The festival sun rises again at Konark - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

After two torrid Covid years, followed by being rained out last year, the sun rose again for the Konark festival, attracting a handsome turnout. In a world driven by the sense of isolation on the one hand and dissension on the other, starting the festival with Malaysia's Datuk Ramli Ibrahim's Sutra Foundation presenting Jaya Ram in the Odissi style, for me as a dance writer, represented a symbolism demonstrating the healing power of culture as soft power. Here was India's famous epic, the Ramayana, (which, over time, has caught the creative imagination of artistes in several parts of South East Asia) in a production fashioned through an Indian/Malaysian bonding, comprising Guru Gajendra Kumar Panda's concept and original dance composition, presented by Sutra artistes of Malaysia, under the artistic direction of Ramli Ibrahim - both artistes sharing the background of having been trained in the Debaprasad Odissi school, under the late Guru.

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