On the 13th anniversary of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s mahaprayan (death), Odissi dancers across the world offered their sraddhanjali (tributes) through new productions as well as the great guru’s choreographic works. 

I had the good fortune of attending the two-day long festival in the memory of the legend by his prime disciple and son, who is now a guru in his own right, at GKCM Research Centre, Bhubaneswar. There, Guru Kelucharan’s disciples gathered informally to reminisce about their golden days under his tutelage.

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In the morning session on the first day, Guru jis Italian disciple Ileana Citaristi, who has made Bhubaneswar her home, was the master of ceremonies. Among the speakers who shared their first hand knowledge of the guru were Ananga Dwivedi, who wrote the script of Konark for Guruji's dance-drama of the same name and Satchidananda Das ,the mardala exponent, who spoke of the way Guru ji played the mardala, which entered one’s heart as a piece of fine poetry. Speaker Sneha Samant Ray described him as a Karma Yogi, who was a stickler for perfection. Ramesh Chandra Das described him as Jibanta Iswar (living god) with an amazing sense of humour. “He was an instrument in my destiny”, said Citaristi.

Among the eminent speakers were Sangita Gossain, associate professor, Utkal University and chief executive of the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Research Centre. She said that Gurujihad an immense capacity to inspire.The patachitra artist that he was, he used his power of drawing to express himself, besides using sign language in countries where he was a foreigner. Every experience was a learning curve for him. Even when he was with Dr Devi Shetty for a heart surgery, he took it as an opportunity to ask the doctor, how much pressure he needed to give and to which part of the body, in order to avoid injury and thus was able to refashion his dance style accordingly. Endless were the anecdotes about him.

The first evening saw Rajashree Praharaj, Ileana Citaristi, Itisree Devi, Pranati Mohanty and Rajib Bhattacharya perform Guru Pranam before they got down to their individual pieces. Pandit Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar awardee, Praharaj made a mark with her flawless rendition of Ardhanariswara choreographed by Guruji. The piece-de-resistance was Mohanty’s abhinaya piece, Kuru Yadu nandana, which was painstakingly taught to her by Guru ji. People left the hall teary-eyed.

Samakala, based on contemporary Odissi but rooted in tradition, was performed the next evening by the disciples of Srjan. It proved for the umpteenth time, Guru Ratikant Mohapatra’s ability to train students with a perfection that few can match in the country. In Synthesis, the sculptures on temple walls left their silent abode to render myriads of tala patterns, alongside the modern compositions. Sculpture-like physique of the pupils lent well to the piece.

In Madhava Nritya performed duet, Praharaj excelled as Rai delineating most of the nine emotions to create rasa. Vithala Smarane was a sheer devotion piece.

On the other hand, Mosaic, founded by Bharatanatyam performer-cummentor Mohana Iyer presented an evening of Bharatanatyam margam formulated by the Tanjavur quartet. It recapitulated what Balasaraswati had revealed years ago — that each piece of the Bharatanatyam margam attributes to different parts o the temple. Mosaic aimed to attain Saayujyam or divine connection invoking Ganesha, composed by saint poetess Ouvaiyaar.

Next up was Alarippu choreographed by CV Chandrasekhar, a fellow of Sangeet Natak Akademi, in ragam Navarasakanada and Misra Chapu Talam. What the gopuram is to a temple, Alarippu is to the Bharatnatyam repertoire.The outer prakaram, an open space with a specific geometric shape is much like the Jatiswaram, which is a pure dance. It was presented in Mohana ragam and adi talam by Mohana Iyer, fused with repetitive musical notes and composed by Mridangam Vidhwan R Srinivasan.

Presentation of Sabdam, a Madurai N Krishnan composition in ragam Malika, showcased the inner prakaram where sculptures of paintings of Gods and Goddesses on pillars abound. Sabdam was a reverential piece to the mother of Kartikeya. The garbhagriham or the sanctum sanctorum, which houses the Lord naturally called for a Varnam. Requring a great deal of skill, it was rendered to a discerning audience of rasikas, where the seeker and truth, signifying the devotee and deity, came to a point of union. A natural corollary of the piece was the union of the jeevatma and the paramatma. It was allegorical, where the jeevatma finds its existence impossible without the paramatma. In this case the paramatma is the son of Shiva who rides a peacock. It was in Kamboji ragam and a TS Kalyanasundaram Pillai composition. The dance was composed by mentor Mohana Iyer.

The popular bhajan, Sri Ramchandra kripalu bhajaman by Tulsi Das was evocative. A Madhura bhakti Padam showing srinagara rasa by Kalanidhi Narayanan was included. It dealt with the theme of separation and union in a common parlance. Composed by Subbarama Iyer, in ragam Kapi andadi tala, it was savoured well by the rasikas. Padam is usually performed solo but it was performed by Rituparna Pal and Pritam Das. The dancers rounded off the evening with a Madhurai N Krishnan Tillana where the dancer abandoned themselves purely to rhythm and movement. The dance composition was by Mohana Iyer. The participants Anisha Parameshwaran, Ranu Saha, Rituparna Pal, Shantanu Roy and Pritam Das are good dancers in the making.

The success of a dance evening takes team work. Just good dancing is not enough. Besides other factors, the auditorium should give maximum comfort to both dancers and rasikas. Rasika Ranjani Hall did not meet up to anybody’s expectation. In such sweltering heat, a critic can do little justice to performers. While there may be several factors preventing the sabha from modernising the hall, in my opinion, that needs to be given a serious thought.