If any festival of dance and music has achieved national stature other than Konark Festival from Odisha, it is Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival being held every year at Bhubaneswar by Srjan
Kapilas Bhuyan
The closing ceremony of GKCM Award Festival 2024 was held on last Wednesday at Rabindra Mandap in much fanfare. The closing presentation was Srjan Ensemble’s extravagant performance ‘Tantra’, being choreographed by Guru Ratikant Mohapatra.
If any festival of dance and music has achieved national stature other than Konark Festival from Odisha, it is Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival being held every year at Bhubaneswar by Srjan. The festival over the years has carved a niche for itself for its meticulous planning, neat presentation, maintaining the sophistry and class and showcasing the national luminaries of the dance and music fields before the Bhubaneswar audience. Thus, it has been a rare opportunity for the local Odia people to experience the recitals of masters in the fields with much fanfare.
Srjan, Odissi Nrutyabasa or School of Odissi that was Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s brainchild born and started functioning in the early 1990s at guruji’s own residence in the old town area under the guidance of his son Guru Ratikant Mohapatra. Guru Ratikant thought of GKCM Award Festival with the objective to honor the artists for their lifetime contributions to the fields of dance, drama, music and cinema. Yuva Prativa Sammans were added later on. The award festival was started in 1995 and has been continuing over the last three decades.
Earlier the festival used to be held for five days, however, to mark the importance of 30 years of festival this time round it was held for 7 days. Earlier, there had been both dance and music recitals every evening. Apart from group dancing some solo recitals by the eminent dancers used to be the norm which has been disappeared now a days in a festival format.
This time round there was only one presentation every evening, either group dance or music. Whereas the showcased dance groups were Sankhya Dance Company (Baibhav Arekar, Bharat Natyam), Upasana Centre for Dance (Ashimbandhu Bhattacharjee, Kathak) and Srjan Ensemble (Ratikant Mohapatra, Odissi), the music recitals were by Ghazal (Chandan Dass), Carnataki Vocal (Dr. Kalaimamani OS Arun), Musical Fusion (Ambi and Bindu Subramaniam, SubraMania Band) and Hindustani Flute (Rakesh Chaurasia).
As we all know Ghazals have a direct connect to the heart and emotion, and despite aging the soulful Ghazal rendition of Shri Chandan Dass on the inaugural evening was replete with his distinctive style of singing with the signature aura of his hometown Murshidabad. A Begum Akhtar Puraskar recipient, the deep influence of the inimitable style of legend Mehdi Hassan shone bright as he lent his voice to the works of several renowned poets.
On the third-day evening of the festival Dr. Kalaimamani OS Arun masterfully rendered complex notes and tonal intricacies, imbuing bhakti into the soul of the music and harmoniously blending the essence of bhakti into classicism. He was accompanied by Dr. Badri Narayanan on the violin, Shri MS Venkatasubramanian on the Mridangam and Shri E Martin on the Tabla and the musical renditions had truly enthralled the audience.
The very nature of fusion music is to entertain and the fourth-day evening witnessed the musical celebration as the band SubraMania, led by Shri Ambi Subramaniam on the violin, Smt.
Bindu Subramaniam on vocals, Shri Frijo Francis on the keyboard, Shri Anirudha Bhat on the mridangam, Shri Prashanth Gnanamuthu on the guitar, Shri Karthik Mani on the drums, captivated audiences with their contemporary world music, a fusion of traditional Indian music with elements of pop, rock and jazz, with their breakthrough track ‘Days in the Sun’.
It was a ‘Jugalbandi’ musical evening on the sixth-day – Pt. Rakesh Chaurasia on flute accompanied by Shri Ojas Adhiya on Tabla, the two seasoned musicians explored harmonic nuances and rhythmic intricacies on their wind and percussion instruments respectively, they ventured into the depths of classical Hindustani music. This Jugalbandi was conducted in perfect synergy, with each musician imbuing the aura of the other through their seamless musical repartee.
Pt. Rakesh Chaurasia, who won two Grammys this year-one for the track ‘Pashto’ (Best Global Music Performance) and As We Speak (Contemporary Instrumental Album) rendered his melodic best in perfect tandem with the brilliant percussion play of Shri Ojas Adhiya, an Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar and Sangeet Virasat Yuva Puraskar awardee.
In the dance section of the festival the image of Shivaji as a karma yogi was artfully conveyed through the 75-minute production in Bharat Natyam style Shrimant Yogi on the second-day evening had enthralled the audience. The spectacular presentation had chronicled the life and times of Shivaji Maharaj by renowned Mumbai-based Bharatanatyam exponent Shri Vaibhav Arekar and his ensemble, the Sankhya Dance Company.
This impressionistic number had truly captured the cultural, social, and emotional impressions of the Maratha king, and the societal milieu of the time. In addition to chronicling the life and times of Shivaji Maharaj, the presentation was replete with scenes of war and conflict, juxtaposed with the portrayal of the character’s duty and sacrifices, and the establishment of swarajya and dharma.
Guru Ashimbandhu Bhattacharjee and Upasana Centre for Dance presented Moonstruck, a contemporary theme in Kathak style. Guru Ashimbandhu Bhattacharjee is an accomplished Kathak exponent from the Lucknow and Jaipur gharanas, with over four decades of experience. Moonstruck – the story of a man and the moon, directed and choreographed by Guru Ashimbandhu Bhattacharjee, set to the music composition of Shri Jayanta Banerjee narrates a contemplative yet expressive personal conversation between a lonely man and his lifelong friend, the moon.
With the rhythmic interpolations characteristic of Kathak, the choreography was set to a haunting melody that portrayed both the ethereal beauty and dark side of the moon. Moonstruck aimed to highlight the man’s enduring attraction to the moon, while portraying the contrast of the cosmic and the corporal.
Before the closing performance, Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra Awards 2024 were presented to masters like Smt. Kumkum Lal, Guru Dhaneswar Swain, Guru Laxmidhar Palit and Shri Uttam Mohanty in the fields of dance, music and cinema respectively. Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Yuva Prativa Samman 2024 were given to young and budding artists like Pompi Paul and Smt. Rajnita Meher (Odissi Dance), Shri Avijit Das (Kuchipudi) and Shri Rohit Pradhan (Odissi Music).
Through this spectacular narrative in the closing performance ‘Tantra’, Guru Ratikant Mohapatra ventured beyond traditional Odissi, using dance, music, and innovation to express the essence of the profound and timeless subject of Tantra, invoking the divine feminine for the betterment of society and humankind. Presented as an evocative blend of haunting imagery and distinctive elements of Odissi subsumed in the esoteric tradition of Tantra, Srjan’s presentation featured unique embellishments in the music, choreography and costumes that providing a delightful visual and aesthetic experience to the audience.
(The author is a senior journalist, art critic and National Award-winning filmmaker. Opinions are personal.)
