A rustic twist

Band Lagori teams up with dancers Shreya Deshpande and Vishwakiran Nambi to give their spin to ‘Hamsa naava’

Musically upbeat Tejas Shankar, Vinyl Kumar, Keertana Bhoopal, Edward Angelo Rasquinha

If there was one song in Baahubali 2 where there was a marriage between visual splendour and imagination, it was ‘Hamsa naava’. The use of percussions coupled with the track’s situational relevance ensured the film’s biggest highs. It would have taken a lot for Bengaluru-based band Lagori to reimagine and yet retain the soul of the song in their music video, where dancers Shreya Deshpande and Vishwakiran Nambi (who also made the popular trilingual dance video Neeve ) match their moves to Tejas Shankar and Keertana Bhoopal’s vocals. The adequate balance of rusticity and musical aesthetics adds up to the number’s appeal.

Tejas takes us through the making of the video (in collaboration with audio distributors Lahari music) that’s garnering appreciation across social media and streaming platforms. “Our band manager and guitarist Geeth Vaz was in regular touch with Lahari music (who had the film’s audio rights) to rework a song from the film. Lahari was game for it. We wanted a popular track that could be structured like a dance piece and would sound like a duet where the male and female vocalists had an equal presence; ‘Hamsa naava’ easily fit the bill,” he reveals about the first instance where Lagori associated with film music. The video produced by Mediaverve was also a part of their initiative Lagori Sessions-where they collaborate with diverse artistes every two months (their previous one was with Vasundhara Das).

The success of the dance video

Neeve gave Lagori enough confidence to go ahead with ‘Hamsa naava’. Another bonus that enhanced the song’s lyrical appeal and sustained the song’s authenticity were Hyderabad-based lyricist Surya’s additional lines like ‘ Ososi maina tenekalla jaana’ . “We wanted to enhance the song’s folklore touch and yet keep it simple,” Tejas adds. The unique experience helped them understand the technicalities behind shooting such a video. They had gone to a forest near Bengaluru, crawling their way into a 20-feet dried well to shoot it. “We had actively performed in the interiors of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the last few months; Telugu people are such genuine music lovers, it didn't matter to them even if we had performed Kannada numbers too. This is our dedication to them, the Lagori way,” Tejas adds.

The appreciation from the Baahubali film team has been the cherry on the cake. “That it came from the horse’s mouth already feels special. Entertainment is ultimately about reaching out to people; films and their music do that. It is business but you can’t deny that it’s good art at the end of the day.” The success of the video gives them motivation to experiment more in future. Lagori has already begun recording for their seven-song second album; they plan to release it as singles in the second half of 2017.