Bangalore: The 10th edition of Pravaha Dance Festival organised by Sanjali Centre for Odissi Dance was held at ADA Rangamandira, Bangalore on September 4.
After the customary lighting the lamp ceremony, attended by guests like Dr RV Raghavendra, founder of Ananya Cultural Academy; Pt Nityananda Mishra, a Sanskrit scholar and YK Sandhya Sharma, a well known litterateur, writer, columnist, dance and drama critic and playwright, the cultural evening started.
The evening featured three new choreographies of the institution. It began with an invocation to Lord Sun, ‘Surya Stutee’. It was really captivating. Six graceful and well groomed female dancers of Sanjali Centre for Odissi Dance (Srijita Sanyal, Aparna Mohapatra, Anuradha Ghosh, Suranjana Endow, Anushree Padmanabha and Swetha Sridharan) set the mood of the cultural evening by delivering the best. The synchronisation and space management need special mention.
Choreographed by Sharmila Mukerjee and script by Pt Nityananda Mishra, this piece describes Surya as the rising sun in the morning, the hot and powerful rays in the afternoon and the setting sun in the evening.
The following item was, Vananth Geetam, presented by 11 dancers, again only females, of Sanjali Centre for Odissi Dance (Srijita Sanyal, Aparna Mohapatra, Anuradha Ghosh, Suranjana Endow, Anushree Padmanabha, Swetha Sridharan, Nandita Bhatacharya, Raima Nanda, Trishanwita Das, Janvi Muduli and Shryanshi Das). The recital gave a feeling of Spring being around, describing the season’s attributes.
Vasant Geetham is from the poet Kalidas ‘s Ritusamhara, choreographed by Sharmila Mukerjee and script by Pt.Nityananda Mishra.
The dancers in both the presentations took the audience in awe with their gratifying performance.
Next item was the much awaited solo presentation ‘Menaka’ by artistic director/founder of Sanjali Centre for Odissi Dance, Sharmila Mukerjee.
She ticked all the boxes of a presentation worth visiting festivals across the globe.
The piece talks about Menaka, who was caught between her duties and responsibilities.
Menaka, one of the most beautiful and intelligent of the heavenly Apsaras, is Indra’s favourite. Once Indra sends her to the earth, with a task to break the penance of Vishwamitra.
Indra feels his position as the king of celestial beings would be threatened if the sage acquired great spiritual powers by virtue of the penance acquired.
Maneka comes to the earth and successfully manages to break his penance by seducing him. In the meantime, she too falls in love with him. With the passage of time, they get married.
Before she could give birth to her child, Indra summons her back to Swargalok(heaven) as her mission is accomplished and her duty as an Apsara lies in Swargalok.
This leaves Maneka is in a quandary. Finally, heartbroken Menaka does what she feels good for her and her child.
She gives birth to a baby daughter on a river bank. With a heavy heart, she leaves for the Swargalok, leaving her newborn daughter at the care of mother nature.
The entire 25-minute-long episode left the connoisseurs hooked to their seats.
Sharmila kept her Menaka’s costume simple with some add-ons to match the character.
The set design was minimal too. Yes, thumbs up to B Charles, the man behind the light design. He did an excellent job.
Another attraction of the cultural evening was ‘Partha’, a Bharatanatyam recital presented by guest artistes Parshwanath S. Upadhaye, Shruti Gopal and Adithya PV.
The piece, choreographed by Parshwanath Upadhye, depicted Arjuna’s journey of life.
Despite being an ace archr, the Pandava prince is not entirely devoid of human imperfections. Like any other human being he in good times recollects his good deeds and during bad times remembers the wrongs committed by him.
The artistes tried their level best to give justice to the choreography and this reviewer gave them 100 out of 100.
Every year, the festival is organised in sacred remembrance of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.
By kalasanskruti
Photo courtesy: Sanjali Centre for Odissi Dance
