Bhubaneswar: The week-long 30th Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra (GKCM) Award Festival 2024 at Rabindra Mandap, organised by SrjanGuru Kelucharan Mohapatra Odissi Nrityabasa, reached its half-way mark Sunday, with a delightful musical evening by ‘SubraMania’. It was led by the brilliant and young violinist Ambi Subramaniam and vocalist Bindu Subramaniam, who are carrying on the rich musical legacy of their father, celebrated violin virtuoso Dr L Subramaniam.
The fourth evening of Srjan commenced with the auspicious lighting of the lamp. The esteemed guests for the evening included Yo gesh Bahadur Khurania, Director General of Police (DGP), Odisha; Subodh Chandra Acharya, Joint Directorcum-Joint Secretary, Department of Odia Language, Literature & Culture, Govt of Odisha; Adyasha Satpathy, Chief Executive, Dharitri and OrissaPOST; and Guru Ratikant Mohapatra, Director, Srjan, and Dean, Faculty of Arts, Communication and Indic Studies, SSU. It was an evening of musical celebration as the band ‘Subra Mania’, led by Ambi Subramaniam on the violin, Bindu Subramaniam on vocals, Frijo Francis on the keyboard, Anirudha Bhat on the mridangam, Prashanth Gnanamuthu on the guitar and Karthik Mani on the drums captivated audiences with their contemporary world music, a fusion of traditional Indian music with elements of pop, rock, and jazz, with their breakthrough track “Days in the Sun”. Hailed as “India’s Itzhak Pearlmann,” by Ozy Magazine, Ambi is a Carnatic violin prodigy, music educator, and UN youth delegate, while Bindu, hailed as third-generation prodigy, is an entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, and educator.
Together, they run SaPa (Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts), while teaching music to over 30,000 students in India annually through the SaPa Schools programme. With a unique musical arrangement using the violin, mridang am, drums, and guitar, SubraMania presented a unique harmonic blend of different sounds, tonality, and pieces. Each track had a distinct element including Spanish Flamenco, Hungarian gypsy, and rhythmic intricacies. The band weaved the intrinsic classicism of Carnatic music into the contemporary milieu, making for harmonic world fusion. It is their interpretation of the inherent classical elements that made the concert an auditory delight. State’s only home-grown English daily OrissaPOST and one of the largest circulated Odia dailies Dharitri are the print media partners for the event.