AFD to launch book on Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

The capital’s French language and cultural centre Alliance Française de Dhaka is all set to host the launching event of Bangla translated version of the popular book ‘Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Le messager du qawwali’ by Dr Pierre-Alain Baud today (September 16). The event will take place at the La Galerie at Alliance Française de Dhaka premises.

The discussion and a musical concert will follow the book launch event, slated to begin at 6 pm. Additionally, a selection of films on Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan will start screening before the event from 4 pm at Auditorium Nouvelle Vague inside AFD.

The book is based on the life of the legendary career of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan PP, who was a Pakistani Punjabi singer, songwriter, and music director. He was primarily a singer of qawwali — a form of Sufi devotional music and later on gained massive popularity as a playback singer and music director in the Indian film industry, commonly known as Bollywood.

He is considered by The New York Times to be the greatest Sufi singer in the Punjabi and Urdu languages and one of the greatest qawwali singers in history. He was described as the fourth greatest singer of all time by LA Weekly in 2016. He was known for his vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours.

He died of a sudden cardiac arrest at Cromwell Hospital in London on 16 August 1997, aged 48.

The book launch event is open to all with a first come, first served policy.