Tête-à-tête
Shikha Rouf: A promising Nazrul singer
Ahsan Habib
Talented upcoming Nazrul singer Shikha Rouf started taking music lessons in her school days. She completed a five-year course in Classical and Nazrul songs in 1986 from Chhayanat. Eminent artistes Sohrab Hossain, Narayan Chandra Bosak, Anjali Roy, Shudhin Das, Shaheen Samad are among her gurus. She also received taalim from Ustad Phool Muhammad in classical music. She prefers Nazrul's ghazals, kirtan, Islamic and romantic songs. Shikha has an album of Nazrul songs to her credit to date. The album Anjali Laho Mor was released in 2003. Production of the album was done in Kolkata. In 2002 she had been to Kolkata on a cultural exchange tour along with Yaqub Ali Khan. Explaining the limited number of released Nazrul sangeet albums, she says, "The music companies are hesitant to release albums of Nazrul songs as they don't consider the genre lucrative. They are more enthusiastic about popular artistes. Young artistes have to face several impediments." She is also cynical about the current situation of Nazrul songs, as taking it professionally has become an arduous job for young artistes. She is now working on an album of adhunik gaan. She won the first prize in a national hamd and naat competition organised by BTV. In 1992, during her university days, she became the champion in a music competition organised by DUCSU. Sikha Rouf is currently working as an Assistant Professor of music at University Laboratory School and College. She is also involved with Nazrul Sangeet Shilpi Sangstha. She practices adhunik and folk songs along with Nazrul songs. She is an enlisted Grade A artiste in adhunik and Nazrul song category at BTV. On her future plan she says, "I want to work towards popularising the melodious tunes of Nazrul maintaining the original gaayaki."
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Shikha Rouf |
