Revive & save traditional folk music for posterity: Goreti

Anantapur: Society for Humanism and Social Change organised "Atmiya Samavesham" with Goreti Venkanna here on Friday. Dr M Suresh Babu, president of cultural club 'parivarthana' presided over the function and revealed the noble works of Goreti Venkanna. Goreti is an Indian poet and singer known for his works in Telugu literature.

He became popular after his song 'Palle Kanneru Peduthundo' in the film Kubusam. In November 2020, Goreti was nominated as MLC in Telangana. In 2021, he won the Sahitya Akademi Award in poetry category for his work Vallanki Taalam. The poems are connected with nature and environment and presented through the voice of a bird "Vallanki Pitta." 'Vallanki' is a passerine bird also known as songbird while 'Taalam' means a musical beat. Venkanna's poetry unveils the day to day problems of life with a touch of social philosophy mirroring the universal man's pain.

Dr Suresh lauded Venkanna for beautifully unveiling the umbilical relationship between human life and nature, relationship between man and other animals and birds.

Speaking on the occasion, Goreti stated that literature and music were important component of performing arts like dance and drama and of rituals. AP is rich in traditional folkart forms and providing popular entertainment for common folk alongside classical forms of dance and drama for a considerable period in history. Jangam Katha is one of the earliest folk ballad forms prevalent in Andhra making use of several desi meters. Goreti stated that many traditional artistes and organisations were now making a concerted effort to recognise, revive and re-establish age-old traditional folk music.

The underlying reason behind this is the need to impart and instill these traditions to the current generation, besides adding musical value and breathing a new lease of life to the dying art. Earlier, T Satyanarayana, V Sreenath, B Prudhvi from Lions Club, Sri Hari Murthy, Thota Nagaraj and others felicitated Goreti Venkanna.