Chandrabhaga Institution’s Annual Festival ‘Chandrabhagotsav’ Concludes: A Fresh Awakening of Art, Literature, and Culture
Balasore, January 5 (Krushna Kumar Mohanty): The annual festival of the Chandrabhaga institution, Chandrabhagotsav, was held with great enthusiasm, beginning on the morning of Monday, December 29.
The festival opened with ritual chanting by Kritibas Panda (Bapinana) and a recitation from the Gita by Deepshikha Bardhan. In collaboration with the dance institution Naach', a range of competitions involving students from different schools across Odisha were organised.
The inaugural evening was graced by noted Odia writer and eloquent speaker Dash Benhur, who attended as chief guest and deeply impressed the audience with his heartfelt address.
One of Chandrabhaga’s long-cherished dreams was to launch a mega event in the form of a National-level Multilingual Theatre Festival. In line with this vision, a Bengali adaptation of Safdar Hashmi’s original Hindi play 'Halla Bol' was staged by a team from Shantiniketan, Birbhum, under the direction of Nirmal Hazra. On the third evening, the audience was captivated by the Hindi play 'Terrorist Ki Premika', directed and performed by renowned theatre director and actor Shiblal Sagar from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.
On the concluding night, with the support of the Asim Basu Foundation, the Odia adaptation of the English play 'The Skeleton' was staged under the joint direction of poet-storyteller Shakti Mohanty and Debadatta Pati. The performance was warmly received and thoroughly enjoyed by the audience.
The valedictory evening was presided over by former MLA Pradipta Panda. The programme was attended by Basta MLA Smt. Subasini Jena as chief guest, while the guests of honour included Additional District Magistrate of Balasore Sudhakar Nayak, Chairperson of Balasore Municipality Smt. Sabita Sahu, retired professor Shatrughna Mallik, and social activist Gouranga Panigrahi. The speakers highly appreciated Chandrabhaga’s role in shaping a new and progressive social consciousness and urged collective support for the institution’s founder, poet Srideb. They also cautioned that neglect by the younger generation could lead to serious cultural loss on a wider, even global, scale.
Arunanshu Panigrahi of '' formally welcomed the guests, while poet Srideb shared his early experiences with Chandrabhaga, reflecting candidly on its journey, successes, and failures. The vote of thanks was delivered by senior member of the institution, Professor Dr. Shashikanta Mohanty.
