Jhinjhoti Tarana

Raga: Jhinjhoti with interludes in Pahadi and Maand
Tala: Teen Tal
Composer: Traditional / Unknown
Choreography: Yamini Kalluri
Music Structure & Lyrics Support: Armaan Khan
Korvai: B.C. Manjunath
Music Collaboration: Kritya Ensemble
Year Created: 2025

Jhinjhoti Tarana is a pure nritta work born out of lifelong listening. Yamini grew up immersed in this Tarana as rendered by Ustad Rashid Khan. For years, it lived internally as sound and memory before finally manifesting into choreography in 2025.

This is an exploration of abstract dance — rhythm, velocity, and melodic architecture — without narrative intervention.

The composition is set in Teen Tal, retaining the buoyant elasticity characteristic of Hindustani Tarana tradition. The rhythmic centerpiece features a korvai created by B. C. Manjunath, with structural and lyrical guidance from Armaan Khan, son of Ustad Rashid Khan. The collaboration bridges generational lineage within Hindustani music and the rhythmic precision of South Indian percussive design.

True to Yamini’s musical sensibility — being deeply raga-oriented — this rendition expands beyond Jhinjhoti, weaving in touches of Pahadi and Maand. These ragas briefly color the Tarana, creating shifts in emotional temperature while preserving its abstract core.

The choreography is unapologetically kinetic. Kuchipudi vocabulary is foregrounded through:

• intricate footwork patterns

• crisp araimandi-based geometry

• swift directional changes

• buoyant leaps and glides

In the climactic BCM korvai, Yamini performs on the traditional Kuchipudi brass plate — amplifying percussive resonance while embodying rhythmic virtuosity. The plate becomes both instrument and stage, merging Carnatic rhythmic architecture with Hindustani melodic phrasing.

This work stands at the intersection of traditions:
Kuchipudi meets Hindustani music.
Southern rhythmic grammar meets Northern melodic imagination.

It is an offering to pure dance — to laya, raga, and the athletic lyricism that defines Kuchipudi in its most abstract form.