Actor-Filmmaker Pandit Gaurav Gautam with Qawwaali Maestro Mir Mukhtiyar Ali was born on the 1st of August 1972 in a small village called Pugal on the North West frontier of India in the state of Rajasthan. He is from the semi-nomadic Mirasi Community which hails from the Thar Desert. Mukhtiyar represents the 26th generation of this humble community which has successfully kept alive the oral tradition of Sufiana Qalam.

The Mirasi lineage which has preserved the heritage of Sufiana Qalam - through all these generations - witnessing war, droughts, religious backlash and economic penury is today falling apart in the consumeristic world we have created. Much of the folk traditions and music forms are tottering today and are lost in lifestyles offering instant gratification as comfort, where everything needs to be compressed into seconds and rarely is there time to experience the lifetime that traditional music offers.

Despite economic hardships and the onslaught of globalization which threatens to dilute much of folk traditions and music forms, Mukhtiyar has stood firm and kept alive the oral tradition of Sufiana Qalam. He has made the best of the few opportunities that have come his way. His performances in India and abroad got overwhelming responses. He indeed shared his music in Belgium, Sweden, China, Canada, Germany and France. Mukhtiyar is not only a Sufi singer but also sings Rajastani folk music and Kabir.

Mukhtiyar has a voice which can only be experienced and never expressed. He has preserved the ideology of Sufiana Music which impels divine communion with an ectasy created in total detachment. He pervades this very essence of sufiana qalam with his involvement not just in the music but also in its poetry.

He has to his credit many performances (see events), has cut 2 albums brought out by the Shristi School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, as a part of the Kabir project under Shabnam Viramani, has recorded with the African singer Ameth Male (“Arguai”, to be released), with the Moroccan singer Sophia Charai (“Pichu”, released by Universal Classic&Jazz in 2011), is part of the Times Music Sufi Masterpieces II with his song “Mera Sohan Sajan” (2010), and just finished recording an album with Mathias Duplessy “Jeena, Jeena”, to be released in 2012.

He has also lent his voice in a couple of films:

Had Anhad from Shristi (2006)
Featured and sung for “Bombay Summer” directed by Joseph Mathew Varghese (2008)
Tashan, directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya (2008)
Tamil film, Kathai, directed by Abhishek (2010)
Delhi in a day, directed by Prashant Nair (2011)