Kritirupa Sarkar- A singing from the Heart

Kriti

INTRODUCTION

Kritirupa Sarkar is the amazing talent here for the obvious reasons. Talents like Sree Hemant Kumar Jamatia who is honored with  Sangeeta Academy Award (the biggest honor any musician in India can achieve) came from Tripura  and the great SD Burman and later his son RD Burman who worked in Bengali and Hindi music industry all came from this great state.

We knew Kriti long back and noted her strong singing skills. Thanks to our north eastern peers who work hard to find the best of best from that region proposed Kriti for a feature. A special thanks to our previously featured singer Yugal for his continued support in every possible ways.

To meet with Kriti it was very troublesome due to her extremely busy schedule as a doctor. When we called her in her Delhi home on a Saturday evening, Kriti was busy preparing a dinner for her friends. Despite all the busy schedule Kriti was very excited to sit down and share her experiences with us.

Kritirupa Sarkar basically is from the great state of Tripura lives and work in the Great capital city of New Delhi as a medical doctor (specializing in Internal medicine). Currently she works for Lady Hardinge Medical College. She is basically born to Bengali parents who settled in Tripura.

Very early, growing up, a young Kriti was hugely influenced by her mom who sang Rabindra Sangeet. Kriti said “I have the most fond memories of sitting in front of my mom every night and listen to her singing Rabindra Sangeet before get ready for the home work.” Kriti says studies were a big part of growing up in her family, yet her parents supported all extra-curricular activities.

Here Kriti sings “Sokhi Bhabna Kahare Bole”  a beautiful Rabindra sangeet for all you guys.  An english translation of this can be found at the end of this feature in Lyrics time adapted from Geetabitan.com

Her older brother who was several years older than Kriti was the first to introduce Bollywood and Pop music to her . She said ” My brother was an ardent fan, he saved every bit of his pocket money to buy Bollywood and Pop music and brought home for Kriti to listen. Those days, India’s music industry saw an increase of music sold on Tapes Kriti remembers  “The tapes my brother brought home, I must have heard over a million times, those songs are somewhat imprinted in my mind.”

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Kriti said ” There is no way someone can be a good singer, if he/She can’t listen to good music.” That statement defines Kriti as a singer. She came to Smule very quietly. She said when she came, no one even listened to her collaborations and replied or even thanked her. That experience made her someone who make sure if she make an invite she make it point to listen and write to all. She is here on Smule to listen and sing and collaborate.

Kriti was blessed by great parents who allowed her to study Hindustani at very early age itself and continued for ~eight years. Later years, Kriti was getting ready for her Medical entrance exams and spent her years becoming a medical doctor. Kriti is representative of that young generation whom are exposed to many newer opportunities India have in store. She is very young in her age and still the things that she can brag about in her short life is amazing.

Her encounter with Smule app is what brought back her public singing after school age. She says she love the app due to its sound recording quality and the ability to run it on a simple phone and still produce amazing quality music. Its ability to connect with people that one never knew, to make a great collaborations is mind blowing.

” I made a lot of good friends of which some who genuinely keep in touch to some who religiously follow and join her collaborations. I am greatly indebted to all of them for their kind support” Kriti says ” It is when I see a genuine comment on my wall, that make me sing more. It is not that praises don’t bring happiness,” We think that makes Kriti a rare singer who genuinely see every opportunity to learn and improve. Her collaborations bring a lot of discussion on her wall from her friends. People are seriously discussing good music. And Kriti is on Smule for that healthy critiques and improvement.  A great quality for a great singing talent, right there makes Kriti a happy choice of singer to be here.

Serious music questions time, relevance of Hindustani music in current music scene. Her take on this” It is obvious, the training in classical music give definitely the edge over other singers when a career in music is considered. I want to continue learn Hindustani and also start learning South India Carnatic music soon.”

Any comments on world music? ” I am so unfit to speak about anything now, because I haven’t heard any music other than India music for a long time. But there was a time I used to listen to all sorts of music.”

What do you want to do with your music? ” I am currently enjoying it on Smule and is involved in building my medical profession. I will never stop singing, since that is what makes me happy.” Some people ask me, if I sing for my patients?” We asked the same, ” Nope” and Kriti stopped jokingly.

Kriti is excited about the possibilities these app bring to a musician like her who have a major profession to juggle with. She is happy about the support friends gave her so far.

Kriti had to leave us for her things set for the day and final few questions about her idols, bring the best out of Kriti. She said ” I  am madly in love with Shankar Mahadevan and his singing. I also like Kumar Sanu and like singing all of his songs. Also kind of addicted to the voice of Javed Ali.” Kriti is as a lover of soft genre of music with a touch of classical base.” Among the female Hindi singers Ashaji is her close to heart singer of choice.

At the end when we part, Kriti seems to be calling out names of people that she want to thank. We leave that for her write in her reply to this feature. Without delay let us hear all that great singing that she display on her Smule profile.

Let us play this awesome singing of Kahe Ched by Kriti. Absolute great voice quality is an signature of Kriti. The mujra originally recited by Madhuri Dixit is done here by Kriti beautiful. Raag Basant Bahar and when love is in the air everything will sound and feel like this song. Give a listen all.

“Kaahe Chhed Mohe” The original song is sung by Pt.Birju Maharaj, Kavita Krishnamurthy & Madhuri Dixit. Film – Devdas

This Song is From “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” Movie. Singer(s) : Alyssa Mendonsa, Mohit Chauhan The great Song Lyricist(s) : Javed Akhtar Music Composer(s) : Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonsa, Shankar Mahadevan (Kriti’s favorite musician). An absolute great composition picked to show her ability to experiment. You can hear an absolute great cosinger ibopan sing here with Kriti.

Joined here with her favorite co-singer Kash on a classic song, sung by Chitra and Ustad Sultan Khan. It is perfection as it can get. Great collaboration. One must have seen this song in Yugals‘ feature as well.

Kriti’s one of the most played songs on Smule. Absolute gorgeous Kajol (don’t want to know it was not her singing this, even that small video is done so perfect) and one of the best joins with Kajol, one of the best actor India cinema produced.

Kriti sing a challenge song here. Perfection to the most details and clarity in her voice is something so characteristic to her singing. A mash up beautifully made. Perfect mash experiment.

Another mash up- experimentation amazingly done here. All these song choices shows what Kriti like to sing. More than anything it is her absolute control of singing that makes it a compelling argument that makes her place here.

A ghazal with co-singer Gaainey. Song: KOI YEH KAISE BATAYESinger: JAGJIT SINGH Music Director: JAGJIT SINGH Lyricist: KAIFI AZMI. Nobody can say the difference here, from Jagjit singing and the co singer. Absolute bliss. We found the new Jagjit Singh.

END NOTES 

At the end of it, many times all the singers on Smule have a career other than music to juggle with. But the love of music and the benefit of singing is no doubt beneficial to all. Kriti represents the young generation from India whose ability to try and excel in multiple areas of career. Kriti said she is not seriously looking music at the moment as a career, but will be happy to entertain the thoughts if she could take it to the next level. We support her talent much and all the best in her career as a doctor and singing on Smule. Thanks for the opportunity to speak about your music with us. We encourage all readers to visit Kriti’s smule page and encourage this young singer. All the best happy singing.

A folk style video from Tripura. Enjoy, and it is a celebration of Tripura’s music here and it is all because of Kriti. Thank you.

LYRICS TIME 

sokhi bhabona kahare 

Translation by Anjan Ganguly

What do you mean by ‘Thought’,
my dear.What do you mean by ‘Pain’ either.
What is that you yell ‘Love’ for,
What the word ‘Love’ means,
Is it saturated with pain?
Is that synonymous with tears or sigh of sufferings?
It is surely a wonder, why it fascinates people.
To my eyes everything is pleasing.
All are youthful, all are free from filth.
Blue sky, green parks, elaborate moonlight, tender blossoms –All alike myself.
They laugh and sing all the time,
Face certain death delightfully smiling.
They know not sobs, neither fascinated to pains.
Flowers fall apart giggling, moonlight vanish while smiling,
Stars in the sky go out of vision in the ocean of light.
Who is happier than me –Come O Darling,
sooth your earsWith the blissful songs of a happy person.
You should be able to smile for a while amid routine sufferings.
Let us all sing for a single day ignoring the melancholy.