The Mallhar Utsav- 2016 kicked off at the Rabindra Mandap here on Thursday. The inaugural evening saw an award giving ceremony and a performance segment.
Three noted personalities in the field of dance, music and vocal were given away the Mallhar Samman. The recipients were Guru Niranjan Patra for Mardala, Guru Keshab Charan Rout for Odishi vocal and Padmashree Guru Ileana Citaristi for Odishi dance. Culture Minister Ashok Chandra Panda attended the event as chief guest and gave away the awards.
The performance segment started with a live solo Odissi by dancer Bandita Ghosal. Bandita, who cofounded Bhubaneswar-based dance institute Nrutyasala, was excellent in an abhinaya “Bitilati Jamini...”, set to raag Vairabi and taal Ektali. This beautiful presentation, choreographed by her husband Ashok Kumar Ghosal, describes how Radha is longing for Krushna. The facial expression, her eye movement to be precise, was so captivating that the audience remained glued to their seats. This followed an abhinaya “Mita Chahan re...” by Aneesha Mishra, a young dancer of organising institution Nupura. Nirajlaxmi Baral and Biswabhushan Champatiray presented a duet item titled Barsha.
The concluding item of the inaugural evening was a group presentation by the students of Nrutya Mandira, a Cuttack-based dance institution. The group led by ever energetic Gauri Shankar Dash presented a dance drama Krishnam. The dancers beautifully portrayed the various leelas of Krishna. The item set to raag Malika and taal Malika was choreographed by Guru Jyotsna Sahoo.