By Priya Ranjan Sahu
Cinema is a very powerful medium. Like a good book, a good movie forcefully reflects the socio-cultural life of a particular society.
It has been the case with the Odia cinema too. Since the first movie in Odia language, Sita Bibaha, was made in 1936, Odia filmmakers have come up with many milestone movies that compare with the best of the Indian cinema.
Very few films were made between 1936 and 1959, but the momentum picked up in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the best movies like Manika Jodi, Naree, Jeevan Sathi, Sadhana, Amada Bata, Kaa, Matira Manisha, Bhai Bhauja, Stree, Adina Megha, Ghara Bahuda and Chilika Teere were made in these two decades.
The movies were simple and straight and had good stories penned by eminent writers. They touched a chord with the audiences. Most of them, in fact were, windows to the socio-economic and cultural life of rural and urban Odisha. It seemed the primary aim of the filmmakers was to enjoy making films, not reaping huge profits.
Things started to change in 1980s and 1990s as elements of commercialisation made inroads into Odia movies. But even during these periods, some filmmakers like Nirad Mohapatra and Manmohan Mohapatra blended the sensibilities of 1960s’ Odia films with the techniques of new wave cinema sweeping the country to come up with masterpieces like Maya Miriga and Nirab Jhada.
By 2000, however, Odia cinema had descended into a cesspool of crash commercialisation and plagiarism from which it has not been able to come out. Films are being made, but they woefully lack originality and are in no way a reflection of Odisha. A majority of such films, made with borrowed ideas – often scene by scene copy of movies from the south – are box-office duds, but still the makers do not have the conviction to go for original scripts and offer something new.
This is at a time, when there has been a marked revival of regional movies across the country. It is now quite well known that directors of Marathi cinema have consistently come up with excellent films known for their innovations, original scripts and freshness.
But surprisingly, filmmakers from Northeast India have started earning international acclaim with their craft. The directors from the area have gone back to the grassroots and come up with stories that seem almost magical to the audiences across the world.
Take, for instant, the recent success of Village Rockstar, an Assamese film by a debutant director, Rima Das. Made with a shoestring budget and digital camera, and without professional crew, Das’ film narrated the dreams of children of rural Assam.
The film bagged the Golden Lotus at the National Film Awards and became India’s official entry for the Oscars 2019 and since then travelled to at least 40 countries across the world.
Odia cinema has to go beyond crash commercialisation and plagiarism to rediscover its real identity. The announcement of a new film, Biju Babu (in pic above), offers some hope and direction to Odia cinema. Produced by internationally acclaimed filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda and noted producer Akshay Parija, the film has a unique script. It is not exactly a biography of legendary Biju Patnaik but every frame of the film is supposed to reflect his soul and ideas. Directed by Devi Lenka and Vishal Maurya, the film has Odia superstar Anubhav in the lead.
It is not that Odisha does not have talented filmmakers. There are still directors in Odisha who have the capacity and perseverance to go for a sound script and produce a film that effectively captures the local social milieu. Hello Arsi (in pic), made by debutant writer-director Sambit Mohanty, is a case in point. Set against the backdrop of land acquisition and industrialisation, Hello Arsi bagged three awards at the 65th National Film Awards – Best Odia Feature Film, Best Dialogue (for Mohanty) and Special Mention for Prakruti Mishra, the lead actor.
Thithi, a Kannada comedy film on the death of the oldest man in a family, was made with a budget of few lakhs in 2016 with non-professional actors. It went on to garner positive reviews, awards and lots of money.
In the same way, Odia films have the potential to sparkle again when the idea, not money, becomes the prime motivation.
