Singer Bismil Is Taking Mehfils to New Places and Audiences

The artist, inspired by the likes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Jaun Elia, speaks about a recent North American tour and what's next

- ANURAG TAGAT

FROM A BILLBOARD in Times Square in New York City to audiences in North America, vocalist Bismil has carved out a place for himself by modernizing traditional performances known as mehfils, where poetry, music and dance combine. At his mehfils, Bismil performs occasionally with a live band and also assumes his place on a chair, book in hand and reads out shayaris to audiences.

It seems like each element of Bismil's mehfils are to keep an audience engaged or at least satiated with some kind of entertainment, and all of this very much aligns with the core idea of the atmosphere that mehfils have been conducted in for centuries. Outside of the tours, Bismil has also been steadily building up his studio game, releasing his version of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's "Kali Kali Zulfon Ke Phande," plus a sort of mashup of "Tumhe Dillagi" and "Halka Halka Suroor." It helps that Bollywood soundtracks too have dipped back into qawwalis and ghazals over time, which Bismil often posts cover versions of, to his YouTube channel.

In an interview with Rolling Stone India, Bismil takes about taking his mehfils to India and North America, retaining the essence of such performance formats and what's next.

Excerpts: What has the journey been like to bring in younger, modern audiences for mehfils? Especially around the world now, not just in India?