Folk fusion artist Aabha Hanjura’s latest track O Ri Sakhi is the newest release from Bridges, her evolving creative project that brings together artistes and traditions through collaborations of musical cultures. Released recently, the song brings the musical worlds of Kashmir and Rajasthan together against the backdrop of an Indian wedding, celebrating the joy of women coming together.
One of the major lessons from making O Ri Sakhi has been patience. The song has gone through several iterations as Hanjura worked to bring two musical traditions into the same space. “The idea excited me from the beginning, but making two distinct musical cultures speak to each other naturally came with its own challenges. There were days when we’d spend hours on just one musical phrase, trying to make it feel honest and it simply wouldn’t land. That’s when I realised I couldn’t force the process. The moment I stopped trying to make one tradition sound like the other, and instead allowed both to exist in conversation, it all started coming together beautifully,” she recalls.
The collaboration began to make a more definite form when Hanjura travelled to Rajasthan last year in search of a Manganiyar folk group. Meeting the Khan brothers became one of the most memorable moments of the process. “I still remember the first time they sang Bannaro Bannaro as a counter melody to the iconic Bhumbro Bhumbro. My heart, both as a Kashmiri and a musician, just swept up in joy. It created that unexpected beautiful moment in the song that I was looking for. I remember thinking, ‘this is exactly why I travelled here’,” says Hanjura, who was also part of TV reality show Indian Idol Season 2, where she went quite far in the competition.
The song draws from the energy of Indian wedding celebrations, particularly the role of women and folk music in pre-wedding festivities. The emotional centre of O Ri Sakhi came from imagining the bride surrounded bymher closest friends and family. “Women are truly at the heart of Indian wedding celebrations. Especially during the pre-wedding festivities, it’s the songs sung together by women that create so much of the warmth and joy of the occasion,” Hanjura shares.
The hook came first. Hanjura imagined a bride surrounded by her closest friends and bridesmaids, singing, teasing, dancing and celebrating before the wedding begins. “I wanted O Ri Sakhi to celebrate that sisterhood, that friendship and that beautiful camaraderie between women that makes Indian weddings feels so special,” she says, adding that working with folk traditions has made her conscious of the responsibility that comes with reinterpreting music passed down through generations. She calls it a constant balance of wanting to preserve the tradition’s soul while also allowing enough room for one’s artistic voice.
Her relationship with Kashmiri music is personal. “I see myself first as a storyteller, someone telling stories that matter to me and that are rooted in my life’s experiences,” she adds.
With Bridges continuing to evolve, she hopes to take the project into more regions and musical traditions. After a month of performances, Hanjura is looking forward to getting back on stage and returning to writing new music following the release of O Ri Sakhi.