The Many Versions of Kesariya - Who had the Brahmasthra?

The song was a raging hit in all parts of India crossing over 50 million YT hits within days, but that was partly helped by the “Love Storiyan” battle over lyrics. I liked any ingenuity in lyrics so that did not bother me, but apparently, the song in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam became very popular as fans wanted to boycott the Hindi version and listen to the tune in other languages. The song is not something out of the ordinary but it was Pritam in 3rd gear when he is quite capable of moving in the 5th. The song’s likability was boosted thanks to the production by Himonshu Parikh who is also one of the guys behind the success of the Indie group ‘The Yellow Diary’.

I am going to rate the 5 versions of the song based on overall likability, singing quality, styles and delivery, lyrical fit with the notes, and finally creativity. Since the song had no changes in the notes and production, all these factors apply to the vocals and lyrics alone. I follow only Tamil and Hindi, so for all 5 languages, I’ll only judge how the lyrical sounds fit the music without going into their meaning and depth.

Let me first describe the elements I liked and disliked about each version and shall present my scores in the end. The original was in Hindi and created all the buzz and here I perfectly liked the lyrics including how creatively “love storiyan” was introduced. So I would give solid points for lyrics here. Arijit sings it quite well, and he is bringing his A game for Pritam, although a lot of the aalap he does are quite predictable, if you have heard him enough before. The Ghamakas are fine but without any creativity and so the style of delivery is monotonous.

Pritam ropes in Sid Sriram to sing the Tamil and Telugu versions completely, and they sound exactly similar. I wish Pritam used some local knowledge to get someone else to the singing, I feel he just took the easy route and picked a popular singer with a massive social media following at the moment. When I spoke to a few people who understand Telugu, dismissed Sid’s diction and that has been a common complaint. As a layman when I heard Tamil and Telugu, I felt Tamil lyrics fit the song better. There are moments when I got very uncomfortable with Sid’s higher notes (which made me cringe) and his Tamil pronunciation is questionable saying “Ulahe” instead of “Ulage” “Mahala” instead of “Magala”, and “Azhahe” instead of “Azhage”. Some composer has to tell Sid to change his style as it just sounds repetitive with his ghamakas. Having said that the way he brought in swaras in the places which had just no vocal involvement in the case of Arijit.

Sanjith Hegde is one of my favourite vocalists and he smashes it. His singing, style, delivery, and creativity all are unmatched making it my favourite version. “Kesariya Rangu” is the best version with a score of 50/60. The lyrics match the notes very well and the mild vibrato that Sanjith brings in is just exemplary. Mayalayal is a close second along with Hindi as Hesham Abdul Wahab scores best on creative ghamakas. Just listen to the closing stages as Hesham does tricks and pauses which gets him solid points. But I did feel in the last outro when the title line is slowed down in singing (like all the other versions too), Hesham alone wasn’t keeping in perfect tempo and I felt he may have skipped a beat here and there. My complaint across Kannada and Malayalam was that Sid Sriram had to be featured in both to do the Swara bit, while I am sure Hesham and Sanjith are capable of doing it on their own. The lyrical fit of Malayalm was pretty good as well.

The scores are as shown below

Kesariya Rangu 50

Kesariya 49

Kunkumamaake 48

Theethiriyaai 45

Kumkumala 43

Best version – Kesariya Rangu – Kannada

Best Vocals – Sanjith Hegde

Best Lyrical fit – Kesariya – Hindi – Amitabh Bhattacharya

Best Creativity – Sid Sriram 

Best style of delivery – Hesham Abdul Wahab – Malayalam

Worst Version – Kumkumala - Telugu