W H E N P O E T RY is woven around music, their effect is amplified. Mohammad Muneem of Alif pens his poetic verses in Urdu and Kashmiri, while Ulrike Almut has published four poetry collections, two short story collections and four albums of poetry and music in Germany. When these Kashmiri and German talents crossed paths and visited the city, they had the music aficionado floored. We got to enjoy a tête-a-tête with Alif and Ulrike on their maiden trip to the city.
How did the Indo-German collaboration happen?
Mohammad Muneem: We first got together in 2016 at a poetry festival in Mumbai where the concert was a sold out performance at Edward theatre. Ulrike Almut Sandig has published her poetry and albums back in Germany. I write Urdu/Kashmiri poetry with contemporary music. Alif was formed in 2008, while my first stage performance was in 1998. Poetry has a language of its own. We did spend quite some time absorbing each other’s poetry. Every piece she had written I wrote a counter piece in Urdu or Kashmiri and vice versa. We wrote fresh verses, composed fresh music and infused it with existing compositions as well to create a new piece.
Isn’t plain poetry more powerful or effective in conveying a message than fusing it with music?
MM: Music helps to remember poetry better. A purist may think poetry should be in its original form, but the fact is, irrespective of poetry being in a composition form or not, it has its own beher (merit) which helps it stay intact and makes it beautiful. (Beher is very close to a musical composition of a poetry) We must look at making poetry cool and beautiful. Change is the only constant.
What are the themes that your performances deal with?
Ulrike Almut: I am driven by the two perspectives of every thought: darkness and light, presence and absence, north and south, past and future. I try to write poetry that looks at things from two views, with the means of language and sound.
MM: My pen generally ponders on themes of self-conscience, society, inter-personal conflict, and celebrating darkness.
What is the process for creating a piece? Does poetry come first or is it the other way round?
The purpose of poetry or music or any form of art is to make the artiste and their audience feel something. That something could be anything. It’s not necessary that your art will be loved, but it has to be honest. This is the ground for everything. It doesn’t matter whether music comes first or poetry.
What is your inspiration?
UA: My inspiration is the world we live in as well as its absence, and the sound of language.
MM: The unseen is the biggest inspiration for me. I absolutely believe in tassawuff (Sufism).
What are your upcoming projects?
MM: We are working forward to sharing a lot more content of ours. We had some tangible achievements last year. The highlight has been our feature in Imtiyaz Ali’s Laila Majnu. I also received the Best Music Video award at the Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival 2018 for Lalnawath. Also, I will be co-writing dialogues for Sanjay Dutt’s film Torbaaz.