Buzdil hai woh, jo jeete ji marne se darr gaya / Ek maich tha jo kaam hi kuch aur kar gaya / Jab maut aake mere ko karne lagi salaam/Main valeykum salaam bola aur mar gaya. Laughter and applause fill the room as celebrated poet Ghouse Mohiuddin Ahmed, better known by his pen name, Ghouse Khamakha, narrates this verse in the trailer of A Tongue Untied: The Story of Dakhani. Weaving the grim theme of death in a light-hearted manner, the poem reflects the essence of Dakhani mazihiya shayri. It's the tradition of humour-satire poetry performances in the vernacular Urdu spoken across the Deccan plateau. Mumbai-based writer and filmmaker Gautam Pemmaraju tackles this subject in the 84-minute documentary, which will witness its first public screening this week.

A shot of Hyderabad in the documentary