Shakkar’s sugar hit

Indie band The Raghu Dixit Project performed their new album Shakkar in Delhi-NCR over a multi-city tour. Their frontman, Dixit, talks about healing with music, and how embarking on an epic journey inwards and across India, culminated in the album.
Raghu Dixit
Raghu Dixit
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4 min read

I didn’t want to live. Not that I wanted to die. But I lost the zeal to wake up every morning,” says Raghu Dixit, opening the conversation on a startling note. This slipping of desire to live, and a serendipitous message from a guitarist from Kolkata that rekindled that lost spark for life set the prelude for Dixit’s new album Shakkar. The eight-song album comes with a hashtag; ‘Staying alive when you don’t want to’.

The theme is deeply personal to Dixit, who felt giving up on life due to deteriorating mental health and a creative block. “I was feeling extremely low in 2019. At that time, John Paul, from Kolkata, wanted to work with me, and kept sending me many music demos. Initially, I was annoyed. But eventually, I called him to my studio and we instantly hit it off making several tunes!,” he says, agreeing that the collaboration that ended his creative block was a godsend.

“Now, when I look back on my life, I think everything was a godsend, even the troubles,” he laughs adding, “all the songs in the album are a retrospect of what I learnt in my therapy sessions and about different aspects of achieving better mental health. I learnt to reclaim the locked me mired in self-doubt, vulnerabilities, and shortcomings. I kept the name ‘Shakkar’ as it’s my way of adding sweetness to people’s lives.” As the Indie musician recently rocked Delhi-NCR performing Shakkar, we spoke to the artist on the album’s theme, big collaborations, and his intent behind making music.

A profound journey

Dixit’s album Shakkar comes after more than a decade since his previous album Jag Changa, was released in 2013. Much like his previous high-energy and mood-lifting hits like ‘Mysore Se Aayi’, ‘Jaago’ and ‘Lokada Kalaji’, Shakkar’s songs are pulsating. “The first song ‘Shakkarpari’ is about a little girl who steals a sweet from a shop for someone who had a bad day. She’s like a sugar fairy who wants to bring a smile to someone’s face. It was my way of showing an act of kindness,” Dixit says, who himself set up a mental health helpline for people grappling with grief during Covid-19.

The pandemic gave Dixit the time to articulate the kind of stories he wanted to tell. The song ‘Patta’, for instance, has been shot as a music video. It’s a journey across diverse landscapes, fairs and festivals of India as much as it was about travelling inwards. It is a deep-dive into existential questions, through a nomad’s eye.

“I asked myself who am I? I looked inwards to seek answers and confront my inner demons. I learnt to do what makes me happy rather than appease others,” he shares. Dixit traversed the coasts of Kerala to capture the Onam boat race, Ayodhya for Ravan Dahan, Kolhapur for Haldi Festival and the ghats of Varanasi for Holi celebrations, and danced with Aghoris (ascetics) in an act of “internal cleansing”.

A scene from the video also shows him amid the sand dunes of the Thar desert and snow-covered mountains of Ladakh. “I stand tiny against the vast expanse of the terrain, portraying the insignificance of human existence,” he says with a smile.

Self-acceptance is key

The album’s songs such as ‘Priyotoma’ and ‘Khud Se Naina Char’ talk about self-love and accepting one’s flaws.

Dixit shares an incident of facing body-shaming that made him realise why self-acceptance is important for growth. “Once after a concert, a fan came in and said ‘Sir you have gained weight’ while patting my tummy. He even gave me unsolicited advice on how to reduce weight. While I laughed it off that time as I am an easy-going person, it affected me so much afterwards.

In today’s digital world, people pass casual comments, hiding behind a computer. They call out others on their skin colour, age, and weight, as if they are markers of imperfection,” he shares, adding that the songs are about finding beauty in what’s perceived as a flaw.

The right intent

Shakkar is a multi-lingual album available in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. For Dixit, it’s not just a way to reach out to a larger audience but to bring people together. “These days our country is getting polarised on the basis of language. In Bengaluru, the divide between Kannada-speaking people and other communities is widening.

Once, when I was performing in Hyderabad, people were demanding Bollywood songs from an indie folk band like us. I want people to understand that every language has its own beauty and we should celebrate all,” he tells TMS. Further to celebrate the idea of togetherness, Dixit’s album has the maximum collaborations he has ever done.

From Grammy-winner Béla Fleck on banjo, Rajhesh Vaidhya on veena, Purbayan Chatterjee on sitar, Rafael Rocha on trombones, to Michael League on a Moroccan instrument called Gimbri, all of whom brought flavours from across the world.

In his 15-year-long career, Dixit who has composed music for films, performed live in the US, UK, Korea, Japan, and Russia and is the first indie band to perform at the Paris Olympics 2024, reveals his intent towards his craft has evolved. “Earlier I used to find happiness in earning fans, giving autographs, selling CDs,and finding articles in newspapers and magazines.

Now, I want that every song that I sing should heal someone,” he shares narrating an anecdote on the healing touch, “Four years ago, a boy felt suicidal because he flunked in one of his exams. He wrote to me saying he did not know what to do.

We spoke for an hour. I was telling him to hang in there, re-write that exam, and that he will pass. He told me that he was listening to my songs that gave him strength. Now, he’s studying medicine in England. When he was leaving India, he met me and posted a picture, which I also shared.

It feels rewarding to find our music helping people which is also the core message of Shakkar.” Dixit’s next stops for Shakkar album launch tour are Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

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