The Qawwali Project – An Untold Story

The young Qutubi Brothers are from a family that has performed at the shrine of Hazrat Qutubuddin Bhaktiyar Kaki for generations, and take their name from the saint. The Sufis believe that music and singing the praises of Allah is also a way to reach the Almighty. The songs are usually 15-20 minute long and the Qawwals keep changing the songs as listeners stand quietly, informally, within the premises with their own individual connect to the music, to the Saint, the Pir.
A steady stream of devotees keep walking in through covered passages lined with shops selling offerings of flowers, incense, the chadar (cloth covering) and in all its simplicity of joined voices, clapping, a harmonium and a percussion tabla, it is this music becomes their voice of prayer to the Saint.

The Qawwali Project, is an initiative conceptualized by Manjari Chaturvedi where the untold story of Qawwali unfolds through the eyes of photographers. The practitioners are photo-documented with their performance art, their lives and their association with the Sufi shrines where they perform. Qawwali is the performance art and Qawwal is the practitioner. This is an attempt by the Sufi Kathak Foundation to document the traditions as they exist at the shrines itself.