Nimai Mohanty – Odisha’s Lyrical Bard

If the prima stella of Nimai Mohantyin the lyrical constellation appeared in a fifth-grade notebook with "Ai Mo Gaan Ti Dise Kete Manohara" -those artless lines of village beauty that would have developed into "Mo Gaan"-this bāl-kavitā in the sixth grade in "Sourav magazine"  held in it an ankura that critics much later came to call "gramya-kosha," a dictionary of rustic elegance. By the time he was in college, his verses in the Sunday magazine of Prajatantra  and Dagar  magazine showed the kavi-shishya honing his craft until "Sabuja Nakshatra"  in the college magazine caught Maestro Radhakrishna Bhanja's (Nini Babu's) learned eye - a priceless moment wherein he would forever be loathe to let his lekhanī (pen) steer itself into anything but lyrics.

Then began his swara-yuga (era of sound). Shri Mohanty was inspired to write for Baripada's film Abhiman under the maestros's aadesh (command), and he saw his words metamorphosed into dhwani-maya(sonic reality) when Nini Babu performed them at a Bhubaneswar sammelan (gathering). That recognition by the elitist audience was no mere applause - it was the consecration of shabda-shakti  (word-power). And as Shri Bhanja had foreseen, following Akashvani's recognition in 1981, he became Odisha's antahpura-kavi (court poet of the airwaves), with "Mun Je Piyasi Mahumachi"  and "Ae Phaguna Ilakara"  becoming Aakashvani (Voice from Heaven - All India Radio) that even Akshay Mohanty ("Khoka Bhai")  could not ignore, thereby leading to their legendary work on All India Radio and beyond starting from the Sajaphula  trilogy.

His cinematic sangam birthed the masterpieces:

• Pardeshi Chadhei's "Ajab Sahare Aji Gujab Uthichi"-urban alienation ska Sambalpuri rhythm
• Sagar Ganga's "Kie Pochiba Mo Akhira Luha" - where teardrops were shruti (microtones)
• Hasiba Puni Mo Suna Sansar's hopeful cadences
• Chandrama Aago Chandrama (moon as both a celestial body and a metaphor intertwining lover)
• Topa Topa Sisirara (dew as the rhythm of nature's taal)
• Sahara ra Bati...

Over 750 songs spanning 30 films, Nimai Babu has perfected his alankara of contrasts with music composers including Abhijit Majumdar, Malay Mishra, Bappi Lahiri, Amarendra Mohanty, Prashant Padhi, Bubu Mishra & Gudli Rath.

When his inspirations (Nini Babu, Khoka Bhai) were on their way to heaveanly journey, Saurindra Barik  became his Bhagirathi  - a liberator of the frozen Ganga of creation -as Mohanty said, "Perhaps I would not be writing today...". But it flowed all the same-through Doordarshan studios and Odisha's palli-anganas, proving his own infinite verse: "These narrow corridors remain, Even when the intimate ones leave".

Nimai Mohanty's  poetry was no mere arrangement of words; it was a symphony of earth and spirit, where the bhasha of Mayurbhanj soil mingled with the gayaki or spirit of contemporary Odia literature. His verses moved with jhumar music - sometimes a little raw, sometimes deeply touching-the chiaroscuro of rustic realism and lyrical radiance.

His earliest poem "Sabuja Nakshatra"(Green Star), which appeared in his college magazine, was his half-way encounter--an important work that attracted the attention of Shri Radhakrishna Bhanja. In it, Shri Mohanty's bhabana  flowed down like the Budhabalanga river during the monsoon, all unrestrained but forging its own path. His later collections, namely "Dura Apahancha Gaan" (That Distant Unreachable Village) and Mahamah Andhara (The Great Darkness), were not mere books but are the living proof of his un-bound flowing of emotions, where nostalgia and nihilism coexisted like sandalwood and clay.

Critics often placed the phases of his poetic evolution with reference to the panchabhuta-the initiation in the watery realm of young romance (Prema Padvali), its hardening into the earthy social commentary (Abak Pruthvi), finally returning back unto the grand ether of phosophical metaphysics (Muhaana O Mun). His writing bore the ankura or germination of his dual identity, that of a palli-pagala who was singing to "mo gaan" while the other was a sahityik who deconstructed jeevana rahasyas with Kalidasa-like precision.

The oftier his creativity flowed down with the Ganga (as he confessed to Saurindra Barik), it was folklore that resurrected it. His study in Jhumar became his shakti and sharan - a return to the moola that nurtured his most avant-garde (experimental, groundbreaking) verses. In this sandhi  between tradition and modernity, Shri Mohanty found his swara, one that still reverberates in the antariksha of Odia poetry.

The year 1993 arrived as soft as a shruti (microtone) that hardly made itself felt, yet was an essential pause before the "Odisha Cinecritic Award"  granted its first since 1993 for the chitrapata-geeta  (film lyrics) of Mohanty. This no mere prapti (acquisition) but theoretically paves the routes for prathama-ankura (first sprout) of an padaka-Brukshya  (award-tree) that would have at least five reciprocalities as foundation: sangeet (music), sahitya (literature), nari-shakti (women’s empowerment), asmita (regional pride), and swadhinata (freedom).

In 2011 "Sangeet Natak Akademi" gave him the highest honor if one can regard it as the apex of guru-shishya parampara - the final padaka (medallion), crowning him not simply as a geetikavi (lyric poet) but as Odisha's undeniably underlaying heart beat. When Balasore's "Arpana Gitikavita Samman" was bestowed thereafter, it sanctified his exquisite alankara of combining jhumar'searthier tones with saptak (octave) sophistication, a duality much later extolled by the Gitikavi Samaj as “gramya-kosha in sargam.”

Yet Shri Mohanty's award-yatra (award journey) allowed for more fluid ensemble-accumulations:

• The Pragya-Ratna (Wisdom Jewel) accepted his word-austerity when “Sita Asi Gita Lekhe”faintly crystallized a collision of classical emotions and postmodern fragmentation.
• Shrima Women's Collegein 2007 honored feminine energy reflecting in his writings.
• Even "Mayurbhanj Bhanja Gaurav (2015)" was not merely a plaque-but swarna-pratima (golden icon) saying thank you from his janmabhumi (birthland).
• The Swadhinata Golden Jubilee Samman (1996)—ostensibly for patriotic contribution—probably secretly resulting in honoring his “Mo Gaon” as freedom's truest form: liberty to sing of palli-prem (village love) at the time of globalization.

These laurels were less about crowning achievement than about consecrating a covenant--between poet and soil, between melody and memory.

On that fatum-sealed Friday of November 5, 2022, getting set for the sandhyadhauli were the lamps across Baripada’s palli-anganas; Nimai Mohanty’s antim-geet (the final song) died away into the akashvani of eternity. Silence splashed its presence on the shunya-swar of his departure from that modest little Puruna Sahi house, where "Mo Gaon" had first trembled into life from the jotting down in a child’s notebook. Yet the viraha could not mute the sting of shruti: a man who converted mrittika (clay) into melody, transformed sisira (dew) into metaphor, and turned viraha (separation) into sangeet (music) could not really die.

The samay-chakra (wheel of time) that turned around and finished the full cycle, initiated by a schoolboy’s pratham-akshara (first letter) in Sourav magazine, gifted Odisha with 750-plus songs as the antahpura (inner chambers) of the memory of this collective. From "Chandrama Aago Chandrama" (moon as lover and lunatic) to "Sahara ra Bati" (The Lamp of the Town - A observant lyricists idea to plot love), the poetic alchemy of Mohanty managed the impossible feat of allowing the nija (personal) and the samaaja (societal) to breathe as one.

Now those same tears that he had once versified—"Kiya Pochiba Mo Akhira Luha"—were being melted away by the crowd of mourners with the retro level of irony: the very poet who had given Odisha both ananda (joy) and vedana (pain) was to become a bhavishya-purana (future legend), whose life now turns into a gapa (folk tale) murmured between the strum of sarod buckets and mardala beats.

"Thus remains the paradox of the lyrical yogi—that Mohanty, who spent a lifetime stitching sabda (words) to swara (notes), ultimately wove himself into Odisha’s sanskruti-tantra (cultural loom): both the weaver and the woven, the singer and the song."

• Personal Details
  • Full Name:Nimai Mohanty
  • Date of Birth:August 10, 1953
  • Place of Birth:Puruna Hatasahi, Baripada
  • Father:Narayana Prasad Mohanty
  • Mother:Sudha Devi
  • Education:BA LLB (Utkal University)
  • Occupation:Lawyer, Lyricist, Poet, Researcher
  • Traits:Lyricist, Essayist, Chhau Researcher
  • Address:Puruna Hatasahi, Baripada
  • Death:November 5, 2022 (Baripada)
• Key Roles & Affiliations
  • Approved Lyricist, All India Radio, Cuttack
  • Approved Lyricist, Doordarshan
  • Senior Practicing Lawyer, District Court, Baripada
  • Editor, Odisha Literature Academy (Mayurbhanj)
  • Member, Odisha Literature Academy
  • Contributor to Mayurbhanj Sanskrutika Sansad
• Notable Works
  • Total Number of Films (30+). Notable once are
    • Paradeshi Chadhei
    • Sagar Ganga
    • Hasiba Puni Mo Suna Sansar
    • Gopa Re Bujhila Kala Kanhei
    • Samaya Kheluchi Chaka Bhaunri
    • Sahara Jaluchi
    • Kie Pochideba Ma Akhi ra Luha
  • Popular Songs (750+), notable one's that immidiately come to me:
    • Chandrama Aago Chandrama
    • Sahara ra Bati Sabu Libhigala Pare Tumaku Lekhuchi Chithi Jahna Aluare
    • Sita Asi Gita Lekhe Kaacha Jharakare
    • Topa Topa Sisirara Rupeli Kalini
    • Prajapati Jalijaye Phula Ra Nia re
    • Mu Aji Jale Tuma Rupa Ra Niyan re
    • Mun je Piyasi Mahumachi
    • Ae Phaguna Ilakara
    • Ajab Sahare Aji Gujab Uthichi
  • Literary Works
    • Dur Apahancha Gaon (Collection of Poems - 1997)
    • Abak Prithvi
    • Mahamah Andhara (Collection of Modern Poetry - 2001)
    • Prema Padvali
    • Muhaana O Mun (Book of Poetry)
    • Research works on "Loka Giti" of Mayurbhanj - "Jhumar"
• Major Awards
  • Odisha Sangeet Natak Academy Award (2010-2011)
  • Odisha Cinecritic Award (1993 and 2005)
  • Best Lyricist Award from Chalachitra Jagat (2004)
  • Odisha Gitikavi Samaj Samman
  • Pragya-Ratna Sammana
  • Shrima Women's College Sammana (2007)
  • Arpana Gitikavita Samman - Balasore (2010)
  • Mayurbhanj Bhanja Gaurav Samman (2015)
  • Nihar Kanya Gitikavita Samman - Soro (2017)
  • Parikrama Samman - Rairangpur (2016)
  • Swadhinata - 50th Golden Jubilee Samman (1996)