Maestro Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s story retold by a French author
Late qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s father wanted him to become a doctor but fate had destined otherwise for the singer, who went on to receive-phenomenal acclaim across the world.
Elaborating on this incident and more, an English translation of Nusrat: The Voice of Faith by French author Pierre-Alain Baud traces the life of the man who single-handedly made qawwali, the devotional music of the sufis, a global passion.
Nusrat, in the author’s words, was the result of “generous exchanges interrupted by unexpected vocal demonstrations, stunning silences, fiery looks and the magic of his personality, so close yet constantly eluding us.”
Baud had access to the singer for over a decade. He was overcome with emotion when he heard Nusrat during his first concert in France in 1985. The author often travelled with the artist and helped organise numerous shows for him all over the world till his untimely death in 1997.
Translated from French by Renuka George and published by Harper-Collins India, the book traces Nusrat’s lineage, his first steps into music and his rise to fame besides associations with international musicians and singers.
Born on October 13, 1948, to Pervez Fateh Ali Khan, certain signs seemed to predict a unique destiny for this child with his small hands and remarkable corpulence. While his family had 600-year legacy of Qawalli, Nusrat’s father was reluctant to allow him to follow in his footsteps.
However, after Nusrat demonstrated his tabla skills, Fateh Ali Khan realised his son’s extraordinary skill and abandoned initial plans to make him a healer of bodies, deciding “he would rather apply the balm of music to the wounded hearts of his listeners who suffered the pangs of separation from their loved ones.”