The Qawwali Capsules featuring Qawwal Arshad Hussain Chisti

The Qawwali Capsules, where the practitioners speak, is an initiative by Manjari Chaturvedi wherein the practitioners themselves speak about their performance art, their lives, their association with the spiritual art they perform. This is focussed on smaller town musicians who practice their art amidst the people in an organic, non commercial set up. Their art form "Qawwali" is sung as a means of spiritual elevation a music form always associated with the Sufi traditions in India and Pakistan. This is an attempt by the Sufi Kathak Foundation to document the traditions as they exist at the shrines itself.

This video capsule features, Qawwal Arshad Hussain Chishti who belongs to Lucknow and as most Qawwals associate themselves to Sufi shrines he takes his name from the Chistiya Silsila of Sufi tradtion and has allegiance to the small shrine at Kakori, a small town in Uttar Pradesh. Qawwal Arshad speaks on the spiritual effects of the music of Qawwali on the individual listeners and the community in general. Interestingly he shares that what makes a Qawwal truly a Qawwal is the association with the Sufi Saint and the Shrine, in this fastchanging world with technology he fears for the practitioners and calls out for the support to Qawwals as they need to sustain their art.