Kiran Ahluwalia
Beyond Boundaries
For her new collection of ghazals and Punjabi folk songs, Canadian ghazalist Kiran Ahluwalia has culled a number of pieces from poets living in Toronto; Tahira Masood, Rafi Raza, and Rasheed Nadeem, writing either in Urdu or Punjabi. It's an interesting development and no doubt an encouraging one for local poets writing in languages other than English; the ghazal-lover might be tempted to grab it just for the sake of these archival virtues.

The disc begins and ends with two excellent tracks. Tahira Masood's ghazal "Vo Kuch" kicks it off with a funky guitar lead-in, turning into a quick-paced tune with simple poetry and a torrid edge to the melody, like something that should be sung indoors on a warm night. On track 9, Kiran does a very traditional rendition of a very traditional Punjabi song, "Meri Gori Gori Mangdi Kalai," sung to a steady dhol beat with occasional flights of the bhansuri. Typically, Kiran's voice is very sweet, and as such it's better suited to slow or mid-tempo music; here she wisely refrains from letting the speed of the song get out of control, and as a result her singing barely misses a beat. Besides, it's always fun to hear a bunch of Punjabi men chanting something like "O gori! O gori!" (As with so many South Asian songs -- with the exception of Vital Signs' "Sanwli Saloni" -- you have to give yourself over to the song and overlook the valorization of white skin.)

One of the most entrancing bits of the album is hearing Shamsudeen Masroor's beautiful rebab, picking up with feigned hesitation after Kafi Azmi's couplet on "Main Dhoondta Hoon" --

wuh tír mil ga'í jis se huá qatl merá
kisí ke háth ká us par nishá~ nahí~ miltá

I've found the arrow
that murdered me. I haven't found
the traces of a hand upon it.

-- and as the ghazal progresses, the sound of the sonorously picked rebab-strings is like the tugging of bowstrings winging those arrows into the heart of the careful listener. More good music ensues with Shamsudeen's performance on the all-too-brief "Bechain," threaded through by Ramesh Misra's sarangi flowing like some sombre wine, almost tactile in its effects. Kiran joins in with a nice sargam, focusing on a single line of poetry.

There are tracks here that take some time to get into, no doubt, such as "Yeh Nahin" or "Ik Ranjha," whose melodies seem weak in places. Nevertheless, Kiran's second effort is easily comparable in quality to her first album Kashish, and musicians like Masroor and Misra make it well worth a taste.

Reviewed by Mohamad Khan

SAMPLE AUDIO CLIPS

1. Vo Kuch >>>
2. Main Dhoondta Hoon >>>
3. Meri Gori Gori >>>