Unflavored Cleverfolk

This flavor has folk music presented in its native form without any major orchestration and other frills.

Needless to say, this is not hugely popular in film music as it lacks the ability to sell well. It’s still called Cleverfolk as it still does not fall into the strict definition of folk music where the lyricist in unknown. It does not use any clever orchestral arrangements and tells a simple story. Two examples come to my mind.

Vetalai Vetalai from Rosapoo Ravikaikari (1979) has almost no frills and tries to tell a story of an innocent villager who is going to the nearby town to buy things for his wedding. The song is embedded with dialogs where the other villagers tag along and ask this villager to buy some more things.

Vaaranea vaaranea vattamulla arakkan from Devathai (1997) is an interesting track and tries to bring out the village festival situation in its music. Complete with beliefs and traditions of the villagers in South India, it uses thavil and duffel/frame drum and urimi in its pallavi.

I am sure there are some more examples. However, these are hard to find.