Mangalore lass makes Tulu proud in national-level contest in N-E

When the classical songs in regional languages like Bengali, Assamee, Kannada, Oriya were sung in loud volume in the far away State of Assam, a 16-year-old lass from Mangalore, rendered a Carnataic classical song in Tulu, much to the surprise of the audience.

With most of the music lovers in the North-Eastern state unaware of the existence of Tulu language and culture, this beautifully sung ‘Keerthane’ received wide appreciation and so was the singer, for selecting the Tulu song in the national-level programme.

The venue was valedictory of the week long National Cultural Festival, organised by the Central government funded by Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, New Delhi at Guwahati on March 21. The emerging Carnatic classical singer from Mangalore Priyanka K P rendered Tulu Keerthane ‘Thoopina yapa ninna roopa’ written by Santha Bhadragiri Achyutha Dasa, in Hindola raga, at ‘Surchanda’ programme. The half an hour classical stage programme was a synchronisation of songs sung by artistes from various parts of India including Assam, Orissa, Bengal, Nagaland, Karnataka, of which Priyanka had her chance to sing for about two minutes.

Rather than choosing to sing a Kannada classical song, as there was already one Hindustani singer from Karnataka who sung in Kannada, Priyanka decided to sing in Tulu. And it was for the first time that a Tulu song was introduced to the audience in the annually held national cultural festival. Priyanka is one of the eight young artistes from Karnataka to participate in the cultural festival that was held from March 15 to 21.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Priyanka who has just finished her I PUC in Sharada College in Mangalore, said that she chose to sing Tulu song with an intention to introduce the language to the people of other parts of India.

“When I told the co-ordinator of the programme prior to the rehearsal session that I would be singing a Tulu song, the co-ordinator found it even difficult to pronounce ‘Tulu.’ None of the people there were aware of the existence of Tulu language. But, once I performed on stage, I received wide appreciation from the audience and several of them approached me enquiring about the language. In fact, one of the members of the National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama said that she was deeply touched by the song,” Priyanka said.

The programme was organised under the theme ‘Unity in diversity.’ Priyanka has also sung 10 Tulu Keerthanes, the CD of which was released by Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy in May 2011. She is learning music under the guidance of Satyavati Mudambadithaya and T G Gopalakrishnan.