Bhubaneswar: Curtains came down on 24th OMC Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival 2018 with Dr Sachi Das and Lingaraj Behera being felicitated for their contribution to the field of theatre and dramatics and Odissi dance respectively, her on Sunday.
Additionally, NALCO Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Yuva Prativa Samman was presented to four meritorious young artistes in the area of classical dances and Odissi music. They are Sonali Mohapatra (Bhubaneswar) and Subikash Mukherjee (Kolkata) for Odissi dance, Swati Sinha (New Delhi) for Kathak and Rohan Suresh Dahale (Mumbai) for Odissi music.
Dancing into Eternity – An endearing view of his multifaceted life and work of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, a book published by director Srjan Ratikanta Mohapatra was also unveiled on the occasion.
The ceremony was inaugurated in the presence veteran actor Hema Malini, state Tourism Minister Ashok Charan Panda and Principal Secretary, OLLC, Manoranjan Panigrahi.
After the award presentation, the evening opened with Kirwani Madhurima, a neo-classical Odissi dance presentation scripted by Pt. Nityananda Misra to the original music composition of Dr. Vyzarsu Balasubramaniam and the choreography of Ratikant Mohapatra. They then presented ‘Maati’, derived from an inspiring and popular poem by the iconic Odia poet Radha Mohan Gadanayak. Ratikant Mohapatra had choreographed the piece, while the music was composed by Laxmikant Palit and the script adaptation was by Jaydev Das. Rajashri Praharaj, Ritu Sengupta, Pragna Parimita Das, Riyanka Chakrabarty, Aishwariya Singhdev, Sipra Swain, Maya Krishnamurty, Preetisha Mohapatra and Reebdhita Barua presented this composition with great energy and synchronization.