Curtains were drawn on the 19th Vedvyas Sangeet Nrutyotsav

Rourkela:6/11/17: Curtains were drawn on the 19th Vedvyas Sangeet Nrutyotsav ended with a high note on Sunday evening.

The highlight of this year, other than the superlative performances, was the impressive footfall in the weeklong cultural festival.

The highpoint of last evening was the Kathak performance by V Anuradha Singh and her troupe from Bhopal. Apart from the group performances, where Singh who belongs to Raigad gharana along with her disciples, was the solos of her. It was the jugalbandi that she performed as her concluding performance, that really left the audience spellbound. “She really gave superlative display of all the grace and that of Kathak and jugalbandi was absolutely a treat for the eye,” said Mona Das, who herself knows the intricacies of the dance.

Similar views were echoed about the performance of Dr. Saroja Vaidyanathan when she displayed her Bharatnatyam skills and also the first day Odissi performance of Guru Durgacharan Ranbir,  the Sarikala Chau and Ravi Teja’s Perini dance by artists combining form Malaysia and Hyderbad. For Geetha Kumari, from Kerala Perini was not new. She said, “I had seen ancient dance form of Telengana at Hyderabad and this time I came to see that and there was nothing lacking.” And Ranbir’s solos the audience really savoured it. “Odissi is not new for an Odia still he was class apart,” said CS Satapthy a regular every evening.

Radhakrushna Mohapatra, general secretary of the Bhanja Kala Kendra, was very happy about the audience response this time. “In previous editions we found the audience response was little low however, this year we have nothing to complain,” said the general secretary. The audience response was really encouraging for the organisers and the performers. In fact, the clapping response was very distinct this year. “The audience participation was very spontaneous as the clapping suggested,” said Sasanka Pattnaik, who was compering the entire show on all the five days. The organisers were overwhelmed as Mohapatra said, “this indicates a new brigade of audience trouped in and they understood the nuances,” said Mohapatra.

This year there were three international participations, this included the Perini troupe, a Bangladeshi folk dance group led by Tahmina Mim and finally the Nirmala Shrestha group from Kathmandu. Tahmina said, “ I had heard about Odisha but today I saw how the people understand dance.” The Bangladeshi group was well accepted as the dance came closer with some Indianness in their movements. The last performance was for the troupe from Nepal, on the last day, and the audience sat till the end despite mercury dropping a little bit. The subtle graceful movements of Manipuri dance by a group from Kolkatta was worth watching. Despite their soft and slow motion there was never a dull moment for anyone.