The Qawwali Project - An Untold Story

During the Mehfil-e-Sama, Assembly of Listening, Along with the lead Qawwal, there is a chorus of four or five men who repeat key verses and follow the intensity of the lead Qawwal who leads the verse and they follow his mood with their eyes on him and simultaneously aid the percussion by the rhythmic clapping of hands, all this taking the audience on a spiritual ecstasy.

saiyan sajilay torey naina rasilay, jiyaraa par kar gayo vaar re…
Listen to one of the traditional centuries old composition of this silsila sung as a Qawwali on this link

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.