Shradhanjali
- Ratikant
Mohapatra, Bhubaneshwar
e-mail: srjanbbsr@yahoo.com
August 17,
2007
Odissi Dancer's
Forum, Kolkata, headed by Arundhati Roy, presented a series of Odissi dance
performances in "Shradhanjali" a tribute to the legendary Guru Kelucharan
Mohapatra at Gyan Manch on 12th August 2007. The program began with
Shiva Vandana Nagendra Haraya well performed by Sanjukta Roy and brilliantly
choreographed with modern thought - new movements by Sutapa Talukdar.
Sanjukta also received the "Parampara Samman" from the forum by its President,
Sudip Srimal.
When Indian
classical dance is recognized as the most ancient dance style, when Odissi
dance is gaining a global platform with more than hundreds of dance institutions
in Kolkata alone, when dance exponents are concentrating in displaying
their own productions, when dance gurus are proving their worthy caliber,
it was shocking to witness the poor quality dance performances by the known
names of Kolkata's Odissi world.
After Sanjukta,
the evening continued with Rajib Bhattacharya, a disciple of Ratikant Mohapatra,
who performed Mangalacharan on Lord Rama aesthetically. Choreographed by
Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, the music was by Pt. Raghunath Panigrahi.
The highlight of the evening's performances was the presentation of Charukeshi
Pallavi in Adda tala (9 beats) by Srjan trained Rajashri Praharaj, with
the distinct signature of the Kelucharan Gharana. This is the first time
in Odissi's history that this complex tala of nine matra was performed
through Charukeshi Pallavi for music by Rabishankar Pradhan.
Then the latter
part of the program included "Dehatatwa" based on Baul music choreographed
by Poushali Mukherjee and performed by her students, Hamsadhwani
Pallavi by Kakoli Bose with Guru Kelucharan's choreography and Pt. Bhubaneswar
Mishra's music. This particular Pallavi is a wonder creation of these two
maestros, once created years ago for the veteran dancer Kumkum Mohanty.
"Ranga Shruti" by the disciples of Chhanda Manjuri was choreographed by
Manjushree Banerjee. Abhinaya based on "Bidyapati" was performed
and choreographed by Nandini Ghosal with music by Debashis Sarkar.
Much appreciation came from the audience for Manjushree Banerjee and Nandini
Ghosal for their good composition and performance respectively. "Mana Badhuri,"
a well synchronized performance by the disciples of Aloka Kanungo had music
by Guru Ramahari Das.
But
towards the end, the dancers were losing their aesthetics of body language
due to the speed in rhythms. "Tillana" in Odissi dance (an interesting
chapter again like nine matra Pallavi to be conceptualized) was choreographed
by Arundhati Roy and performed by her disciples. Dr. Balamurli Krishna
composed the music. The Tillana attempt was good but did not come out with
the desired standard of performance. It was quite depressing and
strange to watch Rina Jana on stage in a different mood presenting Shankarabharana
Pallavi of Guru Pankaj Charan Das to music by Pt. Bhubaneswar Mishra.
Lots of unnecessary jumping, unnatural expression and most important thing
was that the dancer was missing the grace and rounded liquid movements
for which Odissi dance is known.
The 11th performance
of the evening was "Saswat Prem" by Maya Bhattacharya and her troupe.
Unfortunately the saswat was suffering in their dancing, in choreography
and costume as well. To write criticism about Mayaji would be pointless.
In Guru Giridhari Nayak's choreography, his disciples presented "Basant
Bahar" and the Shradhanjali evening concluded with "Vande Mataram" performed
by the disciples of Dwipanita Roy.
Odissi dancer/guru
Ratikant Mohapatra is the son of late guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and the
director of Srjan, Bhubaneshwar. |