A tribute to the doyen
GAUTAM CHATTERJEE
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Dancers at the Sankatmochan Music Festival reminisce about Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.
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HOMAGE Ratikant Mohapatra and Sujata Mohapatra paid a fitting tribute to their guru.
Recently Ratikant Mohapatra and Sujata Mohapatra presented a two-hour Odissi dance recital at the Sankatmochan Music Festival in Varanasi on behalf of their group Srjan. They also shared their memories of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra on the occasion.
Kelucharan Mohapatra was the doyen of Odissi dance and one of the most representative figures of the revival of this art in the early 20th Century. He passed away on April 7, 2004.
"At that time, Guruji was in Lucknow. He was supposed to come to Varanasi on April 8 with us. We were in Bhubaneswar at that time. Guruji taught us all our dance steps. And all our steps are dedicated to Guruji. He introduced this discipline to this stage for the first time," Ratikant recollects.
There is no doubt that after dedicating his life to the development of Odissi, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra had come to embody the dance form itself.
Ratikant, son of the revered guru, presented mangalacharan (in raga Mishra Kaushiki Kanada and Adi tala), and Sujata, Guru Kelucharan's daughter in-law, presented a pallavi in raga Charukeshi.
Tales of Krishna
This new and innovative pallavi wasfollowed by abhinaya (expressional dance) in raga Mishra Kafi and Rupak tala.
This piece of abhinaya was danced to the poetry of the Oriya devotional poet Vanamali. It contained episodes such as Bakasurabadha (the killing of the demon Baka) and the death of the evil Putana. Sujata also mesmerised the audience with the antics of child Krishna with his mother, establishing that his pranks and mischief are but the complexities of a character that is omniscient and eternal.
This piece was choreographed by Guru Kelucharan.
"Guruji was the one who introduced Gotipua into the realm of classical dance," Ratikant continues, "He was a keen observer of daily life. That's why his bhava was so rich. Before becoming a dancer, he was simply a backstage theatre person. Singing and dancing were his naturalcharacteristics along with acting. A great pakhawaj maestro, Guruji took this discipline to the peak ."
Guru's grace
"The grace of Guruji," as Sujata recollects, "is divine. When I perform, this grace overshadows me and you encounter the smile of that grace. The way he used to teach, the way he behaved, was simple but aesthetically creative. He could create out of nothing. I feel his presence inthe light of Jagannath."
"Once we were travelling by train. It stopped on a bridge. He came out of the compartment and started watching the movements of ducks and swans in the pond nearby," Ratikant recalls.
"And after a few days, in a performance, he presented those very movements!"
He continues, "Once while still an adolescent, on being asked by a senior, he even portrayed perfectly, a woman straight from her bath, carrying a pot full of water, and passing by prominent persons on the road."
Rajashri Prahraj, a young artiste of this gharana, also danced to the theme of Shiva.
It was a fitting theme, not only for the festival, but also to pay tribute to Guru Kelucharan, to whom all the recitals were dedicated.
The guru, as Ratikant recalls, was also known for his austerity.
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