In the middle of Spotify's Rock in India playlist sits a song that carries Kashmir in its name and rock in its bones. "Siyah | Fitna Fitoor" by Alif, the Srinagar-born project led by poet-singer Mohammad Muneem Nazir, sits at No. 67 on the playlist today. It is one chapter of Siyah, the long album Muneem has been releasing in parts since 2021, and it is the clearest argument yet for why this band belongs in any serious map of Indian independent rock. This is the story of Alif: how a Pune college band called Highway 61 became a vessel for Kashmiri, Urdu and Hindi poetry, and why Fitna Fitoor still sounds like a live wire.

Alif at a glance

  • Based in: Srinagar roots; Muneem has lived and worked for years in Pune, Maharashtra
  • Formed: 2008 in Pune as Highway 61, later renamed Alif (Musicmandir; Wikipedia summary of published interviews). The Hindu (2023) dates the start of the Alif band to 2010
  • Founder / frontman: Mohammad Muneem Nazir (vocals, poetry, songwriting), born 1983 in Srinagar
  • Sound: Kashmiri folk and poetry meeting contemporary rock, alternative and electronic production; lyrics in Kashmiri, Urdu and Hindi
  • Key releases: album Sufayed (2017); Siyah project EPs Haal (May 2021) and Maazi (September 2021); singles including "Siyah | Azizo" (2021) and "Siyah | Fitna Fitoor" (June 2023); collaborative EP Ab Mujhe Ishq Karna Aata Hai with Rekha Bhardwaj (2024)
  • Label: Springboard Records (Rolling Stone India)
  • Rock in India: "Siyah | Fitna Fitoor" at No. 67 (checked 14 October 2026 against local playlist snapshot rii-a38-tracks.json)

From Highway 61 to Alif

Muneem's first public performance, according to published biographical accounts, came at fifteen in Srinagar. He taught himself guitar around 2000, moved to Pune in 2001 for engineering and later an MBA, and by 2007 was uploading Kashmiri covers online. In 2008 he quit a corporate job and co-founded a rock band with college friends, including keyboardist Hardik Vaghela. They called it Highway 61, after Bob Dylan. A production house later signed the group and it took the name Alif, the first letter of the Urdu alphabet, a word linked in profiles to unity and to "that which is unseen."

The Hindu's 2023 conversation places the start of the band called Alif in 2010, when "independent musicians in India seldom found exposure." Both dates belong in the record: Highway 61 in 2008, and the Alif identity that followed. In 2013 Alif appeared on Coke Studio @ MTV with a Kashmiri prayer by the poet Mehjoor, "Sahibo Sath Chum Mei Chenei." In 2014 they cut the folk song "Cheerith" for Kappa TV. Muneem trained his voice with opera singer Celia Lobo, whom he still credits for unlocking his range, and since 2014 he has taught songwriting and poetry at Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce in Pune.

Sufayed: white light from seven colours

Alif's debut album, Sufayed, arrived in 2017. Muneem told Musicmandir that the title means white, drawn from Newton's colour experiment: seven colours spun fast enough look white. The album held thirteen songs, each, he said, "different with different emotion and colour." The artwork, in his words, showed "difficult and disturbing times in life, yet life has a way to find its colours." Apple Music lists Sufayed under Alternative. Musicmandir's 2017 line-up credits Aman Moroney (producer/engineer), Muneem (poetry/vocals), Vaghela (keyboards), Amit Gadgil (bass), Chaitanya Bhaidkar (guitars) and Karan Chitra Deshmukh (drums and percussion).

The album brought wider attention. Awards cited across The Hindu, Indulge Express and Kashmir Life include an IRAA Award for "Like a Sufi," an IIMA Award for "Ride Home," and a Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival Award for "Lalnawath." In December 2018 Alif released "Ride Home" with Kashmiri folk artist Noor Mohammad, a recreation of the ballad "Wafadar Mouji." Their song "Katyu Chuko" appeared in Imtiaz Ali's Laila Majnu (2018). Muneem later wrote dialogues for the Sanjay Dutt film Torbaaz (2020), which also featured Alif material.

Siyah: black as the place where light begins

If Sufayed was white, Siyah is black on purpose. Rolling Stone India's Anurag Tagat reported in February 2022 that Muneem had planned "19-plus" songs for the album, released in parts. Haal (the present) came out in May 2021; Maazi (the past) in September 2021. Forthcoming parts named in that interview were Mustaqbil (future) and Hayaat (life). Muneem's own gloss, quoted by Rolling Stone India, is the project's thesis: "Siyah (Black) signifies the darkness where everything occurs, emerging through and creating light. This is the source of all strength and light."

Haal, on Apple Music and JioSaavn, carries four songs including "Khilona," "Zindabad Vs Murdabad," "Dilgeer (Thok Mut Chum Shah)" and "Shaand." Maazi adds five: "Bazaar," "Chamchagiri," "Dad-Son," "Korkun" and "Afsos." Lyrics move through Hindi, Urdu and Kashmiri, and each Siyah song, Rolling Stone India noted, has been paired with a video. "For people who don't directly understand the language, it [videos] may be useful," Muneem said.

Between the EPs came "Siyah | Azizo," released as a single at the end of 2021, with a video shot in the Rub' al Khali desert in the United Arab Emirates. Composer-producer Aman Moroney worked on the track; Springboard Records head Ashish Manchanda pushed for visuals. Writing those rooms of feeling, Muneem told Rolling Stone India, is how he stays empty enough for new thought: "You become empty only to fill yourself with new thoughts. It's important to constantly keep emptying your emotions and make space for new thoughts. Otherwise what you have inside becomes toxic."

Fitna Fitoor: chaos, madness, keep the flame

"Fitna Fitoor" is the Siyah single that now carries Alif on Rock in India. Indulge Express dated the YouTube release to 8 June 2023; Apple Music metadata for the single aligns with that June 2023 window. The Hindu published a long conversation with Muneem on 1 August 2023. He had conceived the song about a decade earlier and once hoped to place it on an album around 2017. "I think everything has its time," he told The Hindu. The Supari Studios team in Mumbai produced the video, and the song finally felt ready.

Fitna, he told News18, means chaos; Fitoor means madness, "the wanting to win this chaos." The bridge line he highlighted, "Jalne De Isse Iss Roshni Ko," translates as letting the light keep burning. To The Hindu he put the same idea more simply: "Everybody has this madness, a desire to win amidst the chaos. How much to pursue and how much to let go? Even during difficult moments, you must find a way to keep your flame burning." Indulge Express heard electric guitar, drums and keyboard at the centre of the arrangement, and described Muneem using freestyle dance in the video as a body-canvas for holding strength through uncertain tides. On Spotify the track appears as "Siyah | Fitna Fitoor," the same styling Alif used for "Siyah | Azizo," so the playlist entry reads as one continuous project rather than a one-off single.

Coke Studio, Made in Heaven, and the two Alifs

In May 2023, weeks before Fitna Fitoor, Alif returned to Coke Studio Bharat with "Kya Karie Korimol," again with Noor Mohammad and with Jammu singer Aashima Mahajan on lead female vocals. Indulge Express reported more than fifteen million plays by late June 2023. It remakes Alif's own 2018 single, a wedding-table portrait of a father's nerves over the daawat. Muneem also acted in season two of Amazon's Made in Heaven; Rolling Stone India noted an Alif song in that season while he was still mapping Siyah.

The live project now splits in two, Kashmir Life reported in December 2024. Alif Faqat is Muneem alone with a guitar, the intimate form he told Rolling Stone India in 2025 is "the true form of a song." Alif Charsu is the fuller band. Line-ups have shifted; two members, he said, had been with him since 2015. Aman Moroney remains a recurring producer. In 2024 Alif released the collaborative EP Ab Mujhe Ishq Karna Aata Hai with Rekha Bhardwaj, songs he said were "written out of desperation in order to stay afloat emotionally." In March 2025 Rolling Stone India covered his Kashmiri single "Zu Ha Wandai," produced with Moroney, while he played U.S. dates as Alif Faqat and planned an EP tour with Bhardwaj.

Why Alif matter

Alif matter because they refuse the false choice between Kashmiri inheritance and contemporary rock stages. Muneem writes the way a diary becomes a song: honest first, public later. "Every piece of art you create, whether as a writer or in any other form, must come from honest thoughts," he told The Hindu. "When you share these genuine thoughts with people, these creations become a personal part of their lives." That ethic places Alif beside the acts in our guide to regional rock bands in India and the wider story of regional sounds reshaping Indian music. Their Springboard catalogue and slow Siyah rollout also show how independent bands build their sound without waiting for a major-label green light, a path our note on releasing music without a record label maps for other artists. "Siyah | Fitna Fitoor" at No. 67 on Rock in India is not a novelty placement. It is proof that a Kashmiri poet's rock band can sit in the same national playlist as the rest of the underground, and still sound like itself.

FAQ

Who is Alif?

Alif is the indie band and recording project founded by Srinagar-born singer, songwriter and poet Mohammad Muneem Nazir. It began in Pune in 2008 as Highway 61 before taking the name Alif. Muneem writes and sings in Kashmiri, Urdu and Hindi.

What does the name Alif mean?

Alif is the first letter of the Urdu alphabet. Published profiles link the name to unity and to "that which is unseen, strongly united" and "the oneness of everything."

What is Siyah?

Siyah is Alif's multi-part album project. Rolling Stone India reported it as a "19-plus" song work released in sections: Haal (present, May 2021), Maazi (past, September 2021), with Mustaqbil (future) and Hayaat (life) named as later parts, plus interval singles such as "Siyah | Azizo" and "Siyah | Fitna Fitoor." Muneem has described Siyah (black) as the darkness from which light emerges.

What is "Siyah | Fitna Fitoor"?

It is a June 2023 Alif single from the Siyah project. Fitna means chaos and Fitoor means madness; Muneem has said the song is about the desire to keep going through chaos and to keep an inner flame burning. On Spotify's Rock in India playlist it appears at No. 67 (checked 14 October 2026).

Is Alif the same as other artists named Alif?

No. This profile covers only Mohammad Muneem Nazir's Kashmiri indie project Alif (Spotify artist 66PL9mtBViWeqR2wUrS0Bk; Apple Music artist 1253171540). It is not other acts that share the word Alif in their name.

What was Alif's debut album?

Sufayed, released in 2017, a thirteen-song album whose title Muneem explained as white light made from many colours. Apple Music files it under Alternative.

Sources

Cover: Mohammad Muneem of Alif. Photo: Xulkarnain Dev, as published by Rolling Stone India (February 2022) with the feature “Mohammad Muneem Lays Out Alif’s Ongoing Project Siyah.” Cropped and resized to 1200×630; metadata stripped. Source: https://rollingstoneindia.com/alif-mohammad-muneem-siyah-azizo/.