In keeping with Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra’s wishes, Srjan has been conducting OMC Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra Award festival since the last 22 years. After his passing away in 2004, the event has assumed special significance for his students and fans worldwide. This year’s festival will be held from September 5 to 9 at Rabindra Mandap, Bhubaneswar. Starting with a single-day festival in 1995, the award festival has by now grown into a five-day celebration of scintillating performances featuring four classical music and four classical dance performances
BR VENKOB, OP
BHUBANESWAR: It now is time to hail Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra, the legendary artiste who worked for revival of the classical dance form Odissi. The artiste won accolade for his immense contributions to the codification and systematization of the eminent dance form. He has choreographed several dance dramas in Odissi style, and these include Panchapushpa, Krushna Gatha, Geeta Gobinda, Urbashi, Krushna
Leela, Sakhigopal, Konarka and Sri Kshetra. An undisputed master and architect of the contemporary Odissi repertoire, Guru Mohapatra has been awarded the highest national honour of Padma Vibhushan, making him the first person to get the honour for an artiste from Orissa. In memory of the great Guru, the annual Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival has been instituted in 1995 by his son Ratikant Mohapatra. He is the director of Srjan, an institute of Odissi dance in Bhubaneswar and a media partner of Orissa POST. In a chat with Orissa Post on Guru Kelucharan, Ratikant said the Guru had a humble beginning.
He had worked as a betel grove labourer and rose to become the doyen of classical dance form Odissi. He took it across the seas to nearly 150 countries. His disciples like Sanjukta Panigrahi, Ilena Citaristi of Russia have popularised the dance form. “Odissi has a distinctive and graceful style of its own with circular movements and a strong theatrical background.” On the evolution of Odissi dance form, Ratikant said three exponents of the dance form –Guru Kelucharan, Guru Pankaj Charana Das and Guru Deba Prasad Das — held meetings in the 50s to create the grammar and vocabulary of Odissi dance, he said. In keeping with the Guru’s wishes, Srjan has been conducting OMC Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra Award festival since the last 22 years. After his passing away in 2004, the event has assumed special significance for his students and fans worldwide. This year’s festival will be held from September 5 to 9 at Rabindra Mandap, Bhubaneswar. Starting with a single-day festival in 1995, the award festival has now grown to a fiveday celebration of scintillating performances featuring four classical music and four classical dance performances.
The aim is to give Orissa audience an exposure to classical fare of the highest level and sensitise a captive audience, especially the younger generation and students, so that an enthusiasm for the subtle flavours of classicism is planted in them. NALCO Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award has been presented on an annual basis in the fields of dance, music, theatre and cinema to exceptional individuals. It carries a cash prize of Rs 100,000 each and a citation. Two such awards are presented each year. Further, the NALCO Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Yuva Pratibha Samman will be presented with a cash prize of Rs 25,000 each to four meritorious young artistes in the areas of clas
sical dances and Odissi music for their outstanding performances.
The NALCO Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award 2017 will be presented to two eminent personalities Guru Dhruba Charan Biswal in the field of dance and Shyamamani Devi in the field of music. The “NALCO Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Yuva Pratibha Samman 2017” will be presented to Lingaraj Pradhan(Bhubaneswar) and Namrata Mehta (Mumbai) for Odissi dance, Jyotsna Jagannathan (Bangalore) for Bharatanatyam and Jateen Kumar Sahoo (Mumbai) for Odissi music. The “NALCO Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Yuva Pratibha Samman 2017” will be presented to Lingaraj Pradhan(Bhubaneswar) and Namrata Mehta (Mumbai) for Odissi dance, Jyotsna Jagannathan (Bangalore) for Bharatanatyam and Jateen Kumar Sahoo (Mumbai) for Odissi music.
