Mukhtar Musical Shop, is a tree that was planted aeons ago by forefathers of Kaleem Ali. The shop came into existence twelve years ago but the work done at Mukhtar Musicals has been eight-ten years old. Kaleem Ali, is the sixth generation of his family who took up the job of percussion instrument making. Mukhtar Musicals provides tabla and dholak. Since low demand for Pakhawaj they’ve naturally ceased its production.

Kaleem Ali shares that there is a stark difference between ‘saaz’ of Indian instruments and Western instruments. Former has remained inert for several years and potentially will remain same, latter is prone to continuous changes. The modernity of western instruments compromises on the quality of saas which leads to the birth of an instrument which any kid can play, explains Kaleem Ali.

Despite the lack of intricacies in the quality of Western instruments they still hold an upper hand in terms of monetary benefits in comparison to Indian Classical instruments. Hence Kaleem Ali has no hope of passing down this generational work to his kids, he rather wants them to study, join a different profession and see a different world. The profession of artisans is a work of hands and precision, consumes large amounts of time and provides less monetary benefit, a profession that can only be pursued up to a certain age, mostly youth.