A Telangana folks tune has travelled a reasonably sudden distance. From its rooted, rustic origins to a packed live performance area in Dallas, Yeshanagula discovered itself being carried out by Tamil composer Anirudh Ravichander, with actor Nani becoming a member of him on stage as hundreds of followers danced alongside. The second single from the Telugu movie, The Paradise, was launched stay at Anirudh’s Dallas live performance on August 28, turning what may have been a routine tune launch right into a full-blown musical second.
What made it much more attention-grabbing to observe was who was up there making it occur: a music composer from Tamil Nadu and an actor with roots in Andhra Pradesh, each dancing and driving the gang wild to a folks tune rooted in Telangana, introduced into The Paradise by director Srikanth Odela, with new lyrics by Kasarla Shyam, each of whom are from Telangana.
Most individuals in that crowd, and truthfully a good variety of Telugu listeners and youthful followers again house too, in all probability could not inform you what half the lyrics imply. But everybody was shaking a leg and screaming Yeshanagula, which exhibits simply how far the tune’s enchantment has travelled.
Possibly the best strategy to perceive Yeshanagula’s pan-India success is to begin with composer Anirudh Ravichander. The tune works as a result of he would not attempt to make its Telangana folks roots extra palatable. He makes them louder. The rhythm hits nearly instantly. The percussion is quick, dense and intentionally bodily, with layers of programmed beats, synths and keyboards constructing across the folks melody reasonably than changing it. At round 168 BPM (beats per minute), the observe barely offers the listener time to face nonetheless. The hook arrives, the beat locks in and the tune retains pushing ahead. It feels designed for a crowd earlier than it feels designed for a display screen.
The folks quantity that travels worldwide
That’s an attention-grabbing selection as a result of Yeshanagula already had a life earlier than The Paradise. The hook, Yeshanagula katta meeda, comes from an older Telangana folks quantity related to singer Jangi Reddy Addula, who additionally sang the Anirudh model. It travelled by means of village performances, native celebrations and the folk-music circuit earlier than discovering newer audiences by means of YouTube, DJs and short-form movies.
Director Srikanth Odela had reportedly heard the tune when he was younger and wished to make use of it in a movie for years. When it lastly got here into The Paradise, the acquainted hook was retained reasonably than rewritten. Kasarla Shyam wrote new verses round it, giving the tune a spot inside the world of the movie.
And Shyam’s writing is the place Yeshanagula turns into greater than a generic folk-style quantity. The lyrics are filled with phrases and references that belong particularly to Telangana. Budda parakala koora, as an example, refers to a curry made with the tiny native fish budda paraka. Budimatla Biyyam refers to quite a lot of rice that will not register with youthful listeners at this time, however absolutely their dad and mom would.
These aren’t ornamental rural references. They’re items of on a regular basis vocabulary and meals tradition that carry recollections of a selected Telangana. I do know what budda paraka or Budimatla Biyyam is as a result of my father does, not as a result of I grew up consuming it.
That is the place it will get extra attention-grabbing
That generational hole is a part of what makes the lyrics attention-grabbing: a mainstream movie tune is instantly preserving issues that will already be fading from peculiar dialog. And for many who do perceive the lyrics, it’s tougher to miss how fantastically they seize a lady’s eager for her Patela, or husband. Beneath all that vitality and percussion is a deeply intimate folks tune, with the lady addressing her husband with affection, need and craving.
After which there’s Nani and Keerthy Suresh, and truthfully, watching the 2 of them dance to this tune hits in another way for those who’ve adopted both of their careers. It is been a while since Dasara, and there is a form of straightforward nostalgia in seeing them share a stage once more, besides this time it isn’t a tense, brooding movie second, it is simply pure pleasure.
Subsequent is the choreography, which initially obtained flak on-line for being easy and generic, however slowly, after many reels appeared from the minute it dropped, made it clear that Aata Sandeep Grasp’s thought feels extra like choosing strikes from life than making a posh dance set.
It additionally makes for an uncommon mixture of collaborators. Odela brings a private connection to the folks tune, whereas Shyam’s lyrics stay firmly rooted in Telangana’s linguistic and cultural vocabulary. Anirudh, a composer from Tamil Nadu, offers that materials a pan-Indian sonic body with out taking away its folks essence. Nani, who has roots in Andhra Pradesh, fronts a tune that’s unmistakably Telangana, whereas Keerthy Suresh from Kerala dances to it for the particular quantity.
The Dallas efficiency nearly appears like a pure extension of that blend: a distinctly Telangana tune being carried by artists from totally different elements of the nation and embraced by an viewers hundreds of kilometres away.
Greater than what it’s
Yeshanagula can also be half of a bigger motion for Telangana folks music, which has been travelling far past its authentic setting lately. Sai Pallavi’s Saranga Dariya turned an outdated Telangana folks tune into one of many largest musical moments of Love Story (2021), whereas Ramuloo Ramulaa, written by Kasarla Shyam for Allu Arjun’s Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (2020), introduced Telangana folks influences into a large industrial dance quantity.
Outdoors movies, songs similar to Ramu Rathod’s Ranu Bombai Ki Ranu have proven that the urge for food for this sound exists even with no star or a movie behind it. What has modified is the variety of locations this music can now journey: from village performances and native singers to YouTube, Reels, cinema and, finally, audiences hundreds of kilometres away.
Telangana folks music would not should change into generic to change into widespread. Yeshanagula works exactly as a result of Anirudh would not dilute its id. He takes the rhythm that was already there and offers it a a lot larger room to maneuver in. That’s how a tune rooted in a single nook of Telangana discovered itself turning into a pan-India sensation.
– Ends
