A Unique Amalgamation Of Art Forms

A Unique Amalgamation Of Art Forms

A unique festival comprising best practitioners and scholars from the fields of music, dance, drama, folk tribal arts, puppetry and allied traditions of India is being organised by Sangeet Natak Akademi here in the city. 

The five-day festival titled ‘Shreshtha Bharat Sanskrit Samagam’ has commenced on Tuesday with seminars being held at Bhanjakala Mandap in the morning and cultural programs at Rabindra Mandap in the evening.

The festival would host many legendary and young artists of the country who will enlighten the audience with various discussion sessions and performances.

Shekher Sen, chairman of Sangeet Natak Akademi said, “These congregations would hopefully go a long way in the furtherance of the Akademi’s and Ministry of Culture’s mission to strengthen and propagate all that is living and life sustaining in India’s culture. It is for the first time that such a festival is being held at Bhubaneswar, involving exponents from the field of art.”“We feel that the more we promote the traditional art forms of various regions, the more awareness would be generated. With this motive, we are organising a festival which would give emphasis to all art forms,” added Sen.

The first half of each day would witness seminar sessions, with corresponding performances in the second half of the day. On the first day of the festival, eminent personalities like Prabha Atre, Sharad Sathe, Manjunath, Ramhari Das, Yogehs Samsi, Vidyadhar Vyas, Ritwik Sanyal among others talked about the past, present and future scenarios of Indian performing art forms. They also talked about steps that need to be taken to preserve some of the traditional art forms which are now on the verge of extinction.

Performance of renowned artists like Hindustani vocalist Rashid Khan, Hindustani and Carnatic flutist Rakesh Chaurasia and Shashank Subramanyam was the major attraction on the first day.

The other important highlights during the festival will include Bharatnatyam by Padma Subrahmnayam, performances of renowned Kuchipudi couple Raja-Radha Reddy, Bastar band, Anwar Khan Manganir and Group from Rajasthan and Qawwali by Nizami brothers.