A Kashmiri serenader comes to town

Ali Saffudin

The song, sung by Kashmiri poet Habba Khatoon, is about her wandering the hills of Kashmir, looking for someone she has lost. In that way, it connected with our film on many levels," says director Ashvin Kumar, of the song Roshay, from his film No Fathers in Kashmir, which releases this week.

The film, about a local Kashmiri boy helping a teenage British Kashmiri retrace her roots, has already been talked about, as it tackles issues about the Valley at a sensitive time. The song, which the director likens to the Rajasthani folk song Padharo Mhare Desh, is a song every Kashmiri grew up listening to. "It's the quintessential Kashmiri song, and Habba Khatoon wrote it for her partner, the king of Kashmir, Yousuf Shah Chak. It has stunning parallels with our movie," he says.

Ashvin Kumar

The story of the song is an interesting one, and it could be destiny that it's ended up here. Through the years, Roshay has fascinated Kashmiri musicians and has several renditions dedicated to it. The one that made the cut was popular singer Ali Saffudin's version, sung next to the Dal Lake. Kumar had taken a bunch of Kashmiri folk music to France to musicians and producers Loïc Dury and Christophe Minck. After much digging, the two were haunted by the melody of Roshay. "I took it to them as I wanted the folk-y music to have an international sound. They then decided they would create the whole soundtrack, pegging it on this one song. So, the soundtrack of the movie is a melodic and musical reflection of Roshay." Once Kumar made them listen to Saffudin's version, they cleaned up the vocals, and added the bluesy elements.

It works well that Saffudin's biggest influences are blues legends such as Robert Johnson. The 26-year-old, who is deeply influenced by the way blues musicians express their feelings, wanted to play the Kashmiri folk song on a modern instrument as his ode to it.

His Dal Lake session is a one-take performance that's both soulful and catchy. "I have understood the guitar better through Blues," he says. He is happy with his rendition finding space in the movie, as he feels the French producers have refined it, all the while keeping the soul intact. "It's really been one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. In the movie, Into the Wild, there is a moment when Eddie Vedder's voice resonates in the mountains. My song and voice has also been given the same treatment in this movie." He is also quite keen that the movie is seen across the country. "It brings up narratives from the Valley that are being blocked my mainstream media. And, mediums like this are the ways to tell them."

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