
Alif
Poet | Singer - Songwriter | Story Teller | Composer
Alif is the brainchild of singer-songwriter and poet Mohammed Muneem Nazir. Born and raised in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, Alif moved to Pune to study and work but also found his calling in music sharing his Kashmiri roots.
Initially inspired by the legendary band Queen, Alif took on a rock sound with Kashmiri, Urdu, and Hindi lyrics. From campfire jams to sprawling tunes and poignant ballads, songs like “Lalnawath” from the 2017 album Sufayed earned a Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival award for best music video.
The measured urgency of songs like “Ride Home” – made with veteran Kashmiri artist Noor Mohammad – cemented Alif’s status at home. With a penchant for the visual, albums like Siyah spawned a few powerful music videos, including “Azizo” shot in the Rub’ al Khali desert in UAE. While there is no detaching Alif’s identity from the Kashmir Valley, the music – now genre-agnostic – has steadily expanded into the soul-searching trenches of the ego, vulnerabilities, and the future.
Alif’s journey has had an increasing brush with the mainstream, appearing on famed collaboration performances on Coke Studio twice, working on dialogues for Bollywood movies, and lending songs to shows like Made In Heaven on Amazon Prime Video. Next, Alif’s music will be heard in a feature film co-produced by auteur Anurag Kashyap and directed by Shlok Sharma.
Since 2014, he has taught songwriting and poetry at Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, Pune. He is an adept film-maker and scriptwriter, he conceptualizes and directs videos, playing various protagonist characters in his films and videos.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
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Dialogue writer for Sanjay Dutt starrer Torbaaz.
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Acted & has done music for Made In Heaven S2.
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Alif has been featured on Coke Studio Bharat S1.