Brindasabi Devi gets Akademi Awards

Th. Brindasabi Devi (Gouranga Leela, Manipur), has won the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship and Akademi Awards for 2007. President Pratibha Devisingh Patil presented the prestigious at a special ceremony.

Presenting the Awards the President said, Indian art and music must look at the social role that they can play. Dance and drama are a powerful medium and can be used to effectively convey social messages particularly to fight social evils like female foeticide, female infanticide, dowry and addiction to drugs and alcohol. They can also educate the population on various issues such as health, literacy and the values of truth, tolerance and harmony. She called upon the social organizations to promote music and art as a means of bringing about awareness, harmony and peace in society.

Expressing concern that some of our traditional folk arts were fast disappearing for want of patronage, she said we must look at how the “patrons of arts” in our society - whether corporate houses, musical societies, local artist groups – can be encouraged to support the classical and the traditional arts. The President called upon all the people of the country to participate in the learning, understanding and preservation of our diverse and rich culture.

Earlier, congratulating the award winners the Minister for Culture and Tourism Smt. Ambika Soni said the Government was acting as a facilitator for promoting art, culture and the diversity and plurality of our country. She said ‘Incredible India’ did not relate to tourism alone, its all about our rich art, culture and heritage. Smt. Soni said recently Indian artistes performed abroad to celebrate 60 years of our independence. It showcased the traditional Indian art in the world arena.

This year the most coveted honour of Akademi Fellowship (Akademi Ratna) was conferred on eminent scholar and Professor of aesthetics, Dr. S.K. Saxena. The award contains a purse money of Rs. one lakh, besides a citation, an angavastram and a tamrapatra.

33 eminent persons were conferred the Akademi Awards for the year 2007 carrying a purse money of Rs. 50,000/-, citation, angavastram and tamrapatra.

In the field of Music Vidyadhar Vyas and Govardhan Mishra for Hindustani Vocal Music, Nandan Mehta, Hindustani Instrumental (Tabla), Ramoo Prasad Shastri , Hindustani Instrumental (Violin), B. Krishnamoorti , Carnatic Vocal Music, Vidya Shankar, Carnatic Instrumental (Veena), S.R.D. Vaithiyanathan, Carnatic Instrumental (Nagaswaram) and Khayyam (Mohammad Zahoor Hashmi) for Creative & Experimental Music were selected.

In the field of Dance Sucheta Bhide Chapekar Bharatanatyam, Geetanjali Lal Kathak, Sadanam Krishnan Kutty, Kathakali, Yeleswarapu Nageswara Sarma Kuchipudi, Ranjana Gauhar Odissi, Gunakanta Dutta Borbayan, Sattriya, Deepti Omchery Bhalla, Mohiniattam and Kalamandalam Sivan Nambootiri , Other Major Traditions of Dance and Dance Theatre – Kutiyattam were given the award.

In the field of Theatre, Reoti Saran Sharma , Lalthangfala Sailo, Yumnam Rajendra Singh , eminent playwrights, N.C. Thakur, Hari Madhab Mukherjee for Direction, Ramesh Mehta for Acting, Mahendra Kumar for Allied Theatre Arts – Scenic Design and Kolyur Ramachandra Rao for Major Traditions of Theatre – Yakshagana got the award.

In the field of Traditional/Folk/Tribal/Dance/Music/Theatre and Puppetry, Th. Brindasabi Devi (Gouranga Leela, Manipur), Pralhad Singh Tipaniya , Folk Music (Nirgun, Madhya Pradesh), Ram Dayal Munda, Tribal Dance & Music (Jharkhand), Gulam Mohammad, Dogri Folk Music (Jammu & Kashmir), Subodh Debbarma, Tribal Dance (Tripura), Amar Paul, Folk Music (West Bengal)_, L. Rajappa, Puppetry (Pondicherry) and Sharafat Abdul Majid Satarmaker for Musical Instrument making (Maharashtra) were selected.

Mukund Lath was honoured with the Akademi Award 2007 for his contribution to Scholarship in Performing Arts.

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