Pitch perfect pair: How nadaswaram duo Kaleeshabi Mahaboob and Mahaboob Subhani carry forward the syncretic tradition of Indian music Premium
The Hindu
When Kaleeshabi Mahaboob, Padma Shri awardee and the first Indian Muslim woman to perform nadaswaram on stage, says she almost gave up music once to take up tailoring, it feels unbelievable. Because what the world stood to lose had that happened was a divine experience. On stage, flanked by her husband Sheik Mahaboob Subhani (also a Padma Shri recipient) and her son Firose Babu, Kaleeshabi with her nadaswaram is a force to reckon.
When Kaleeshabi Mahaboob, Padma Shri awardee and the first Indian Muslim woman to perform nadaswaram on stage, says she almost gave up music once to take up tailoring, it feels unbelievable. Because what the world stood to lose had that happened was a divine experience. On stage, flanked by her husband Sheik Mahaboob Subhani (also a Padma Shri recipient) and her son Firose Babu, Kaleeshabi with her nadaswaram is a force to reckon.
Artistes from a Muslim family practising what is perceived as temple art may seem like an awe-inspiring exception, especially in deeply divisive times. But the couple say they don’t get the fuss about religion.
“What about Bismillah Khan? Parveen Sultana? Zakir Hussain? Yesudas? Isn’t what they create also music?” she asks.
Along with all those legendary names she quotes, Kaleeshabi and Mahaboob are personifications of India’s rich syncretic art tradition and living examples of how boundaries start blurring where music begins.
It’s the eve of Dasara. At the Indian Institute of World Culture in Bengaluru, Kaleeshabi in a navy-blue silk saree with orange and golden borders, and Mahaboob in his white silk jubba, looks refreshed and recovered from the pangs of the long journey they took the day before from Tiruchirappalli to Bengaluru, by road.
They get on the stage, adjust their positions, tune the instruments, and then, begin.
‘Raghunayaka ni pada yuga...’ the Thyagaraja keerthana in Hamsadhwani flows from the nadaswarams, accompanied by the beats of Tavil and Talam.
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When Kaleeshabi Mahaboob, Padma Shri awardee and the first Indian Muslim woman to perform nadaswaram on stage, says she almost gave up music once to take up tailoring, it feels unbelievable. Because what the world stood to lose had that happened was a divine experience. On stage, flanked by her husband Sheik Mahaboob Subhani (also a Padma Shri recipient) and her son Firose Babu, Kaleeshabi with her nadaswaram is a force to reckon.
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