Recognising excellence
|
The Kelucharan Mohapatra awards will be presented for dance, music, theatre and cinema next weekend.
|
Guru Raghunath Dutta.
The legendary Odissi guru, Kelucharan Mohapatra passed away last year but his legacy lives on. The Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra award that was instituted by him 11 years ago to honour his fellow artistes has grown in strength and won the respect of the artiste fraternity. Everyone from Pt. Shivkumar Sharma to Pt. Jasraj and Girija Devi who have graced the award giving ceremonies over the years have lauded this effort by an artiste to honour his brethren.
Given to an artiste each in four fields - dance, music, theatre and cinema - for his contribution to the field the award carries Rs. 25,000 in cash for each recipient along with a citation.
To be conferred on four artistes on September 16, the award is primarily meant for artistes who have reached the top in their respective fields but are not financially well-off. This year the artistes nominated by the jury for the award are guru Raghunath Dutta for dance, Rakhal Mohanty for music, Kashinath Sahu for theatre and Surendra Sahu for cinema.
Guru Raghunath Dutta is a 72-year-old Odissi guru who has been an assistant of guru Kelucharan Mohapatra for many years and served as the head of the Odissi department in Kala Vikash Kendra, Cuttack till 1994 when he retired. He has enriched the Odissi dance repertoire by choreographing a large number of dance dramas and even directed dance sequences in films. He is also an Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee.
Rakhal Chandra Mohanty (73) began his career as a teacher of Odissi music five decades ago after earning his masters in vocal music from the Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. His association with guru Kelucharan Mohapatra gave a new dimension to the accompanying music to Odissi dance. He had a number of historical and mythical compositions to his credit and was a distinguished musician with the All India Radio, Cuttack for many years.
Better known as Master Kashinath, Sahu a 92-year-old thespian began his career with the Orissa Art Theatre in Puri and went on to join Annapurna Theatre at its peak. His name is synonymous with stage acting and dancing and he has trained generations of artistes who have come under his wings for over six decades and more.
Surendra Sahu is a sexagenarian cinematographer and a 1971 alumnus of FTII, Pune. An ace cinematographer in Oriya films he has also been the director of photography for a few Hindi and Bengali films. To him goes the credit of shooting the first Oriya film in colour Gapa Helebi Sata. He has won the state award for best photography twice.
B.M.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
