The 31st Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival 2025 concludes with Srjan’s ‘Duryodhana’, honoring Odissi legends and celebrating classical dance
Kapilas Bhuyan
The ongoing 31st Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra (GKCM) Award Festival 2025 is about to conclude this evening at Rabindra Mandap. The closing performance ‘Duryodhana’ is going to be presented by the Srjan Ensemble. This innovative choreography by Guru Dr.Ratikant Mohapatra, which is going to be a never to miss event in the town.
It was a long-cherished dream of the doyen of Odissi dance Padma Vibhusan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra in the 1990s that still vibrates despite his physical absence, through his concept of the residential school ‘Srjan’, Odissi Nrutyabasa from where thousands of young disciples are emerging year by year to perpetuate his legacy of nrutya and lasya. Every year Srjan organizes this five-days annual event to the memory of their beloved Guruji.
The five-days event in every September since 1994 is considered to be Guruji’s brainchild to showcase dance, drama and music. Besides, lifetime awards be conferred on individuals from the fields of dance, music, theatre and film in Odisha. The idea is to recognize such artists those who have contributed to their concerned fields of art and enriched it by their devotion and determination. The awards for this year are to be conferred on Smt. Madhavi Mudgal for Odissi Dance and Sri Alekh Chandra Samal for Odissi Music.
From this year’s event my takes have been the dance recitations by the renowned danseuse Sujata Mohapatra and her gifted daughter Preetisha Mohapatra (Odissi) of Srjan, Manipuri dance rendition by Bimbavati Devi of Manipuri Nartanalay and Bharatnatyam recitation by Samrat Dutta and Santanu Roy. The music sessions this year were limited to two presentations of Hindustani Vocal by Kumar Mardur and Carnatic Mandolin by the famous couple U. P. Raju and U. Nagamani constituting only one-fifth of the event. Earlier music recitation used to be almost every evening.
The inaugural evening opened with a performance by Smt. Sujata Mohapatra & Sushree Preetisha Mohapatra, representing a magnificent mother-daughter duo that embodies the rich legacy of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s gharana. While Sujata Mohapatra stands among the most distinguished exponents of Odissi dance as the disciple of the father-architect of Odissi Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Preetisha Mohapatra represents the third generation of this illustrious Odissi legacy.
They commenced with Guru Vandana, a reverent invocation to the Almighty, the Guru, and the Parabrahman following the sacred verse “Gururbrahmāgururviṣṇuḥgururdevomaheśvaraḥ, Guruḥsākṣātparabrahmatasmaiśrīguravenamaḥ.” Set to Raga Malika (Bhairav, Bairagi, Darbari & Bhairavi) in Adi Tala, this piece is choreographed by Guru Ratikant Mohapatra with music composition by Shri Sempagodu S. Vighnaraja. This was followed by their central piece for the evening, SatyakāmaJābāla, a profound tale from the Chhāndogyopaniṣad that celebrates truth and dedication in an individual’s journey toward self-realisation.
This story of a young boy raised by his single mother Jabālā highlights the deep moral values that guide us in our quest for ultimate realisation of the knowledge of Brahman, the eternal truth.
When Satyakāma (portrayed by Preetisha) expresses his desire to join a Gurukul, his mother’s (Smt. Sujata Mohapatra’s) honest counsel – “You are Jābāla, the son of Jabālā. Always speak the truth and never be ashamed of it”- becomes the foundation of his character. Set to Raga Malika and Tala Malika, with Odia script by Pt. Nityananda Misra, music composition by Guru Lakshmikanta Palit, and choreography and rhythm composition by Guru Ratikant Mohapatra. SatyakāmaJābāla struck a particularly resonant chord – the story of a mother teaching her son that honesty is not something to be ashamed of, felt deeply personal when performed by an actual mother and daughter.Their relationship demonstrated how traditional guru-shishya and family lineages pass down not just technique, but values across generations.
There are no doubts, as the audience witnessed, that Sujata and Preetisha are the finest mother-daughter Odissi dancers-duo of our time.
(The author is a Senior Journalist, Writer and National Award-winning Filmmaker. Views Expressed are personal.)
