Recreating Rumi’s poetry

Brought up in Baraeli, Kavita Seth moved to Mumbai a couple of years ago to make a career out of her very “Sufi” voice. After the success of 'Ektara' from Wake Up Sid and the release of her latest album Sufiana, Seth is raring to go.

“I started getting involved in Sufi music after watching Sufi Fakir’s sing at Durgah’s in Baraeli. I sang bhajans, but I didn’t feel the same intoxication as Sufi music,” says Seth of her earlier days.
 
In her latest album, Sufiana, Seth has recreated Rumi’s poetry, even translated certain words into simple Hindi, making it easy to understand. “Persian is for the intellectual crowd. I wanted the common person to also understand the music. My aim is to take Sufi music to as many people as possible including the young.”

What helped is that she has learnt Persian from the Iranian scholars. “You can’t bring soul to Sufi without understanding the meaning of it,” she says, adding, “I have sent AR Rahman an authentic Persian recording complete with the Arabic feel and accent.” 

How did the album come about? “I had performed at the international Sufi festival organised on the occasion of Maulana Rumi’s 800th birthday. I performed on some of my own compositions and there were many musicians from Iran and Afghanistan at the festival. People loved them. So after consulting people on the ones they liked the most, I recorded them for my album,” says Seth. 

Music directors have shown interest in her distinct Sufi voice, but Seth is all set to sing a completely different song for Amit Trivedi’s next film as music director. “People will be surprised. He’s made me do something completely different.”