Bhubaneswar: For me and some others who witnessed Odissi doyen Padmavibhushan recipient Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s son eminent Odissi dance guru and choreographer Ratikant Mohapatra and his granddaughter Preetisha Mohapatra perform a duet in Rabindra Mandap auditorium in Bhubaneswar on August 25, it was a dream-come-true moment.
It was on the occasion of 79th birth anniversary celebration of Odissi danseuse Sanjukta Panigrahi when Raghunath Panigrahi Cultural Heritage Foundation in association with the department of Odia Language, Literature and Culture & department of Tourism and Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre organised a cultural evening titled ‘Tumari Smrutire’ at Rabindra Mandap.
The evening began with the customary lighting the lamp ceremony attended by State Language, Literature and Culture and Tourism Minister Ashwini Kumar Patra, foundation chairman Dr Sanjeev Chandra Hota, vice chairman Jagdish Mardaraj and Foundation trustee Babu Panigrahi.
The first item of the evening was an abhinaya ‘Shabari’, presented by Guru Ratikant Mohapatra.
‘Shabari’ is an episode from the Ramayan where a hunched and tottering tribal woman offers berries grown in forest to Lord Ram.
In this item choreographed by himself and music composed by Rupak Kumar Parida, Ratikanta delineated both the characters of a frail tribal woman walking with a stick and Lord Ram with aplomb.
What touched me most is when he brought out the ecstasy of her after finding Lord Ram in flesh in front of her and when he enacted the part of her offering berries to Lord Ram after testing each of them.
I need to mention here that when he expressed her feelings of testing sour berries through mukhabhinaya, it gave me a sensation in my mouth. And, I think, it would have been experienced by many those present in the auditorium.
Thereafter, the evening offered another pleasant surprise in the form of Ms Preetisha Mohapatra, granddaughter of late Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and daughter of Guru Ratikant Mohapatra.
The lithe and petite, Preetisha had the audience completely in her thrall with her excellent facial expressions and lyrical body movements.
She presented ‘Yugma Dwanda Pallavi’, set to raga Bageshree and tala Ektali, choreographed by Guru Ratikant Mohapatra and music composed by Suromani Pandit Raghunath Panigrahi.
The third item of the evening was ‘Jatayu Moksha’, a dance ballet presented by Guru Ratikant Mohapatra and daughter Preetisha Mohapatra, music composed by Guru Laxmikant Palit and choreographed by Guru Ratikant himself.
The item brought to the life of the episode from the Ramayan, where Jatayu tries to stop Ravana from abducting Sita in Pushpaka Vimana.
The ease with which Ratikant and Preetisha were switching over from one character to another, going from one zone to another was to be seen to believe.
Preetisha was seen depicting Sita, then Ravana and then Lord Ram. Similarly, Ratikanta portrayed the characters of Ravana and Jatayu to a tee.
The father-daughter duo was excellent in depicting the valiant fight between Jatayu and Ravana. Particularly the scene where Jatayu attacks Ravana with its beak is still coming in front of my eyes.
The item was first presented by Ratikant and Sanjukta Panigrahi. After the demise of Sanjukta, Ratikant presented it as a solo. The item was also presented by Srjan’s artistes.
The guest performer of the evening was young and talented Kathak dancer Vishal Krishna, an 11th generation dancer of the Banaras Gharana.
He commenced his recital with ‘Krishna Vandana’, and then went on to demonstrate his technical brilliance and present various aspects of the Banaras gharana, like dancing on brass plate.
His was a live performance with Abhishek Mishra, Prateep Banerjee and Sandeep Neogi lending him good supports on Tabla, Vocal and Sitar respectively.
Debiprasad Mishra’s brilliant light design and Dr Mrityunjay Rath’s informative anchoring added colour to the evening.
