ରଙ୍ଗବତୀ Rangabati

Odisha, mostly known for its art, sculpture, temple architecture, weave, wildlife, beaches and many more has one more thing which happened almost 43 years ago and still continues to grow in popularity worldwide; Rangabati, the song.

Rangabati, whose tune, tempo, energy and the softness of the pronounced words, adds to its danceability which is suitable for every kind of audience. Almost no marriage procession is complete in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bengal without Ranabati tune, which also could stand true for the idol immersion parade of gods and goddesses in these regions. The joy, the vibration and the gaiety its music brings inside one is irresistible. It compels you to swing and smile. The tune of this song is extremely catchy and its peppy rhythm makes you tap your feet each time you hear it. Originally in its first recording the folk musical instruments were played like mahuri, dhol and tasa along with sarangi in All India Radio. But with time all kind of modern and western instruments accompanied Rangabati. All India Radio, Sambalpur, the major radio station of western Odisha had recorded three songs for their regular monthly programme to be broadcasted every Wednesday in May,1978 and Rangabati was a duet song among them. From the day it aired on radio, it got repeated requests to be played over and over again and it became the most popular song within a couple of months.

Seeing its popularity, in January 1979, the Indian Record Manufacturing Company from Calcutta rerecorded the song with the same singers, Miss Krishna Patel and Mr Jitendra Haripal and with the same composer , Mr Prabhudatta Pradhan. The lyrics of this legendary song is by Mr Mitrabhanu Gauntia. This recording became a superhit

overnight. This is the only song which is immensely popular in all parts of Odisha from north to south and east to west. In fact, the migrant workers from western Odisha carried this song as a symbol of fun and happiness which is close to their heart wherever they migrated, be it Surat, Punjab, Bihar, Bombay, Calcutta, Hyderabad,

Assam etc. 

The tune is greatly influenced by the folk tunes of western Odisha which struck a chord with every listener. This song has been sung in many languages which are Telegu, Bengali, Hindi, Sambalburi and Loria. In Bengali film Gotra and hindi film Kaun kitne Paani main have both used this song sung in Bengali and Hindi respectively. The song which is said to be the most popular recorded song in the history of Odisha is performed by different singers across the globe . For instance the song is used in telugu in the film Kick starring ravi Teja. Another telugu film Khusi starring Pavan Kalyan used the song Rangabati in a comic sequence. Recently Rituraj Mohanty the India’s first Raw Star sang the song. This song is lyrical conversation between two lovers, Rangabati which means my colorful lady and her lover.

In 2006, Rangabati was the part of the Republic Day Parade from the state of Odisha and in 2013, government of Odisha, seeing its immense popularity all over the country started a Rangabati Mahostav. It was all because of one song.

In April of 2015, the world saw many Korean girls dance to Rangabati at the 7th World Water Forum at Daegu in South Korea. The Hindi film, Kaun Kitne Paani Mein, dealing with the water conservation, that released in 2015, also has the number and that’s when it first came to mainstream Bollywood. In 2020, the Odisha government has renamed the village “Bilung” under Bamra Tahasil of Sambalpur district as “Rangabati Bilung”

after the famous folk song “Rangabati.” Bilung is the native place of Padma Shri Mitrabhanu Gountia, lyricist of Rangabati.It has seldom happened that a village has been named after a song. In 2017 July, Rangabati was sung by Shankar Mahadevan in Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar for the opening ceremony of 22nd Asian Athletic Championship in front of 13000 audience, in the presence of the original composer and singers. The entire stadium vibrated and swung to the beats of the song . Officials and athletes from more than forty countries were also present. Sona Mohapatra who made her Billboard debut in Time square recently sang the remix of the song along with Rituraj Mohanty in Coke Studio . Though she sang it with a lot of mistakes in the diction and a lot of controversy aroused out of it, it still became a huge hit in the recent times. The true essence of the song always remained intact . In spite of all odds the song went to a higher plane and received a greater audience due to the huge platform of coke studio and inspired singers out of India to make their own renditions out of it. The Nigerian singer with birth name Samuel Adepoju who writes his name as Samuel Singh famous for his Bollywood remixes has sung Rangabati which is now hugely popular in that part of Africa. Since the arrival of video cameras up until now, the time of mobile phones, Rangabati has been one of the most audio-visual findings with different kinds of dance expressions in films and music videos. Many artists have made their own covers of this song and Youtube is a witness to it.

Rangabati's original male singer Jitendra Haripal who comes from a dalit community had faced a lot of caste discrimination in 1960’s and 70’s, but Rangabati broke all those barriers for him too. Jitendra Haripal and Krishna Patel became house hold names in Odisha. Rangabati has become a part of Odia cultural identity today.No doubt there are many factors .But the major factor is its tune, its composition. I think the Sambalpuri folk tune played the magic.It's dictions and their pronunciation are soft and soothing to the ear and evokes a sense of romance when one listens to it. It almost conveys the mood even if one does not understand the language. Different singers have sang Rangabati in different languages, keeping the tune almost intact and that's where lies the success. Music has no boundaries and no language and Rangabati stands a true testament to it. Rangabati is not only a song, it has become a cultural phenomenon.