Zakir Hussain Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Zakir Hussain
Sound
Biography
Zakir Hussain Qureshi (9 March 1951 – 15 December 2024) was an Indian tabla player, composer, arranger, percussionist, music producer and film actor. The eldest son of esteemed tabla player Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain was widely regarded as the greatest tabla player of his generation and one of its finest percussionists. He produced music across multiple genres and contributed to popularizing Indian classical music to a global audience. Often prefixed by the honorific title of 'Ustad', Hussain was awarded the United States National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship, the highest award given to traditional artists and musicians. He was also given the Government of India's Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1990 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, Ratna Sadsya, in 2018. Hussain received seven Grammy Award nominations, winning four times, including three in 2024. He was described as the most recognizable exponent of the tabla by The Guardian. The New York Times marveled that the "blur of his fingers rivals the beat of a hummingbird's wings." Description above from the Wikipedia article Zakir Hussain, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Saaz
Mansi, the elder sister, has to take up professional singing to support the family after her father's death. The film focuses mainly on the female characters and traces how the younger sibling Bansi regains her identity.
Khayal
Here in this film about the Indian classical music, the sitar maestro Pt. Ravi Shankar and the santoor maestro Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma explaining their concepts of a raga, a gharana, and their world of music. Characteristics of various gharana/schools such as the Jaipur gharana, the Kirana gharana, the Agra gharana, the Patiala gharana, the Mewati gharana are explained along with the contribution made by their leading exponents.
A Tribute To Ismail Merchant
Monkey Man
Kid is an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.
Jazz in Marciac 2018 - Dave Holland, Zakir Hussain, Chris Potter -
Heat and Dust
Anne is investigating the life of her grand-aunt Olivia, whose destiny has always been shrouded with scandal. As Anne delves into the history of her grand-aunt, she is led to reconsider her own life.
Chaalis Chauraasi
Four friends -- Pankaj (Naseeruddin Shah), Bobby (Atul Kulkarni), Shakti Chinappa (Ravi Kissen), Albert Pinto (Kay Kay Menon) -- want to rob a lonely house in a lonely stretch of it's Rs 20 crore fake Indian currency... and the very fake note vending machine that lies in there. Just one problem: They have no plan...
Tabla Beat Science: Talamanam Sound Clash
Filmed June 21, 2002 with 12 cameras at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco, this DVD documents a Tabla Beat Science performance that features founders Zakir Hussain (Tablas) and Bill Laswell (Bass), along with Ustad Sultan Khan (Sarangi and Vocals), Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw (Vocals), Karsh Kale (Drums), DJ Disk (Turntable) and MIDIval PunditZ (Electronics). Directed by Alex Winter.
Way of Beauty - Shakti Timeless
"Shakti Timeless" tells the story of the Indo-Western music group Shakti. Formed in 1975, the group pioneered a groundbreaking and highly influential musical East-meets-West approach. In the 1970s, the group, whose name means creative intelligence, beauty and power, consisted of legendary British jazz guitarist John McLauglin, North Indian tabla master Zakir Hussain, violinist L. Shankar and percussionist T.H. Vinayakram, the latter two hailing from South India. Together, they created a fluid and organic sound that managed to successfully combine seemingly incompatible traditions. After a number of very successful live concerts and albums they disbanded. The group was reformed in 1997 under the name Remember Shakti with new talents from India, such as V. Selvaganesh, who replaced his father Vinayakram on percussion, and the young prodigy U. Shrinivas, who replaced L. Shankar. In 2000, the young Indian classical singer Shankar Mahadevan joined as the first vocal element in the group.
Zakir Hussain: The SFJazz Sessions
Tells the story of four extraordinary nights (and days) showcasing the formidable talents and genre-bending collaborations of peerless tabla virtuoso/percussionist/composer Zakir Hussain, in concert with some of his favorite musicians. Filmed and recorded in March, 2013, during the historic inaugural season of The San Francisco Jazz Center, these sessions highlight the consummate virtuosity and improvisational genius of one of the world’s greatest musicians and the easy, personable charisma which have made Zakir an international celebrity. The presentation of the music is interwoven with insightful interviews, personal commentary and intimate glimpses of life, offstage and backstage, of the phenomenal artists who came together during the sessions.
Production
Vanaprastham
Kunhikuttan, a famous Kathakali dancer, meets Subhadra, a woman from an upper caste family, who falls in love with his character rather than himself.
Apocalypse Now
At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.
The Mystic Masseur
Circa 1940 in Trinidad, still a British Colony, lives Ganesh Ramseyor, of East Indian origin, along with his wife, Leela. He longs to reach out to people, especially to Hindus, in order to promote the Hindu Faith, and be known as a writer. He does get considerable success, so much so that he becomes famous as a miracle worker, having cured a man of sharing intimacy with his bicycle; prevented a man from believing that he can fly; and convincing a young woman to end her fast. His fame spreads all over the island and thousands throng to seek his blessings, which he does dole out quite benevolently, without charging any fees from the poor and the needy. He then decides to spread his wings by challenging the local politician Pandit Narayan Chandrashekhar alias Cyrus T., and takes over The Hindu Organization, thence opening his way to a seat in the prestigious Member of the Legislative Assembly
In Custody
Ismail Merchant's feature directorial debut addresses a subject close to his heart: the expressive Urdu language of Northern India, in danger of extinction as political trends and modernization obscure its contributions to Indian culture. Merchant 's treatment is wry and good humored , as his characters - an aging Urdu poet (Shashi Kapoor) and a worshipful young college lecturer - clash despite their shared passion for the beauty of words.
Heat and Dust
Anne is investigating the life of her grand-aunt Olivia, whose destiny has always been shrouded with scandal. As Anne delves into the history of her grand-aunt, she is led to reconsider her own life.
Parzania
Centered around the 2002 massacres in Gujarat, the film tells the story of a happy family that is torn apart by the loss of their son Parzan.
Miss Beatty's Children
An idealistic English school teacher comes to Trippuvur to work with Mabel Forster, a strong-willed missionary, devoted to saving young girls from being sold into temple prostitution.
Zakir Hussain: The SFJazz Sessions
Tells the story of four extraordinary nights (and days) showcasing the formidable talents and genre-bending collaborations of peerless tabla virtuoso/percussionist/composer Zakir Hussain, in concert with some of his favorite musicians. Filmed and recorded in March, 2013, during the historic inaugural season of The San Francisco Jazz Center, these sessions highlight the consummate virtuosity and improvisational genius of one of the world’s greatest musicians and the easy, personable charisma which have made Zakir an international celebrity. The presentation of the music is interwoven with insightful interviews, personal commentary and intimate glimpses of life, offstage and backstage, of the phenomenal artists who came together during the sessions.
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer
Mrs. Iyer and her infant son are traveling to Kolkata with the help of photographer Rajah. When religious tensions flare up and the bus travelers become stranded under martial law, she makes a choice to save him that entwines their lives.
Remember Shakti - The Way Of Beauty
The Way of Beauty is a DVD which features a 60 minute documentary which tells the story of the Indo-western music group SHAKTI. Formed in 1975, the group pioneered a groundbreaking and highly influential musical East-meets-West approach. The other features are a 45 minutes film called "Sound Check" and "Saturday Night in Bombay" 55 minutes. The films are directed by Partho Sen Gupta between 2000 and 2006
Gallery
