Patel Cultural Foundation (Mumbai) proudly organises the 10th Girnar Festival of Music and Dance at Shamal Das Gandhi Town Hall in Junagadh in Gujarat from 1st to 5th December. This annual festival of classical music and dance attracts the attention of performers from all over the country and abroad. This unique five-day festival features varied classical dance forms and instrumental and vocal musicians in Hindustani and Carnatic styles. With the predominance of Bharatanatyam and Kathak, it will be refreshing to watch some dancers performing Odissi, Mohiniattam and Kuchipudi and the added attraction is the theatre art form of Karnataka- Yakshagana.
After the traditional lighting of lamps by dignitaries, the festival commences with the New Delhi based Odissi danseuse Bagmishree, followed with Bharatanatyam by Seema Joshi from Pune with her group and Apoorva Wadke with her group from Mumbai will perform Kathak. A different version in the Bharata Nrityam style will be performed by Aishwarya Harish from Mumbai. Ayshwarya is the daughter and disciple of veteran danseuse and mentor, Guru Jayshree Rajagopalan. The classical music session starts with instrumental percussion of Tabla by Achyut Tijare from Nagpur and Siddhant Gundecha from Bhopal. They will perform a Tabla duet with rhythmic delights, followed with the melodious Santoor recital by Bhopal based Ninad Adikari.
The second day of the festival commences with an Odissi duet by talented dancers from Mumbai, Anuja Padave and Sanya Kamani, they are the disciples of Guru Asha Nambiar. Lakshmi Raj from Thane will perform Bharata natyam, followed by the Kathak group led by Nilima Hirve and Yogendra Oze from Pune. It will be exciting to watch the young Jhanvi Ambalia from Ahmedabad performing Kuchipudi, she is the disciple of veteran Bharata Natyam and Kuchipudi exponent and mentor, Guru Smita Shastri of Nartan School of Classical Dances. Dr Atundra Sarwadakr will render a vocal recital followed with the thrilling flute duet by Bhargav Rao and Naren Kaushik from Bangalore.
The third day, Sunday 3rd December will start with the elegant Odissi recital by Debasrita Mohanty from Surat followed with the Kathak duet by Thane based dancers Devika Mankar and Pranjali Kolhe. It will be refreshing to watch the graceful Mohiniattam being performed by Wincy Fernandes from Vadodara, disciple of the acclaimed danseuse, Guru Ayswaria Warriar. Dr Anupama Harshal with her team of ten dancers will enthrall you with her Kathak performance. Jaiman Soni will refresh you with his Harmonium from Ahmedabad. Dr Shivani Kinariwala will take you to a world of classical music with her vocal rendering and the finale of the programme will be the pleasing musical rendering by Mangal Murti Special Child School musicians from Junagadh.
The second last day of the festival will be an enchanting jugalbandi in the Odissi and Bharata Natyam style by Prachi Jariwala from Mumbai and Himanshu Shrivastava from New Delhi in their respective styles, followed with the unusual and interesting combination of Yakshagana and Bharata Natyam by Shravan and Kiran Ulal from Mangalore. Radhika Phanse and Aditi Yadav from Mumbai will perform a Kathak duet followed the interesting stringed instrument., Violin by Ketaki Ponkshe and vocal by Neeraj Pokharna from Udaipur and the finale performer of the evening will be Gajendra Kumavat with the melodious Rudra Veena from Nathdwara.
The last day of the festival with percussion rhythmic delights with the Pakhawaj by Bhupendra Kumar from Raipur, Utkarsh Malviya from Prayagraj, Manoj Solnke from Pune, Jayant Gayakwad from Gwalior, Yoshanandan from Nathdwara and Ruturaj Bhosle from Parbani, followed with group Odissi dance presentation by Kala Vikas Kendra from Cuttack. Smita Nair and Binduja Nair from Thane will perform Bharatanatyam duet and Kathak group will be led by Khyati Mer from Rajkot, followed with the beautiful stringed Sitar music recital rendered by Dhanashree Badkakkar and Anagha Shah from Mumbai and the grand festival concludes with Dhrupad recital by Sulbha Chaurasia Saraf from Ujjain.
With support from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, the soul of this festival is MK Patel who says “With hardly any support from the corporate sector, it’s really difficult to organise a festival of this magnitude”. The comperes of the festival are Anand Singh of AIR fame and Narhari and the festival critic is Guru Vijay Shanker.
