A chorus in the valley
Brunch|April 1, 2023
Kashmiri band Alif sings songs about lost dreams, strong women and more, in three languages. There's headbanging too
Riddhi Doshi
A chorus in the valley

The 18th Century Gobindgarh fort in Amritsar is an unlikely venue for a headbanging concert. Much less at the Sacred Amritsar music and poetry festival, where the evening acts typically cover Kabir couplets and renditions of devotional poetry and folk and classical songs.

So, when Kashmiri singer-songwriter and composer Mohammad Muneem, took the stage, dressed in a black suit and trousers, his feet bare, audiences had no idea what to expect. “How many of you have heard us before?” he asked the crowd. Only two hands went up.

ONE'S STRUGGLES OF BEING OR NOT BEING A KASHMIRI DON'T MATTER. EVERYONE EXPERIENCES STRUGGLE, VULNERABILITY, ABANDONMENT

It didn’t bother him. Muneem goes by the stage name Alif and is the founder and vocalist of Alif, a four-person band that also includes pianist Aditya Bhandarkar, drummer Kabeer Singh and guitarist Shivam Pant. They perform rap, rock and Kashmiri folk music in Urdu, Koshur and Hindi. For the next 90 minutes, they got right down to it, playing songs about women’s hardships, the rat race, grief, college memories, hope and love. Mun e em occasionally translated a few lyrics from the Urdu and Koshur songs in his deep baritone. The audience started out clapping along, and ended up, yes , headbanging.

この記事は Brunch の April 1, 2023 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は Brunch の April 1, 2023 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

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