The sound of Charkha
Carefully constructed by Rohail Hyatt, Charkha is a sonic delight. The visual landscape reminds one of a desert in bloom. The musicality is sparse but tasteful (barring the remixes of 'Charkha' and 'Tere Bin', that gradually race thumping into a manic assaulting beat, but more on those later). The album opens with the sublime 'Charkha', that reworking one of the immortal kalams of Bulleh Shah, that puts a whole new spin on the phrase 'the wheel keeps on turning'. With the twang of a guitar occassionally interjecting the more consistent percussion that seems to be modelled on the clapping that traditionally accompanies a qawwali performance, Rahat's vocals build up to the chant 'Aaja Har Charkhe De Gheray Main Tainoon Yaad Kardi'. The sound is modern and yet familiar because the form of qawwali is not interfered with and that has been Rohail Hyatt's aim throughout the album.

There were songs that had to be rewritten and simplified. Like the second track that opens with the words 'Mohe Ang Ang Baje Madhur Bansuri, Torey Yaadon Ki Chhaiyyaan Taley', which is adapted from the Sufic song that goes 'Moray Makhdoom Bajay Madhur Bansuri Teray Gullar Ki Chhaiyaan Taley'. Makhdoom was a saint in India and the song describes him playing the flute under the shade of the gullar tree.

Ahmed Anis, a childhood friend of Rahat's has adapted the lyrics to make them more listener friendly for a greater audience.

"The qawwalis are in so many dialects that the average listener wouldn't be able to understand them. We changed the lyrics to make them more accessible," Faisal Rafi tells Instep. "But there was also the respect factor. Hazrat Makhdoom was a saint, and the minute you put out an album in India, chances are the videos will feature semi-clad women dancing to the songs. We didn't want to disrespect Sufi saints."
Yet, Faisal is quick to pint out: "Anis Ahmed redid the lyrics, but the soul is the same. 'Makhdoom' is replaced with 'Ang Ang' and 'Gullar 'with 'Yaad'. The substitute is true to what Sufis sing about."

It's an intelligent logic and one that Rohail Hyatt and Faisal Rafi applied while going about remaking and rewriting with Rahat and his team. These ancient qawwalis that are truly the songs of the soil. And there is something about them that gets people whether they understand the language or not. Eddie Vedder came under the magic of Nusrat's craft, as did Jeff Buckley, Peter Gabriel and Michael Brooks and countless others. Charkha puts Rahat Fateh Ali Khan on the plain that Michael Brooks put Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on with Night Songs. Charkha is world music that the people anywhere in the world would respond... as they did with Nusrat. And it is the perfect launch for Rahat at a time when he has shed the slightly shrill nervous voice to sing from the heart (and the stomach at times) as his uncle had foreseen he would.

The significance of Charkha
At Rohail Hyatt's Coke Studio recently, it was Rahat's performance that was the most riveting out of all the artists. He's acquired the same quality Nusrat had of hypnotizing you with the power of his voice and the control he exerts over it. Rahat can make his voice ring out to the heavens and take it down to the soothing effect of falling rain. And like any classical musician, he will only get better with time.
Success has come also much easier to Rahat than it did for his uncle. While Nusrat broke out into the West and the world at large rather late in life, he was touching 50, Rahat has made it much younger and with India under his belt, he is perfectly poised to take on the mission his uncle began.

"Many have said I have compromised my faith by coming to the West. But this is not so. To travel the world and open the hearts of those whose were previously closed is a joy worth the other sacrifices," said Nusrat in an interview to Andy Carvin while he was alive. It was a man speaking about the opposition to his openness towards collaborating with Westerners within the classical music gharanas of Pakistan. Yet Nusrat reached out to the world because he realised that like all things, qawwali too must evolve.
As Pakistan, with the rise of media and a young population, becomes a different place in sync with the rest of the world, it is imperative that qawwali change tack and reach out to both the younger audience and the world at large. This is what Charkha does for Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and it is important that he carry on this path even as he chases those Bollywood hits that can make a Pakistani musicians' career these days.

One doubts that Rohail Hyatt's production of Charkha can have rivals amongst Bollywood music composers (the only person one can discount is AR Rahman) who are very good at making filmi songs. The problem with Rahat's Bollywood foray has been that the songs he has sung there employ him as a fine singer and are pleasing to the ear, but they lose the intensity of his art which is qawwali. Nusrat also fell into this trap when he did songs like 'Afreen Afreen' with tacky instrumentation that did no justice to his craft. And then there were also gems like 'Piya Re'. And ironically, the best Rahat Fateh Ali Khan song after 'Jiya Dhadak Dhadak Jaye' has been 'O Re Piya' from the film Aaja Nachle; the rest have been hack jobs.

With Charkha, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan gets a brilliant showcase, in front of which his forays into Bollywood fall short. One hopes that there is a sequel to this album and that it is put together as thoughtfully and tastefully as Charkha.