ICDMF Kolkata 2018: Nurturing Indian Culture
Text: Seuli Mukherjee Chatterjee
PurvaiSanskritik Kala Vikash Kendra, a social organisation dedicated to maintain, nurture and enhance rich Indian tradition presented a 6-day long International Indian Classical Dance and Music Festival 2018 (ICDMF Kolkata 2018) from December 24 to 29,at ICCR, Satyajit Ray Auditorium in Kolkata. The festival was graced by Padma Bhushan, Guru Dr SarojaVaidyanathan, who conducted a 2-day Workshop. Vikram Kumar BR, the editor of The Dance India magazine, also graced the occasion.
Samireshwar Thakur from BiswaSevashramSangha attended the festival as a chief guest on December 27. Besides Guru Dr SarojaVaidyanathan, the Lifetime Achievement Award 2018, was also conferred on revered Kathak Guru SusmitaMisra, known for keeping the Jaipur Gharana alive in West Bengal. Felicitation was done by DillipMohanty, the president of PurvaiSanskriti Kala Vikash Kendra, and Nandinii Chaudhry Mohanty, Festival Director. These eminent personalities shared a few words on stage emphasising the importance of the preservation, promotion and popularisation of rich Indian culture and heritage. Abhishek Anand, BananiMisra, Dr SudhaDatta, Jagabandhu Jena, Prashant Arora, Tarun Bose and AnubrotaMondal were also seen in attendance.
DebdeepMisra, prevailing from the PiyariGharana, presented an impressive vocal recital, while SanjeetGangani, son and disciple of Guru Pt RajendraGangani, amazed the audience with his spectacular Kathak presentation. Rajib Bhattacharya and his troupe SrijanChhande mesmerised the audience with their fantastic Bakratunda, Guru Brahma, and lastly the famous ‘EsoShyamalaSundara’. GayatriDeka, the disciple of Dr SarojaVaidyanathan, stunned the audience, while the Odissi duet by Nilanjana Mukherjee and Shib Narayan Banerjee was extraordinarily thrilling. KajalMisra Roy and Trina Roy’s Kathak duet was praiseworthy and the Ashtapadi and Ardhanarishwar by ArnabBandyopadhyay fantasised the audience. Subikash Mukherjee marvellously portrayed the different instances of Lord Hanuman with mind-blowing actions and left the audience speechless with his incredible Abhinaya. Nandinii Chaudhry Mohanty presented a wonderful Odiyaabhinaya, while her daughter and disciple, DivyaniMohanty, beautifully performed MatangiDhyanam choreographed by Guru RatikantMohapatra.
The Purvai Group consisting of members DivyaniMohanty, SaptaparniBasak, Mohul Pal, RajanyaSaha and PragyaDey presented ‘PattadeepPallavi’ and ‘AchyutamKeshavam’ with utmost elegance and left the spectators in awe. Jashodhara Bora, the disciple of Dr SarojaVaidyanathan, remarkably presented Bharatanatyam, while Sasmita Panda from Cuttack, a disciple of Meera Das, presented an outstanding Odissi item. The Talent Hunt winners from the previous festival, Nilava Sen (Bharatanatyam), Moumita Pal (Odissi) and Chalormi Group (Manipuri) were provided with a golden opportunity to showcase their extraordinary talent on the occasion of ICDMF Kolkata 2018. Around 15 live Kathak performances were held this time along with Subir Thakur and Prateek Mukherjee on Tabla, Sandeep Neogi on Sitar, Debashis Sarkar, Biswajit Ghosh and Prateep Banerjee on Vocal, and Alok Choudhury on BolPadhant. The grand ceremony concluded with a prize distribution of Talent Hunt auditions held from December24 to 26. The Talent Hunt Winners this year were RaghavSehgal (Vocal), Tamal Das and NazulaAlam (Odissi), DivyaniMohanty&Priyanka Pal (Kathak), Swastika Singha Roy and MadhusreeMondal (RabindraNritya), SandipKundu (Kuchipudi), Saheli Sen, Avantika Roy &ShilpiMitra (Bharatanatyam) and SouradeepDhar (NazrulNritya, Classical Fusion).
