Kashmir rocks: Alif and the chorus from the valley

Four-person band Alif sings songs about lost dreams, strong women and more, in three languages. There’s headbanging too

The 18th Century Gobindgarh fort in Amritsar is an unlikely venue for a headbanging concert. Much less at the Sacred Amritsar music and poetry festival, where the evening acts typically cover Kabir couplets and renditions of devotional poetry and folk and classical songs.

Musician Mohammad Muneem, founder and frontman of Alif, is an engineer and MBA who left his MNC job to pursue poetry and music.

Alif’s debut album, Sufayed, which released in 2017, celebrates the resilience of Kashmiri women in the aftermath of the 2014 floods, with the song, Jhelum.

Alif’s single, Like a Sufi, won the Indian Recording Arts Academy Award in 2021. Last year, their song Ride won the Indian Independent Music Award for best folk song.