The Jubilee Concerts led by Salim Sulaiman and his team, accompanied by Raj Pandit, Vipul Mehta, Jonita Gandhi, Sattar Khan, and Ismaili Taijk artist Nobovar Chanorov performed in Mumbai and Hyderabad during March this year after journeying and performing at Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto. The audience got a different flavour of music through the varied musical performances of Sattar Khan and his team. Who must have thought that this young lad from Rajasthan who surprised everyone with his flawless voice during the audition of Indian Idol (2010) years ago, would now be performing with the Indian Idol Judge Salim Merchant himself. He was only 16 years old then. Not only the judges but the viewers too were awestruck by his performance. Salim-Sulaiman embraced him with open hands. It wasn’t an easy journey for Sattar Khan, he faced many hardships and is now living his dreams.. He belongs to the Manganhar or Manganiar community. They are the Langha and Muslim community in Sindh, Pakistan and the deserts of Rajasthan, India, predominant in the districts of Barmer and Jaisalamer. They are groups of hereditary professional musicians famous for their classical folk music. Their most prominent musical instruments are the Kamaicha, Khartaal and Dholak. It is surprising to note that though they are Muslims they sing songs in the praise of Hindu deities, upholding the secular status of our country. Manganhar literally means beggars and some note-worthy musicians of this community include Kachra Khan, Sakar Khan and Swaroop Khan amongst others. Sattar Khan and his team’s music blissfully energized the audiences during the Jubilee concerts.
Ismaili Tajik artist Nobovar and his music group ‘Shams’ enthralled the audiences with songs like ‘Ya Ali Madad’ and soulful Qasida ‘Saaqi ye Ba Wafa Manam.’ It was a unique experience for many audiences as they had heard this group singing for the first time.
From the passionate ‘Aye Khuda’, to the emotional ‘Ali Mawla’, to the zestful ‘Ainyi- Ainyi’, Salim- Sulaiman made sure that the audiences had a gala time. Raj Pandit, Vipul Mehta, Sukkriti Kakkar and Jonita Gandhi excellently accompanied the duo, some at Mumbai and others at Hyderabad and made the event effervescent. The song ‘Jubilee Mubarak’ highly resonated with the on going jubiliation and gave goosebumps to the audiences.
The evening left wonderful memories of the Diamond Jubilee in the hearts of all!!
