Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, one of India’s most accomplished classical musicians, died on Monday, his family confirmed in a statement. He was 73.
The multi-Grammy winning musician, who defied genres and introduced tabla to global audiences, breathed his last at a hospital in San Francisco, of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. After news of his demise broke, fans, friends and music industry insiders took to their handles to remember the star and honour his legacy.
Besides having a six-decade-long Hussain also had a movie career. He acted in few movies including ‘Saaz’, ‘Heat and Dust’ and made his most recent film appearance in Dev Patel‘s directorial debut, ‘

Monkey Man

’ which was released in 2024 in the US.

In a clip from the movie, which has gone viral online, the maestro can be seen playing a cameo as a tabla player. Seated in a corner with his tablas, Hussain’s character provides the beats for Patel’s character to swing punches at the punching bag. The beats only go on getting faster with Patel’s character struggling to keep up. The sequence, which pairs the rhythmic tabla beats with a gripping action scene, serves as a powerful symbol of Hussain’s knack of blending Indian classical music with different genres, including global cinema.

The intense soundtrack had fans commenting, “Only Ustad Zakir Hussain could’ve turned an action movie scene into a concert!”
Another said, “Need full video,” and asked, “why isn’t this released in India?”
Another added, “This can be the TREAT to watch, sadly this doesn’t release in India.”

‘Monkey Man’, follows the story of a young man who ekes out a meagre living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he’s beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, he discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.
The film won critical acclaim and was a box office hit. However, it was never cleared for release in India.