The five-day 19th Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra Award Festival began with great enthusiasm and excitement among art connoisseurs, who thronged the Rabindra Mandap here on Thursday.
The annual festival is organised by Srjan, founded by Guru Kelu Charan, with an aim to create awareness about and sustain the Indian classical traditions in dance and music with all their pristine glories. Before the programme started, a one-minute silent prayer was observed for Suramani Pandit Raghunath Panigrahi, a great exponent of Odissi music of international eminence, who passed away recently.
The inaugural evening kicked off with performances by noted Odissi dancer Bijayini Satpathy from Nrutyagram, Bangalore. Her first item was Parvatipanchaka followed by Pallavi Rutubasanta and Abhinaya Manasija Manamohana (Odia song). Her concluding presentation was Sivasthaka depicting the glory of lord Siva. The music for all these items was rendered by Pandit Raghunath Panigrahi. Bijayini’s performances were marked by fluid grace, immaculate body movements with amazing precision and charming gesture and posture.
The second presentation of the evening was by eminent tabla player Nayan Ghosh, who mesmerised the audience by his magical rhythm of fingers with a fine blend of Toda, Tukda, Tihyee, Chakradhar, Paran in Tin Tal with 16 beats. He was accompanied on harmonium by Hiranmay Mitra.
The dignitaries who graced the occasion were Governor Dr SC Jamir, Director of Culture Susil Kumar Das and Director of Srjan Guru Ratikant Mohapatra, son of Guru Kelu Charan. The programme was compered by Srinivas Ghatuari.