Hyderabad: Dying folk music gets its tune back

Hyderabad: Dholak ke Geet, the folk music of Hyderabad, is on its road to revival with city-based radio station Radio Charminar recording 15 songs in pure Hyderabadi dialect and releasing them on social media. Abdul Samad, the head of Radio Charminar, says, “On an average, the songs are of two-and-a-half minutes each. They have been recorded and uploaded to YouTube and Facebook. Apart from Hyderabadis, people from countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Middle East and the United States, are also listening to them.”

Sameena Begum, a research scholar from the Maulana Azad National Urdu University, says that the composition of folk songs in the Urdu dialect began at a time when women would sing Chakinama, songs about the ethics governing day-to-day life. “Later, lyrics began to be written to fit various occasions, including marriage ceremonies. Of late, this practice has been retained by only a few women who have become professional folk singers,” she says.

Artiste began diverting from their traditional folk style as the preferences of their clientele changed. “People now play recorded music instead. Dholak-ke-Geet are passe,” says Ms Sameena. An attempt to revive folk music was made by the producers of the film Gullu Dada Returns, which featured the song “Baneh Tere Haathon” “The initiative was not carried forward,” says Mr Samad. 

Sameena Begam has travelled to conduct research on folk art. “My experiences have been published in the book Dholak ke Geeton ki Rivayat,” she says. Radio Charminar contacted artists who continue to practice folk music to record a set of songs. The videos uploaded to Radio Charminar’s YouTube and Facebook pages have been receiving hundreds of hits.