The confluence of Assamese and Chattisgarhi folk forms by the two talented artistes – Dony Hazarika and RaaGini Kavathekar, have resulted in beautiful songs in the past and the latest one from their repertoire is Saawariya Sataye Mohe. RaaGini, who hails from Chattisgarh and who has sung in many TV series apart from dropping originals tells us that collaborating with the well-known Assamese musician Dony Hazarika was quite natural and organic. In fact, Dony has collaborated with Pataal Lok music composer Arnab Chakraborty for a new song Xhuno Xhuno. Here, the duo talks about their new songs, their partnership and more. Excerpts:
Tell us about the story behind Saawariya Sataye Mohe.
RaaGini: Saawariya Sataye Mohe was conceptualised back in 2019. It’s about a girl who is a Shudra (an untouchable, according to society) and the male protagonist is a Muslim and they are in love with each other. The song is also like an awareness campaign as it questions and challenges the basic notions attached to the caste and the restrictions imposed on them by society. To take our campaign beyond geographical and linguistic boundaries we would be making it in two more Indian languages. While the Marathi version will be titled Mann Dei Dilasa, the one in Punjabi will be Tere Naal and the Hindi one will be Ishq-e-Marzi.
Tell us about your partnership.
RaaGini: Our partnership is five-years-old. Dony Hazarika, a folk lover and a musician and I clicked instantly, and we decided to start working together to create an amalgamation of different folk forms. In fact, we have planned many collaborations in future.
How was the experience of collaborating with Arnab?
Dony: It was really an awesome experience. He has sung and pronounced the words so well in the Assamese language and that too in the Bajrawali language, the older form. Though we have collaborated before in other projects, this is our first experience in an Assamese song.
Tell us about your future projects.
After the Marathi and Punjabi versions of Saawariya Sataye Mohe, we are doing an Assamese folk Phuleshwari fused with Chattisgarhi folk Bhartari and Bangla folk Deutatto. Also, apart from the fusion collaborations, we are also working on independent originals.