bhubaneswar rabindra mandap reverberated with the sound of simulated thunder and lightning as the annual barsha festival kicked off on tuesday artistes from all over the country will be presenting songs and dance to welcome the rains at this fourday festival presented by the cultural organization chinta o chetana along with the department of culture and tourism unless you feel the magic of the season there is no point in celebrating it in that case it would be like any other cultural show said surendra das general secretary of chinta o chetana the objective of the festival is to make people think through art and culture he addedfrom bharatanatyam to hindustani classical music to odissi the audience will have a taste of the countrys rich culture palette its an interdisciplinary variety show featuring an assortment of performances inspired by the monsoon all art forms will be used to pay homage to the season said festival director ratikanta mohapatra the festival was inaugurated by noted classical singer sunanda patnaik culture minister prafulla samal and culture secretary ashok tripathy noted singer chittaranjan panis hindustani classical rendition opened the festival this was followed by an odissi performance by geeta mahalik on wednesday odissi performer rajashree praharaj put up an enthralling performance other artistes who will perform at the festival are malavika sen alok kanungo ramahari das srinibas satpathy laxmikanta palit sagarika patnaik bijay jena bidyutprava palit susmita das and sangeeta gosain among others a festival celebrating the varied moods of the rain is unique especially so when artistes from different genres come under one umbrella said praharaj