Artistes of Srjan present Synthesis at the Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra awards ceremony in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 10: The cultural extravaganza of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival concluded at Rabindra Mandap last evening.

The five-day festival, hosted by Srjan, saw felicitations to veteran artistes from various fields, along with Odissi performances by the host group.

Choreographies by Guru Ratikant Mohapatra, organiser of the festival and son of legendary Kelucharan Mohapatra, and two innovative compositions were presented in the evening.

While an abstract fusion, Synthesis, was a show-stealer for its stage presentation and ambience, another Odissi dance drama, Kubjaa, moved the audience.

Synthesis, a visual by the artistes, showed a series of movements combined with intelligent light effects that looked aesthetically appealing. Annada Prasanna Pattnaik and Satyabrata Katha composed the music for this unusual piece, and Nityananda Mishra wrote the script for it.

Mishra’s second presentation, Kubjaa, was a mythological sequence, depicting the well-known tale of a devotee, who is physically deformed, and how Lord Krishna turns her into a beautiful damsel. Lakshmikant Palit composed music for Kubjaa.

“All of us know the tale, but with such ease and beauty it was depicted that one had to feel various emotions of a devotee recited in it,” said Anshuman Kar, a viewer.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik presented the annual Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra awards to four artistes from various fields on the occasion.

Guru Sudhakar Sahoo for dance, thespian Niranjan Satpathy for theatre, Pandit Umesh Kar for music and film personality Prashant Nanda for cinema were felicitated.

Earlier, during the four days, the festival saw performances by reputed artistes such as Odissi dancers Ramli Ibrahim and Daksha Mashruwala, Bharatnatyam dancer Vaibhav Airekar, flautist Shashank Subramaniam, instrumentalist Anandan Sivamani, violinist Deepak Pandit, Kathak dancer Prashant Shah and sitarist Neeladri Kumar.

“We at Srjan are absolutely delighted with the turnout and appreciation of the viewers. Like every year, we wished to bring captivating performers to the city and it has been great to see art lovers enjoy every evening of the festival,” said organiser Ratikant Mohapatra.