Imphal, January 19: After six-long days of entertaining, delighting and informing Kolkattans and giving them an opportunity of getting a glimpse of Manipur its history and cultural heritage as manifested in its dance, music, martial arts, folk theatre etc., and also its crafts and cuisines, its art and cinema, the curtains finally came down on the 'Festival of Manipur - A culture of Peace', on this evening of 19th January 19, 2003.Budhadev Bhattacharya, the West Bengal Chief Minister graced the closing ceremony as the Chief Guest and Harsh Vardhan Neotia, Chairman of Swabhurni presided over the function.

The Chief Minister, like the Governors of Manipur and Nagaland at the opening ceremony, was also accorded an impressive and solemn welcome in the traditional way, complete with 'pena' and 'duty-okpa', he was also greeted by artistes from different communities, dressed in their traditional costumes all the way up the Swabhumi Complex.

Thereafter the VIPs went around the stalls displaying handloom and crafts products from Manipur, showing a great deal of interest in some of the items.

Chief Minister West Bengal said that this cultural festival of Manipur will strengthen relationship between not only the government of Manipur but among the people to people relationship.

However he stated that even though he heard about the taste of the Manipuri delicacies, he never tasted it in the cultural feast.

Interestingly the chief minister tonight tasted the Manipuri foods at the food stall erected here at the Swabhumi complex.

At the Urban Court, Swabhumi, where the formal closing ceremony was held, Dr Nara Singh, Minister of Art and Culture, Govt of Manipur delivered the Valedictory Speech.

Chief Minister of West Bengal said, ...The Chief minister of Manipur, O Ibobi, who was supposed to preside over the function could attend due to the prevailing political condition in the state.

And here also, taking note of the situation and sharing the apprehensions with all those back home, the organizers decided to do away with the originally planned Thabal Chongba, so as not to send out a wrong signal of merrymaking, a signal, considered not appropriate with the times we are going through.

A huge and highly appreciative audience witnessed the few cultural progammes in the offing, this last day of the festival.

These included a Thang-Ta performance by the artistes of the Huyel Lalong, of the One of, the biggest crowd.Instead 'the cultural programme was restricted to Thang-Ta performance, Maibi Jagoi, drum and dholok chollom and finally the Holi pala.

Before this, artistes from outside Manipur who performed during the festival were felicitated with a memento and a certificate, as a symbol of appreciation to the individuals and organizations for their dedication to Manipuri dance.

These included artistes Suman Sarawji, Shobhana Mitra, Vamica Arora and Aribam Vidya Dev from Anjika, Tamana Rehnian, Subroto, Sharmila Benerjee and Warda Rehab from Nritya Nandan, Bimbavati Devi, Tanushree Das, Anwenha Singh and Sanjib Bhattacharjee from Manipuri Nartanalya and finally from the Meitei Jagoi, Kolkata of Debjani Chaliha, Rituparna Bhattacharjee, Sayantawi Chowdhury, Rasini Roychoudhury and Mohini Sengupta.

Also from the Silchar Dance College run by S Rajemdra Singha, S Ranjana Singha performed Krishna Vandana and Kh.

Geetantjali Chanu the Radha Naran.

Interestingly, two of them, Tamanq Rehman and Warda Rehab are foreigners hailing from Bangladesh.

For these artistes performing in this festival and in front of a massive audience, which among others, included Oja Babu (who incidentally, also played the pung, for Anjika's rendering of his own composition of the Dasavatar), Gambhini Devi, Thouranisabi, MK Binodini, Shyam Sharma among others, was a homage to the rich tradition of Manipuri Dance.

These stalwarts on their part also expressed their appreciations dedication and propagation of Manipuri Dance to the outside world by these organizations and individuals.

The speaker of the Manipur Assembly, TN Haokip was the Chief Guest of the day.

The Festival spread out to other parts of Kolkatta on the 18th with Manipuri songs by the Children Artistes Centre, Wabgai, orchestral music by Rhythms of Manipur and Pung and Tabla jugalbandi by G Loken and M Randolp at the historic Fort William.

The performances, especially the Jugalbandi drew loud applauses from the gathered audience.

There were also solo dance performances by artistes of the Government Dance College at the Bharatiya Bhasa Parishad, Theatre Road.

Before this, on the 16th and 17th, the festival had moved beyond Kolkata to the islands of Sunderbans, home to the famous Bengal tiger.

A huge audience of around ten thousand watched in rapt attention Sanaleibag Nachom's Shumang Lila version of Devdas, as if fully comprehending each and every nuances of this Saratchandra classic despite the unfamiliar language.

Children Artistes Centre and the Rhythms of Manipur also performed here.

This part of the Manipur festival was organized along with the collaboration of Mass Education, an NGO.

Despite some tiny hiccups here and there, the festival was a great success.

As Dr Nara who has been referred as the moving spirit behind this festival by all those connected with the festival says, " ..we have achieved much more than what we have set out to." As I have been reporting, almost all the performances were highly applauded, Koukha Bora was a major hit with the Kolkattans, the stalls selling handloom and handicraft products registered brisk sale.

A good and auspicious beginning to Dr Nara's endeavor of "..holding at least one festival of Manipur a year in all the states of this country".

Comment