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Songs from the heart

Sagarika talks about her music, inspiration and more

She began her career when a new genre of Indian non-film music called IndiPop was just taking root, and artistes such as Alisha Chinai, Suchitra Krishnamoorthy, Mehnaaz and Anaida came to the forefront. Hardcore music fans will remember her collaborating with her brother Shaan, and a bunch of other teenage wannabe singers in a medley remix album called Q-Funk (short for Qawwali Funk).

IndiPop's first (and the last-heard, perhaps) brother-sister duo of Shaan and Sagarika made waves with an album called Naujawan, after which Shaan went on to release his solo albums such as Loveology, before plunging into Bollywood with songs such as "Musu Musu." Sagarika, in the meantime, released Maa, which was dedicated to her mother, and though the album did not rake in the moolah, it still remains one of the most sensitive (and sentimental) music albums the country has ever heard. Collaborations with World Music maestro Talvin Singh and a well-known British music producer ensured that she was still in the limelight, just as critics attempted to write her off.

A bad relationship, followed by the opening of a restaurant named Olive Bar and Kitchen, kept her busy for three years, before she decided to get back to music. "I took a voluntary break from the monotony of life. A sense of mundaneness came over me, and that was when I decided to follow my dream of opening a restaurant," says Sagarika. Her new album, It's All About Love, has just hit the stores. The video, directed by Aditya Bhattacharya, for the first single titled "Bye Bye Baby," is already on air across the music channels. Sagarika explains the songs in the album: "They are sensitive and emotional. I was in such a state of mind, going through an unhappy phase in a relationship, when I was intensely inspired my music. All the tracks are essentially love songs, which reflect my thoughts on the different facets of loveWhile one song tells a story of a boy and a girl who see the whole world in each others' eyes, another song expresses the feelings of a couple who are away from each other, and miss each other during their most simple and routine moments of life, like looking at the mirror together when they are brushing their teeth, and cleaning the dinner table together." Sagarika, who rates this album higher than Maa, enables you to move away from the mediocrity of life. Each songs tugs at your heartstrings, reminding you of that first boy who held your hand and that genuine smile.

A. VISHNU

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