CHENNAI: The stage had the entire qawwali party preparing for the performance in front of an enthused audience, including the Nawabzada of Arcot among them and other known faces from the city. While the mics were being adjusted and the instruments tuned, from out of nowhere emerged a skinny boy in white, donning his skull cap while sitting where a lead singer would usually sit. The audience, visibly unsure of what the boy was capable of, was left gobsmacked when he started to sing.
Emraan Raja Sabri from Hazratpur Ali Shah Kalander, Panipat, Haryana, a 13-year-old, was trained for years in Kirana Gharana and has sufi qawwali in his blood. Performing as part of a charity event organised by Amir Khusro Sangeet Academy started by the head of AR Rahman’s Sufi section and city-based Sangam Foundation, Emraan and his party of qawwals, performed in Chennai for the first time, enthralling the few patrons of sufi music in the city.
Having begun singing at the tender age of seven, Emraan emerged as quite the prodigy with performances at dargahs in UP, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. The confident lead qawwali singer on stage is rather shby off stage. “I started singing by learning and watching my grandfather Iqbal Afzal Sabri. His style went from high tenor to low, going back and forth. I grasped on to that,” he says.
Evidently, he found a mentor in his father too. “After my uncle, my father started training me and you can see how much in sync we are when on stage,” he says, pointing to his father, who would provide vocals whenever Emraan’s voice would falter or he’d pause on stage. “My camaraderie with the party (group) helps too. I needn’t give them a sign or signal. There’s a lot to learn from each one of them,” he adds. Emraan’s qawwali party consists of his father Sarfaraz Sabri (vocals), Maula Hussain (dholak), Amir Warsi (chorus), Mubarak (banjo), and Khadir Hussain (tabla).
Unlike other teenagers, Emraan has no time to play videogames or any other frivolity. “I hardly get the time to engage in other things. My singing keeps me occupied. I practice around three to five hours a day,” he admits. “But it is a passion that runs in
my blood.”
When he’s not singing, he writes qalaams (philosophical writing), seeking inspiration from his grandfather or Amir Khusrow. “I write qalaams about things that are happening, about love, devotional praise and more. But I usually write to myself. Most of the qalaams that I recite on stage are written by my grandfather,” he says.
On stage, between his performances, Emraan likes to break into an occasional shayari (poem), speaking about communal harmony, broken dreams in the sky, the humble man in front of his god, and many more. When asked what he looks to pursue in the future, he smiles. “This…I long to do this forever.”