The Samikhsya Bureau
BHUBANERSWAR: Odisha’s acclaimed filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda has made his state proud once more with his Odia film Kalira Atita entering the race for Oscars 2021.
Nila Madhab shared the news on Twitter.
“In a year full of challenges, feel extremely happy to announce #KaliraAtita has made its entry into the Oscar race in general entry category 4 best picture, Best Actor, Best Director & many other categories. It’s being made available for academy screening, Grateful to everyone”, his post stated.
The film got into Indian Panorama in the recently hosted International Film Festival of India at Goa.
It is the maiden Odia film by Nila Madhab, a prolific filmmaker who is a National Award and Padma Shri winner.
“Kalira Atita is my first Odia film and I am really happy that it would start its journey with the prestigious IFFI. This is definitely one good news that this year has brought and I hope the year ahead will bring more cheer”, the filmmaker has remarked upon his film’s selection for IFFI-2021.
The film is inspired by the prophesies of Achyutnanda Das, the 16th century saint from Odisha, who had written about doomsday in his Achutananda Malika.
It revolves around a man from the Satavaya village in the east coast of Odisha which has been swallowed by the sea, a phenomenon common to the east coast.
Gunu, the disillusioned young man from Satavaya village, travels restlessly towards death as memories of a past cyclone propelling him into the eye of one that is coming. Hoping to reunite with his lost family, he returns to his village five days before the cyclone to find that it is now under water.
Gunu’s struggle to survive the fury of nature is the portrayal of emotional trauma and human triumph, the filmmaker explained.
The motivation behind the making of the movie has been the tragic impact of climate change that is approaching as a future shock for the humanity, he stated.
Nila Madhab, whose maiden feature film “I am Kalam” made in 2010 won 34 international awards besides the National Award has emerged as the most celebrated filmmaker from Odisha in recent times with an international identity.
