RNS: Three days music, dance, and drama festival ‘Amrit Yuva Kalotsav 2023-24’ kicked-off at Kala Kendra Sector 2 in Bokaro Steel City on Wednesday. Dr. Sandhya Purecha, the Chairperson of the Music and Drama Academy, along with other guest artists, including Rajan Prasad, Director (Personnel and Administration) of Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) inaugurated the event with lighting the ceremonial lamp.
The festival is being hosted by the Music and Drama Academy, New Delhi, a unit of the Academy’s Sixth Center, Chandankiyari, Jharkhand, and the Bokaro Steel Plant, concluded on 30 June.
Speaking on the inaugural eve Dr. Sandhya Purecha shed light on the aims of the event that was organised by the Music and Drama Academy and highlighted the contributions that the Academy has made to the development of the performing arts in the areas of music, dance, and drama during her talk.
She mentioned that the Music and Drama Academy is going to be organising the Amrit Yuva Kalotsav all over the country as a way to commemorate the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. In keeping with this, the event is going down in Bokaro, which is located in the state of Jharkhand.
At this event, artists from seven different states and seven different youth art organisations from the state of Jharkhand will demonstrate their talents in the areas of music, dance, theatre, and other forms of the arts. The festival was put together with the intention of giving emerging artists a stage to showcase their work and serving as an inspiration to them.
BSL’s ED Rajan Prasad expressed gratitude to the Music and Drama Academy for organising the event in Bokaro and promised to continue to support this artistic journey. Sanjay Kumar Chaudhary (Bokaro), a member of the Music and Drama Academy’s Advisory Committee, concluded the opening with a vote of appreciation.
Following the inauguration, West Bengal’s Siddharth Bose and Abhishek Gupta performed a duet on the sarod and sitar, supported by Arkadip Das on the tabla. Following that, artists from Manbhoom Shiva Shakti Chhau and Paika Art Centre, Jharkhand, performed the Paika dance, and West Bengal artists performed the Purulia Chhau dance. Under the direction of Karmaveer Singh Rajput, the artists from the Bharatnatyam Dance Academy in Tamil Nadu and the Karmaveer Jan Shikshan Evam Sanskriti Samiti in Madhya Pradesh performed Bharatanatyam and presented the powerful staging of the Hindi play ‘Inqilab Ka Sailaab-Bhagat’ to applause from the audience. Dr. Rajshree Jayanti of Ranchi was in charge of the stage.
Prior to the inauguration, around 300 artists, including the Chairperson of the Music and Drama Academy, marched from Ram Mandir Golmbar in Sector 1 to the event venue at Sector 2 Art Centre.
Media Coordinator Arun Pathak, musicologist Dr. Rakesh Ranjan, Professor P.L. Varnawal, Sunil Kumar, and Mritunjay Bhattacharya, and many art aficionados attended. Abhiram Bhadkamkar, Ashish Kumar Mishra, Umakant Gundecha, Sanjay Kumar Chaudhary, and Nandalal Nayak were also present there.
