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Direct to heaRt Pandit Jasraj regales the audience with his favourite raag

The music segment of the three-day festival had stalwarts like Pandit Jasraj, the Gundecha Brothers and flute maestro Mohini Mohan Patnaik who charmed the audience with his stylised santoor recital. An ailing Jasraj, an intimate friend of late Kelucharan, flew from Mumbai to pay tributes to the legendary Odissi guru. The audience paid a standing ovation to the versatile vocalist who was humility personified as he remarked, “bless us, so that we can bring you nearer to God”.

Commencing his concert with his all-time favourite raag ‘Sankara’ accompanied by brilliant tabla player Ram Kumar Mishra, Jasraj regaled the audience with two more renditions – in raag ‘Bahar’ and ‘Bhairavi’. Flag-bearers of the ancient tradition of ‘dhrupad’ singing, Ujjain-born Gundecha Brothers showed how the listeners could be hooked on to their chairs for 45 minutes with an ‘aalap’ - a challenge that vocalists rarely dare to take. Similarly, self-made versatile flautist Mohini Mohan proved his incredible mastery over playing the santoor as he put up an exciting jugal bandi with his young disciple Sreenivas Satpathy.

Kathak exponent Shovana Narayan, who emerged as the star attraction of the dance segment, mesmerised the audience with her pulsating performance. Presentation of the traditional Kathak repertoire apart, her abhinaya of ‘chand’ (the moon) as depicted by a poet, a child, a mother and a lover cast a spell on the audience. The festival featured four young soloists - Rajashri Praharaj, Gitanjali Acharya (both artistes of Srjan dance troupe) and Arushi Mudgal in Odissi and Kuchipudi dancer Shalu Jindal from New Delhi. With spontaneity, clarity and intensity in her execution of the pure and expressional dance numbers, Arushi, niece and disciple of veteran Odissi danseuse Madhavi Mudgal emerged as the best among the budding artistes.

In keeping with their legacy of beauty, aesthetics and perfection in presentation, the Srjan troupe painted visual poetry with Ratikant’s group choreographic compositions ‘Jai Mahesh’ and ‘Om’. The chief architect of the event, Ratikant Mohapatra proved his brilliance once again as an innovative choreographer for the second consecutive year with his new compositions, ‘Matangi dhyan’ ‘Charukeshi pallabi’ and ‘Om’. It seemed the doyen’s son and disciple has, finally come out of the shadow of his illustrious father.

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