Kapilas Bhuyan
I recently came across a film on Odissi Dance of 20 minute duration fully available on YouTube. The film was produced by Films Division way back in 1972 and being directed by Ghanashyam Mohaptra, one of the senior most film directors of Odisha.
The film was made at an early phase just after the Odissi dance was officially recognized as one of the four classical dance forms of the country in 1958, and presumably, many people outside Odisha did not know much about the dance and its exponents.
The film opens with the singing recital of Pandit Raghunath Panigrahi “Jagannath Swami, Nayan Pathgami Bhabatu Me” in the Mangala Charan section of the Odissi repertoire. In this section, traditionally, the dancer pays her obeisance with flower before the Lord Jagannath, and at the end of the section she gives her salutation to her Gurus, audience and the supreme deity.
Within this framework, the film maker has tried to trace back the origin of the dance form citing its mention in the Natya Shastra, the ancient treaties on theater by Bharat Muni – “Awanti Dakhinatya Cha Panchali Chouda Magadhi”; which confirms to the fact that there had been prevalence of a dance form in the Oudra-Magadhi region belonging to the Southern part of the country.
Furthermore, experts also have found the most ancient sculptural evidences of dancers on the walls of the caves of Udaya Giri that dates back to B.C. 200. The sculptures on the niches of temples like the Satwik Shiva in a dancing position in Parshurameswar Temple of 600 A.D. is yet another proof of the preeminence of the dance form in the temple architecture of the time.
Further, the growth of the dance is reiterated with the available figurines of dancers on the temple niches of Lingaraj Temple, Jagannath Temple and Konark Temple built respectively in the 10th, 12th and 13th centuries.
In the next section Batu which has been dispensed largely now a days, the Odissi dancer recites in pure dance the sculptural depictions of Nayika playing various musical instruments like Veena, Benu, Kahali, Jhanja and Manjira etc. as available on the temple niches. She also depicts the various moods of Nayika in Alasya and holding mirror to indulge in her beauty etc. in this part of the recital.
The film maker also tries in this part to say that the prevalence of dance form had been in practice over 900 hundred years in the form of Mahari Nrutya inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Lord Jagannath temple to appease the Lords on everyday basis and as Gotipua Naacha outside the temple for the viewing of the people during the Jhulan Jatra or Swing Festival in Puri. However, the Mahari Nrutya recital inside the temple is abandoned over half a century by now.
It is worth mentioning here that the Odissi dance repertoire in its new form is created by an admixture of Mahari Nrutya and Gotipua Nacha in the 1950s by a group of prominent artistes of that time under a banner called “Abantika”, which subsequently got the sanction of the central govt. as one of the classical dance forms of India in 1958.
The late Guru Maguni Das had struggled a lot to revive the Gotipua Nrutya, the dance form which is very much thriving now. Similarly, dancer Rupashree Mohapatra, who is based in the Puri town, has revived the Mahari Nrutya Parampara and continues her practice of it through her institution Rupashree Kala Mandira over last two decades. Thus, both the dance forms are today surviving with their own identities and mesmerizing their devout audience world over.
After tracing the ancient links in the first two sections, the film maker makes a quick tour of the next three sections of Odissi repertoire, viz.; Pallavi, Abhinaya and Mokshya.
Pallavi is pure nritya, and danced to the musical notes and rhythmic syllables of various Ragas of Indian Music, and thereby adheres its identity as according to a particular raga of the dancer’s recital. In this section, a dancer elaborates the lyrical appeal of the Odissi dance. The body of the dancer blossoms into beautiful arrays of movements and fridges into instantaneous stillness. Pallavi literally means the blossoming of nature and thus, relates to the blossom of these “Pure Dance” pieces. Pallavi is characterized by the subtle nuance of technical precision and pure movement – graceful, fluid, and sensual.
In the Abhinay section the dancer impersonates various characters and interprets a song through expressive actions of body and face movements. To put forth an example in the film Sanjukta Panigrahi impersonates Radha as according to the Astapadi of Gita Gobinda, and enacts the symbolic union attended by her desire for merging the soul with her beloved Krishna.
In the final section Moksha, the dancer seeks relief from the earthly bound; and salvation in merging herself with the Supreme Being in joy and ecstasy.
The appealing part of the film is that it conveys the fundamentals of the Odissi dance repertoire and Sanjukta Panigrahi has given an engaging performance for the understanding of it. Whereas the minimal decor of the background by Asim Basu is non-interfering, the text and voice by Ritha Devi adds to the appropriate understanding of the subject matter.
Excellent. Though it looks like a review of the documentary on Odissi Dance, the article talks beyond that. It gives a vivid description on Odissi Dance, one of the Classical dance forms of India. Shall give a deep understanding on the subject to the reader.
Very informative
Revisiting an old documentary makes a lot of sense.