Ritviz

“I have always been writing and singing,” says Anvita Bharti, “It was routine in our home back in Darbhanga. I have studied under two gurus—sarangi player Ustad Maqbool Husian Khan, from the Tansen gharana, and Srimati Girija Devi.”

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Bharti heads the department of Performing Arts at Delhi Public School in Pune. “But this album has Ritviz’s thoughts and themes; I have just put them down in words,” she says. “He would sit with me [and give feedback, saying] ‘I don’t like this word or that’.” 

“I’m so glad mom used the word ‘routine’,” Ritviz laughs, “because music was just that in our house. That’s why I am who I am. We kept having conversations [while collaborating on the album], and she inspired me as well. The main theme is drawing a parallel between the unconditional love that I received as a child and the love I am now getting from the world, which is conditional. It’s about my journey to understand that, and in the end I realise it doesn’t come the way or in the form I am expecting it. I should just love, and whatever has to come by, will.”

Bharti’s favourite song is Ritviz’s version of the lullaby Chanda Mama. “He has written as if he is talking to his children,” she says. The title track is the most important to Ritviz. “Maa is singing on it as well,” he says. “I remember when I first started producing [music], we made a song together and called it ‘Traditional and individual talent’. Her classical background and my individual talent were combined in it. So, it’s very special that we are doing this again, 12 years later.” 
Has their relationship changed in any way through the years? 

Both reply that it has stayed exactly the same. “I don’t even think about our ages. I still feel like I am in fifth standard,” says Ritviz, and his mother laughs. “Ritviz is still the same. He talks about everything—’this happened, that happened’. It’s only when we head out and fans come to take a picture, do I feel that something is different. Parents should remain transparent with their kids, and remain the same. It’s good for everyone.”