Bhavageete

Literally meaning "emotion poetry" is a form of light music , unique to Karnataka and it seems Maharastra. 

I first fell in love with this form after hearing a couple of beautiful compositions by late Mysore Ananthaswamy. He had been a pioneer in this form of music along with Kalinga rao and C Ashwath.

Lyrical qualities of the songs are outstanding , which is quite obvious considering the fact that notable poets whose works are composed to music include Kuvempu, D R Bendre , Gopalkrishna Adiga , K S Narasimhaswamy , G S Shivarudrappa, Nissar Ahmed, N S Lakshminarayana Bhatta etc.

The essence of peotry is not lost , which is how it should be. I believe Bhavageete is quite close to Ghazals in form , although the content covers a range of emotions in Bhavageete is vast. 

My favourites till date include "Ede tumbi haadidenu" , " tanuvu ninnadu ", " baa illi sambhavisu " , and all of Mysore Mallige compositions.

This is one form of music that hopefully will never be lost amidst all the competition from local film songs to western music imports.