The evening started with Kiranmayee Mudupu’s Bharatnatyam recital, Satyagraha Pancharatna, which brought to life the episode from Mahabharata where Lord Krishna reveals his Vishwaroopam to Arjuna before the battle of Kurukshetra. As she effortlessly switched roles – playing the saint Annamacharya one moment, the mischievous Bala Krishna the next and transitioning into an aghast Yashoda a moment later – the 500 strong audience were left spellbound. Kiranmayee’s mastery in Nritya came to the fore in her third and final piece, Raghuvamshasudha, which was filled with intricate footwark and graceful movements.
Next up was an Odissi performance by Ratikant Mohapatra’s students from Srjan, his dance school. They performed Arthanareeshwar, set to Shankaracharya’s sanskrit stotra, depicting Lord Shiva and Shakti in tandava. They concluded with a stellar performance called Synthesis – a fusion dance with contemporary movements and traditional Odissi.
The highlight of the evening was a dance ballet called “Jatayu Moksha” by the legendary Ratikant Mohapatra which depicted the story of Jatayu trying to stop Ravana from abducting Sita. Depicting every detail of the valiant story with utmost grace and sensitivity, he concluded the show with “Vishwas” – focussing on the essence of secularism. The music was a combination of Gurbani, Sufi and Kabir’s Doha. He said, “I deliberately did not make this a traditional Odissi margam performance. I was aware that the audience here will be from different walks of life. In a traditional margam concert, it is hard for an uninitiated audience to stay engaged. So, I chose these mythological and thematic pieces, combined with contemporary dance forms to keep the audience hooked till the end.”