Meghi on Times out!


In 1980, medium wave radio sets across Karnataka began to tune into something new. Each day, for half an hour, people all over the state began to listen to a programme on Vividh Bharati Seva that played non-filmy Kannada songs or bhavageete. In the decade that followed, bhavageete, literally meaning “songs with emotion”, went through an incredible revival. Musty recording studios in Bangalore, Mysore and Dharwad started putting out compilations of Kannada bhavageete on tape, and these cassettes competed with mainstream Kannada film audio releases.

Bhavageete combines expressionist poetry and light or semi-classical music, and relies heavily on both words and musical score. A resurgence of enthusiasm for the genre in Karnataka in the ’80s led to a renewed interest in modern Kannada poetry as well. Kuvempu, DR Bendre, Gopalkrishna Adiga and lesser known poets like KS Nissar Ahmed were reintroduced to an entire generation by bhavageete performers like Mysore Ananthaswamy, C Aswath, Shimoga Subbanna and Ratnamala Prakash.

Thirty years since that half-hour programme debuted on AIR, bhavageete continues to be a force in Karnataka, with many performers, regular concerts and the odd album release. Last fortnight, Meghana Kulkarni, a young city-based Hindustani classical artist, chose to celebrate her wedding with the release of her first album – Madhura Raagini, a compilation of Kannada bhavageete.


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