Her voice invokes the soul of Sufi

Lilting melody

Her innate quality to bring mysticism in her music has made her extremely popular among the masses. B­o­rn in UP, trained in Delhi and now working in Mumbai, sufi singer Kavita Seth, who shot to fame with Iktara from Wa­ke Up Sid, has come of age to experiment and innovate with various styles in her genre.  

While she is “Open to all genres,” her priority is a “Go­od qalaam.” It is the desire to sing good poetry that draws her to a song. Probably because, “It is in my name, ‘Kavita’!” smiles the songstress whose every single melody has been a chartbuster since she ventured in the Hindi cinema industry. 

“When I chose Tum Hi Ho Bandhu (from Cocktail), I read the poetry and agreed to sing even without hearing the melody. I sang it in my sufiana andaaz which did justice  to the song since my thought was pure,” she informs, adding with firm conviction that “Sufi is a pure thought.”

She believes in the power of poetry that shapes the lyrics. “It is the ‘word’ in which the meaning is hidden and is capable of elevating a song to its fate. After listening to Tum..., people thought I was comfortable singing a disco song and offered me various item numbers or mujra songs. I refused them all humbly. The final m­u­­sic of my songs might cha­n­­ge, but the base line on wh­i­ch I select them will remain the same,” that is ‘Sufi’. 

It is for the same reason that she said ‘no’ to even the popular Hookah Bar song. “Himeshji (Reshammiya) came to me with it and I was left aghast reading its lyrics. Kuch saaf suthre shabd hote to mai sochti bhi. But this was far from being poetic and had we­ird usage of words,” reveals Kavita who had a tough time refusing the music director-producer of Khiladi 786 but “could not go against the purity of my soul.”

The significance of placement of a song in a film, is so­mething she cannot deny, considering the sour experience of her debut song “In Vaada which was attached to 9/11. Its results would have be­en different if it wouldn’t have been pi­c­turised on a newly-wed couple,” reckons the ar­t­i­s­te who bows to the director’s vision but ensures “to watch the first-day-first-show of the film” and experience the public resp­o­n­se to her song. 

“‘Sufi’ is being popularised now, but has always been present in different forms. Earlier qa­w­w­ali was quite popular an­d later Sufi came up, but today it is in a little diluted form. But some people add 2-3 words li­ke ‘maula’, ‘allah’ a­n­d think it has become a Sufi song. However, those songs which maintain purity, sustain, while the rest fizzle out,” says the crooner who is all set to enliven Sufi traditi­o­ns, along with other artistes, at World Sufi Spirit Festival. 

“It is a huge platform since artistes from across the world will be present,” she states excitedly looking forward to sing some of her album songs at the festival. “People who li­ke to listen to a particular genre, will always be present. It is not like after the demise of Jagjit Singhji, people have stopped listening to ghazals!”