Homage to a guru
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Tridhara commemorated the death anniversary of their founder with a melange of dance forms.
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GRACEFUL MOVES Tridhara's dance performance
A premier dance institute of the state, Tridhara paid homage to the late Odissi guru, Debaprasad Das by presenting `Interfacing' - a journey through primitive, folk and classical dance forms on his 19th death anniversary of the late guru. Guru Debaprasad Das has made tremendous contribution to Odissi dance. From the late 1950s to the early 1960s he had travelled widely all over the world along with his star disciple, Indrani Rehman and thus brought global recognition for Odissi dance which was still in its infancy then.
As a guru he had choreographed a number of pallavis and abhinayas in his distinctive style and had shaped many a student before he was cut in his prime in 1986.
Interfacing was based on a concept by Debaprasad who was the founder of Tridhara. The dance recital used dance forms like Adivasi, Bejuni, Mangala ghanta, Kalasi nata, Kalika prabha, Danda chadheia, Prahlad nataka, Devadasi dance, Siva nrutya, Gopika Nrutya and Sthaee. The recital ended with a paean to goddess Durga, Durga suttee a group dance performance. Guru Gajendra Panda had choreographed and directed the recital that had music conducted by Laxmikanta Palit.
The dancers who essayed the various forms were Rupasri in Dasi, Banita, Sandhyarani, Shikha, Sanjukta and Tanushree as Savari, Swayamprava in Gopika nrutya, Pradip as Chadheia, Gayatri and Jayant in Sthayee and Suchismita, Aruna, Krishna and Sukalyani in the concluding item Durga stutee. Guru Gajendra Panda performed the Siva nrutya.
Reality bites
Young filmmaker Rupashree Nanda's debut documentary, Harvest of Hunger, has struck gold by winning the Rajat Kamal for the Best Investigative Film at the 52nd National Film Awards. It has also won the Best Editing Award for its editor, Prashant Nayak. The drought that hit Bolangir, a district in western Orissa in 2000 was one of the worst in recent history and it has been painstakingly documented in the film that focuses on food security, distress migration and bonded labour. Villagers turn to labour contractors for loans and are packed off to brick kilns in Andhra Pradesh where they are subjected to one of the worst forms of exploitation. Those who are left behind fare no better as they battle hunger hopelessly and even sell children to stave off starvation finally succumbing to it. It is a grim picture of human exploitation in all its tragic dimensions that is caught by the film in stark detail. "I wanted to make the film bare and stark in form and content, no special effects. The reality is hundred times starker!" says Nanda who after completing her Masters in Mass Communication from the Mass Communication Research Centre in Jamia Millia Islamia in 1999 turned to documentary film making because she felt it would give her a bigger canvas with more freedom to say what she wants to say. Besides she was confident that a documentary if well made would touch people.
B.M.
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Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
