Mohammad Muneem

Mohammad Muneem was born in 1983 in Srinagar in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in India. Muneem attended the all-boys Tyndale Biscoe School in Srinagar.[1] At age nine, he was sent to a boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, where he felt abandoned.[2] He moved back to Srinagar after two and a half years. He performed for the first time at the age of 15 in 1998, at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre in Srinagar for a NIIT event.[3] Muneem grew up in Srinagar amidst the violence of the 1990s and early 2000s insurgency in the region, which has had an influence on his artistry.[4][5] In 2000, he began learning how to play the guitar, on his own.[6] He moved to Pune in 2001 for higher studies, graduated with a degree in engineering and went on to pursue a master's degree in business administration. He states that he suffered a hate crime in 2003, in which he was badly injured.[4][5]

Muneem started a youtube channel and made an account on Reverbnation in 2007, where he uploaded cover versions of old Kashmiri songs.[7] He co-founded a rock band called Highway 61—a reference to the Bob Dylan album— with Hardik Vaghela and other college friends of his in Pune in 2008, after quitting his job at a MNC.[2][7][5] This band was later signed by a production house and renamed Alif,[7] after the first letter of the Urdu alphabet, symbolising 'that which is unseen, strongly united' and 'the oneness of everything'.[8] Other members of the band include Amit Gadgil, Aman Moroney and Karan Chitra Deshmukh.[8]

He created his first masterpiece Khair by Alif at IMDb alongside Hardik Vaghela and Vibhas Sawar in 2013. The band performed on an episode of Indian TV show Coke Studio @ MTV in 2013 with their rendition of Sahibo Sath Chum Mei Chenei, a Kashmiri prayer by poet Mehjoor. In 2014, they recorded a rendition of folk song Cheerith for Kappa TV.[6] The band released an album called Sufayed in 2017, the success of which brought them mainstream popularity.[9] The music video of Lalnawath, one of the songs of the album, won the best music video award at the 2018 Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival.[9] Another song from the album, Jhelumas, also became popular.

In December 2018, the band released a single called Ride Home featuring Kashmiri folk artist Noor Mohammad.[10][11] It was a recreation of an older version of popular ballad Wafadar Mouji.[12] Muneem stated that he wished to document old-school artists and preserve their artistry. Such traditional artists declined due to imposition of conservative social codes during the militancy.[11] A song of his was also used in the 2018 Hindi-language Indian film Laila Majnu by director Imtiaz Ali. Muneem states that Ali used the song Katyu Chuko without letting them know, but had it credited to the band.[4] In 2019, Muneem was roped in to write dialogue for the film Torbaaz, which also featured a song from his band.[4] The band released their second album, called Siyah, in 2021.[7] They also provided the background score for a 2022 film directed by Shlok Sharma.[13]

Muneem writes poetry in Urdu and Kashmiri. He teaches Urdu poetry at the Symbiosis International University in Pune.[16]

Muneem and his band Alif make music that combines traditional Kashmiri and sufi elements with contemporary western and rock styles. Muneem draws from his experiences growing up in Kashmir during the insurgency. He states that he seeks to project his homeland in a better light and build compassion through his music.[17] The band's music also often tackles societal issues. Their song Jehlumas, for example, is supposed to be an homage to 'the resilience' of Kashmir's women during and after the 2014 floods there,[2] while another song, Malaal kya hua, revolves around clinical depression.[17] Similarly, Kya Karie Korimol is supposed to be both a celebration and critique of weddings in Kashmir.[14]

Muneem is Kashmiri. He divides his time between Mumbai, where he makes his music, Pune, where he teaches and Srinagar, where his family lives.[16]

• Mohammad Muneem at IMDb