MESMERISED and moved by its soul-satisfying attributes, a Durban architect with a deep association with music plans to increase awareness around the art form’s unifying traits and healing powers with a movie he’s making.
Iqbal Naroth, 68, is producing a short film that he hopes will feature at the 2025 Durban International Film Festival.
He released a preview last week.
He hopes the 20-minute movie titled Ragas and Sagas: Power of Music will also be snapped up for showings at next year’s Delhi and London Film Festivals.
Ragas refers to Indian music and sagas to stories, and the movie will have descriptions for the visually impaired and script for the hearing impaired.
To illustrate music’s healing properties, which is a prominent theme in the movie, he provides instances in which music improved the condition of people with medical challenges.
Another point of focus in the film was how music brought people together regardless of race or religion.
Naroth used the landmark collaboration between legendary Indian sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar and George Harrison, from the British band The Beatles, which resulted in a blending of musical traditions, as an example.
In reflecting on the timeless legacy of music, the movie references the impact it had in the days of King Akbar in the 13th century.
Naroth’s experiences in learning Indian classical music and how it helped him overcome his own physical and mental challenges, by finding meaning to life after a motorbike accident left him paralysed from the neck downwards in 2003, is brought to the fore.
He regained his rhythm and zest for life largely through his attachment to the ancient sarod.
The sarod is a stringed Indian classical instrument that is held and played like a guitar, but requires precise picking at its strings to coax its “soul-piercing sounds”.
Naroth, who is the only known sarod player in South Africa, said: “My daily practice helped me regain fine muscle control as my fingers deftly navigated the fretboard and executed complex strumming patterns with my right hand. The physical conditioning required to play the sarod has been instrumental in my rehabilitation.”
Naroth credits the melodic aspects of the sarod for keeping his mind sharp, stirring his creativity and improvisation, complementing his physical therapy.
“I was rehabilitating without realising it.”
Apart from his dedication to sarod, life after the accident saw Naroth indulging in western music having learnt to play the bass guitar.
He is a member of the Laminated Rotis, a band playing classical jazz. They appeared at various Splashy Fen Music Festivals and are a fixture on the local music scene.
Naroth’s architecture operations in Durban have also flourished. His company is responsible for the architecture of prominent Durban buildings like the Ahmed Al Kadi Private Hospital and the Point Road Family Court in recent years.
Naroth is a proponent of the universal design concept, which entails creating buildings for people with various abilities and disabilities.
He gives talks and has lectured on architecture locally and in India.
His formative years forged his connection with music.
“I attended the St Anthony’s Roman Catholic school in Durban. There, we sang hymns every morning to piano music. During my mosque attendance, qawwali songs were sung. I heard bhajans (devotional music) when I went to the temple. Although I am a Muslim, I grew up in a Hindu home when a Hindu family adopted me.”
Naroth said it all had a great influence on him as did the music from The Beatles, Miriam Makeba, Cliff Richards, and Elvis Presley.
A Portrait of a Genius, a Ravi Shankar album, was one of the first vinyl albums his father bought, was played repeatedly at his home and triggered his appreciation for Indian classical music.
He was chuffed to know that Harrison was exposed to Indian classical music while in the womb, which laid the groundwork for his eventual connection with the Indian culture.
After matric, Naroth moved to London in 1974 having landed the opportunity to study towards a TV technician qualification.
But it was a ruse to beat the local system. Once there, he enrolled at the Merton Technical College for architecture.
“London is a hotbed for music and I studied tabla playing at a local college.”
While living and working in London, a friend introduced him to the sarod in the 1980s.
He enjoyed the music played on a sarod in an album, so Naroth contacted the Indian artist, Amjad Ali Khan, whose telephone number was on the cover.
He travelled to India to learn more about playing the sarod from Khan who became his teacher and mentor (ustad).
Under Khan’s tutelage, Naroth dedicated himself to mastering the intricacies of the sarod.
Naroth returned to South Africa with his wife Nona and young son Cazir to practise as an architect in 1988.
He was also an accomplished motorbiker and in 2002 became the Natal champion in the quad bike class, while his son took the honours in the motorbike section.
Naroth was riding in the Swazi 500 off-road race when he had his accident.
“It took me two years to recover.”
Gym work and music therapy got Naroth moving again. He is still able to ride quad bikes and he drives a specially adapted car.
He also appreciated Nona’s support.
“Nona is my rock. Her grit and confidence in me pushed me to strive for excellence, even when the road ahead seemed uncertain.”
Naroth wants his movie to tell the world about music’s transformative power, able to transcend physical limitations and cultural boundaries.
The movie will show footage of a wheelchair-bound 96-year-old Russian woman, a former ballerina who had a stroke, doing dance moves to Swan Lake.
While doing his Masters in Universal Design, Naroth learnt how his supervisor’s mom, a singer, lost her memory after a stroke.
“Her therapy was singing and in six months later she got her memory back.”
Her story is included in the movie.
Naroth conducts workshops at retirement homes, exposing groups of residents to music therapy. He plans to feature some of the people who were uplifted by his music in his movie.
“Physiotherapists use certain pitches of sound as a form of treatment. Just as certain music pitches can break glass, there are music frequencies that have healing powers. Google might not back what I’m saying, but I believe it works.”
Naroth said everyone had “beat” in them.
“Ragas and Sagas celebrates the universal language of music. It has no language, sex or age barriers and you don’t have to play music to be a musician, you can be one by listening.”
In a recording, Khan said: “Iqbal is so passionately involved with music. He does not only understand Indian classical music but he enjoys all kinds of music genres, which is important because a human should be able to enjoy all kinds of music. That is very necessary and important.
“Nowadays, the medical world is taking the help of music therapy seriously.”