Sunidhi Chauhan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan light up Sufi festival in Dubai

A day earlier, Bollywood maestro AR Rahman had performed live at the same venue, kicking off the two-day Sufi festival.

Sunidhi was the first to take the stage and began with her biggest Bollywood hits such as ‘Sajna ve Sajna’ and ‘Ishq Sufiana’.

She then moved to Sufi songs of legendary singers such as Reshma, Fareeda Khanum, Jagjit Singh and Mehdi Hasan. Her concluding performance went well past midnight with the ever popular ‘Beedi Jalaile’ song from Omkara.

Before Rahat took the stage, a minute-long silence was observed in memory of those killed in Taliban attack in Peshawar.

Khan began with a medley of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s Sufiana qawwalis. When he got back to his Bollywood numbers such as Veer’s ‘Surilli Ankhiyon Waale’, Sunidhi got back on stage to join Rahat to complete the duet.

After a string of breathtaking qawwalis such as ‘Mast Najron se Allah Bachaye’ and ‘Yeh Jo Halka Halka suroor hai’, he swept the audience off their feet with his hit Bollywood numbers such as Dabang-2 song ‘Daghabaaz Re’, ‘Dabang’s’ ‘Tere Mast Mast Do Nain’ and ‘Teri Meri, Meri Teri Prem Kahani Hai Mushkil’ from the movie Bodyguard.

Singer Mika Singh was also present among the crowd, comprising mostly of Indians and Pakistanis.

The audiences’ enthusiasm was however dampened by some bad floor management and lack of communication from organisers.

As per the ticket, the event was scheduled for a 9 pm start, but was later rescheduled to 10pm with a large number
of audience unaware of the change. The show eventually got underway at 10:45 pm, which angered the crowd.