Ali Sethi

Ali Sethi
Born Ali Sethi
(1984-07-02) July 2, 1984
Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Residence Lahore, Pakistan
Alma mater Harvard University
Occupation
  • singer
  • musician
  • writer
  • columnist
Parent(s) Najam Sethi
Jugnu Mohsin
Family

Mira Sethi (sister)
Moni Mohsin (aunt)

Musical career

Genres Classical
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitars
  • piano
  • Harmonium
Labels
  • True Brew
Associated acts Coke Studio

Ali Sethi (born 1984) is a Pakistani writer and musician, the son of journalists Najam Sethi and Jugnu Mohsin and a disciple of Ustad Naseeruddin Saami of the Delhi Gharana.

Life and career

Early life

Growing up in Lahore, Sethi attended Aitchison College where he excelled in academics and extra-curricular activities. In 2000, after performing with distinction in his ‘O’ Level exams, he was awarded a Full College Academic Blazer and the Godley Medal for Distinction in English Language. The CIE board of examiners also adjudged his English Literature exam ‘Best in the World’.

In 2002 Sethi won admission to Harvard University , where he majored in South Asian Studies. At Harvard Sethi studied literature and writing with Zadie Smith, Amitav Ghosh and James Wood, among others.

Writing

"The Wish Maker, in Ali Sethi's mature and sure-handed prose, is an engaging family saga, an absorbing coming-of-age story, and an illuminating look at one of the world's most turbulent regions. Ali Sethi steadfastly resists the usual cliché's about both Islam and his native country. Instead, he offers a nuanced, often humorous, and always novel look at life in modern day Pakistan."
– Khaled Hosseini reviewed The Wish Maker[1]

In 2009 Sethi published ‘The Wish Maker’, a coming-of-age novel set in a bickering upper-middle-class Lahore household. The book was published to critical acclaim around the world. The New York Times called it “a first-rate novel”, noting that “Sethi’s prose evokes the comic mislocutions of Jonathan Safran Foer and the vertiginous mania of Zadie Smith.”[2] The Wall Street Journal noted: “Mr. Sethi is especially alive to the emotional contours of young love, its modes of courtship, its methods of subterfuge… Mr. Sethi's prose, always lucid, often soars to illuminate the quotidian.”[3]

The novel was long-listed for the DSC Prize for Literature and the Shakti Bhatt First Book Award.

Sethi has also written reportage and literary criticism, most notably an eyewitness account of the Indus flood of 2010 for The New York Times;[4] a revisionist essay on the life and legacy of Urdu short-story writer Saadat Hassan Manto for The New Yorker;[5] and a groundbreaking profile of the Pakistani ghazal singer Farida Khanum for The Caravan.[6]

Music

Soon after graduating from Harvard, Sethi returned to Lahore and apprenticed himself to the classical vocalist Naseeruddin Saami. While training with Saami, Sethi began to perform at literature festivals and drew acclaim for his surprising musical talent. A report in The New York Times, responding to his rendition of Urdu poetry at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2010, dubbed him a “Pakistani wunderkind.”[7] In 2012 he recorded a rendition of Javed Qureshi’s ‘Dil Jalane Ki Baat’ for Mira Nair’s ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist.’ Since then he has recorded regularly for film and TV, most notably Sarmad Khoosat’s ‘Manto’ (2015) and A-Plus’s ‘Yeh Mera Deewanapan’ (2015). He also made his debut on the popular Coke Studio platform in 2015 with a rendition of Asad Amanat Ali’s ‘Umran Langiyaan’,[8] which proved to be one of the most popular songs of the season. Reviewing his performance in Live Mint, renowned Indian classical vocalist Shubha Mudgal observed: “Sethi’s voice bears the unmistakable signs of taaleem and riyaaz, that is, of being both well-trained and well-rehearsed. But it is the bit of heartbreak in his voice that makes his singing sit apart for me. This is not an attribute that can be imparted by training. Neither can it be carefully cultivated. It really is an inexplicable quality that a singer is lucky to be gifted with.”[9]

Filmography

Sethi has sung following songs in films, television and music programs.

Film

Television

Bibliography

Discography

Cover singles

Original singles

Accolades

2016: Best Playback Singer - Male - "Aah Ko Chahiye" - pending

References

External links

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