Political, regional, social, and religious tensions are the usual news between India and Pakistan, but art can bridge these differences. Santanu Hazarika, 33, a doodle artist, certainly thinks so. One of his key collaborators for the album cover and video artwork for their latest release, ‘Mehrbaan’ is Hasan Raheem, a Pakistani singer and songwriter.
Ritviz, also a singer and songwriter from Pune, is also part of the trio. The track, released recently has garnered over 6.7K views.
“Since it was a collaboration between artists from India and Pakistan, we wanted to create artwork that speaks of nostalgia shared by both countries. We drew inspiration from Mughal miniature paintings, as that’s common for both,” Hazarika says. The album art, featured on a square-sized cover, showcases arches and gardens inspired by Mughal paintings.
Ritviz and Raheem are depicted like medieval rulers in a side pose, holding a rose. “Ritviz and I go way back,” says Hazarika, who began collaborating with the songwriter on his debut album ‘Ved’ in 2018, working on the album art. However, Hazarika’s journey into the art world was not smooth.
Like many Indian kids, he was encouraged by his family to pursue a conventional profession far from the world of art. He went for a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Assam, but his notebook was rarely filled with formulas or equations; it was filled with doodles. “I never understood engineering.
The only thing that kept me sa.