planner.

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Such is the craze that belly dancers from Russia Uzbekistan are learning the mujra to perform at qawwali nights in India. At a recent Mumbai wedding, two Uzbek dancers in flowing Indian outfits performed to qawwali songs from Main Hoon Naa. For an upcoming wedding in Delhi in December, artist coordinator Amit Ghosh of Rhythm Divine, who has organised 20 qawwali nights in this season, is coordinating mujra dancers from Lahore, who will be in town in time for fittings of their outfits.

Delhi-based Ehsan Bharti-Ghongroowale, 48, has been a qawwal since he was a teenager, and of late, he’s been besieged with requests to perform at weddings. His 15-member troupe includes two female vocalists. Ghongroowale sings in six different languages, including Persian, Punjabi and Marathi and can, incredibly, intonate the sound of the ghungroo from the back of his throat. “At weddings, qawwalis should be interactive and fun and should involve the crowd and relatives,” says Ghongroowale, who pauses dramatically at the end of every line and lets the audience complete it. “Wedding qawwalis are flirtatious. The songs Dulhe ka sehra and Jhoom barabar jhoom are very popular,” he says.

The qawwali culture, always more popular in the north, has now made inroads into Mumbai as well as down south. At a recent south Indian wedding in Chennai, qawwalis were a hit. “The father of the bride played the dhol along with the qawwals and everyone participated in the frolic. A lot of guests were NRIs and they enjoyed this ethnic evening fare,’’ says Pershad, who has already organised five qawwali nights in Delhi and will supervise six more in December.

Many bar girls and bar dancers in Mumbai have taken to performing the mujra at private weddings, says Sarid. However, wedding planners say professional kathak dancers who adhere to different gharanas are far more sought after. “This is a serious art form and not all dancers can replicate these movements,” says Ghosh. Traditionally, on a full moon night in February in a small village in UP, an annual nauch meet is organised where qawwali artists share their talents. Many budding qawwals are picked from here.

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Bollywood has had a huge role to play in bringing the qawwali into mainstream culture and so have other high-profile weddings like the Elizabeth Hurley-Arun Nayyar wedding last year in Jodhpur, which had a similar theme. Movies like Umrao Jaan and the upcoming Jodha Akbar have influenced fashion and the current trend in wedding couture is regal. Mumbai-based designer Priya Awasthy, who is currently working on actor Tara Sharma’s trousseau, says the kalidar kurtas and flowing outfits that Sonam Kapoor sports in Saawariya are the rage these days. “For Tara’s wedding, I’ve made an empire line choli and a lehnga with 32 kalis,” says Awasthy. For her own wedding collection, Awasthy has used rich colours, with pearls in pipings and lots of gold and silver gota as embellishment.

Delhi designer Anupamaa Dayal recently sold 20 pieces of her Angrakha collection to a foreigner, who was in raptures after watching a qawwali at an Indian wedding. In jewellery too, the sartaj—the ornamental headpiece worn on one side—is suddenly a fashion must-have. “The Nizam influence is very pronounced and people are investing in old-fashioned pieces,” says Chennai-based jewellery designer Suhani Pittie. Clap along, qawwali-funk is back.
(With inputs from Paromita Chakrabarti)