The inaugural day of the 25th OMC Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival was held at the Rabindra Mandap here on Thursday.
The inaugural evening of the seven-day festival commenced with the auspicious lighting of the lamp by eminent dignitaries, like MLA, Baramba Debi Prasad Mishra, Bhajan Samrat Anup Jalota, Chief General Manager, SBI Praveena Kala, chairman, MGM Group Pankaj Lochan Mohanty and director, Srjan, Ratikant Mohapatra.
The highlight of the evening was the performance by celebrated Bhajan singer Jalota. He dedicated the evening’s music to the legendary Odishi Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and as a tribute to Guruji’s immense contribution to the classical arts, each rendition was based on a classical Raag.
Among his notable songs were the celebrated Bhajan Aisi Lagi Lagan, set to Raag Kirvani and Jag Mein Sundar Hain Do Naam set to Raag Gurjari Todi. Bringing in a strong classical touch to his evening’s repertoire, Jalota was ably accompanied by Sushree Koyel Tripathy on the vocals, Rashid Khan on the violin, Pradeep Ghosh on the
tabla, Himanshu Tiwari on guitar.
His recital highlighted his melodious yet powerful voice, with an incredible range, leaving the audience enthralled, followed by the Odishi dance group presentation of Gunjan Dance Academy, Cuttack led by renowned Odishi exponent and disciple of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Meera Das.
Gunjan presented two dance pieces, Moods of Rhythm and Dashavatar.
In Taala Roopa, or the Moods of Rhythm, Gunjan presented a pure dance, exploring styles and patterns of the Odishi Mardala and creating many moods out of these, and celebrating the idea of romance through rhythm. Conceptualised and choreographed by Meera Das, the music and rhythm composition for the presentation was by Dhaneswar Swain. In their second presentation, Dashavatar, while the dance was originally choreographed by legendary maestro Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Meera Das adapted it to a group presentation while keeping the original composition intact. Dashavatar is an expressive dance depicting the ten avatars or incarnations of Lord Vishnu.