Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival, A Nostalgic Recollection Of Its 28-Year Journey

Today, the stage is all set for the 28th Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra (GKCM) Award Festival at Rabindra Mandap, Bhubaneswar. 28 years ago this festival was started by none other than legendary Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra himself. It upholds the legacy, vision and dreams of Guruji. As a lover of classical dance and music, this festival is the most awaited annual event for me. For the last 18 years, I have been witnessing this festival without fail. Due to the COVID restrictions, last two editions was held in virtual mode and fortunately this year, it has come back to the live stage again.

From day one, this festival is known to be the best in the field of classical dance and music. The best of Indian classical musicians and dancers have performed to honour the immortal memory of the great Odissi legend. Under the auspicious and blissful shadow of Guruji, this festival has maintained its supreme aura. As an ordinary audience, I would love to recollect a few golden moments of this festival. Footprints and after images of many wonderful performances are dazzlingly in my inward eye. The enchanting and everlasting impact of those performances shall never die. I can vividly remember the velvety voice of Pandit Jasraj and Gundecha Brothers, Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar and Vidushi  Shubha Mudgal, Carnatic Maestro OS Arun and Aruna Sairam. The fountain flow of very handsome Pandit Shivkumar Sharma’s Santoor is vibrantly fresh. The circular magic movements of Astad Deboo, the maverick contemporary genius is hard to forget.

At least four flautists, who performed at this festival, added an extra dose of beauty to my life. I will always remember Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia’s ‘Pahadi Dhun’ which he played as a tribute to Guru Kelucharan. I have heard Panditji on many occasions, but that day he was extraordinary and heavenly. Ronu Mazumadar is a charmer. I have seen him playing solo, doing a jugalbandi (duet) with saxophone legend Guru Kadri Gopalnath and again coming back to this year’s festival to charm the audience with Ustad Taufiq Qureshi, one of the greatest percussion masters from Ustad Allahrakha’s house. I also remember Rakesh Chourasia and the serenity he weaved with his flute. Another flautist, who blew my mind, was Pt Pravin Gadkhindi. He is a classical rock star. GKCM created a platform for celestial ecstasy.

There had been many historical snapshots of the festival which remained etched on my memory for eternity. The instant and spontaneous jugalbandi of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and Kathak legend Pt Birju Maharaj is a piece of dance which transcends time.

This year the festival is dedicated to the auspicious memory of Maharajji.

In 2012, the great Viajayantimala Bali was the prime attraction of the festival. That year she was 77 and her extraordinary Bharatnatyam recital on that evening might have given complex to many young dancers. She was like a lightning on the stage. Another path-breaking dance recital which I can vividly recollect was where three well-known soloists of Odissi – Aruna Mohanty, Sujata Mohapatra and Meera Das – presented a choreographic piece titled, ‘The Woman’. That was historic because hardly stalwarts of this calibre were seen together before.

I can never forget the interview that I had with Ghazal Maestro Jagjit Singh while he was here to perform at GKCM. That was Jagjitji’s last stage show and how lucky I was to record his last interview in Bhubaneswar. Obviously, the festival is a great platform for performers, but at the same time best of the art historians and dance critics come together to write and engage in intellectual churning. Unfortunately, Dr Sunil Kothari, the finest dance historian who was a regular critic in the audience, will forever be missed.

Srjan, the host and the supreme dance house of Odissi, usually comes with a new production for this festival. Guru Ratikant Mohapatra, the director of Srjan, works tirelessly to retain the quality of the festival and parallelly creates a new choreography every year.

The GKCM award festival is so panoramic and so full of great memories that it’s not possible to recollect all those in one article. Someone must attempt to document the history of this festival with visual details.