Day 4 - International Film Festival of India

6
IFFIDAILY
November 25, 2010
Let platinum year be harbinger of Odia film industry’s revival
Ashok PAlit
IN 1934, a man from Puri, Mohan Sundar Dev Goswami mooted
the idea of producing an Odia film. Back then, Odisha (then
Orissa) lacked the basic infrastructural for film production — no
director or a well-equipped studio was available. But Goswami prepared
his own script based on a drama written by Kampal Mishra and
teamed up with Priyanath Ganguli of Kolkata to produce first Oriya
film ‘Sita Bibaha’ (Sita’s marriage). The film releases on April 28,
1936, on occasion of Utkal Gourav Madhusudhan Jayanti at Laxmi
Takies in Puri. ‘Sita Bibaha’ was the saga of a relentless struggle for
a manifestation of Odia identity on celluloid. It is a trenchant reminder
that Oriya film industry culminated from an undying determination
of dreamers, who faced odds — at home and from outside.
In spite of sincere efforts of Goswami, ‘Sita Bibaha’, a commercial
failure, put the brake on the making of Odia films for the next 13
years. No financier was ready to invest his money in another ‘disaster’.
Then, Rupa Bharati, one of the first public limited companies in
India, was formed in 1948 to provide a possible solution to the problem
of finance. It collected shares worth Rs 10 to Rs 100 form people
and decided to produced a film based on the legend associated with
Lord Jagannath. Soon another film company Eastern Movietone
came up, to beat Rupa Bharati. It produced ‘Lalita’ (1949), which too
was based on Lord Jagannath. The following year, Rupa Bharati produced
and released ‘Sri Jagannath’, which was about abolition of untouchability.
This was the first Odia film to be remade in Telugu and
was a big hit in south India.
Fifties witnessed the advent of socio-mythological themes. The
films made then include ‘Roll-28’, a love story directed by Kalyan
Gupta, ‘Amari Gaan Jhia’, another love tale with dramatic twists-andturns;
‘Kedar Gouri’, yet another sentimental love story ending on a
tragic note; ‘Saptasajya’, a myth-based social drama, and ‘Bhai-Bhai’
a story woven around ‘untouchability’ and ‘cast system’. The films of
the 50s were simply ‘photographed theaters with a lot of co-incidence
in drama, often leading to melodrama. Sri Mahalaxmi Puja (1959)
made by Krushna Chandra Tripathy Sharma of Aska, Ganjam at the
fag end of fifties, was a commercial success. Once again the mythological
film proved to be safer bets, and Sharma began to be regarded
as the pioneer of the genre. He continued his lone efforts in making
such films and went on to the dub few films from other language as
well, like “Parinam (1960), Dashyu Ratnakar (1962) and Nari (1963).
Between sixties and till the early seventies, only a couple of
films were produced. The sixties began with ‘Sri Lokanath’ which
was critically acclaimed and a commercial success too. It was also
the first Odia film to win a National Award, in 1960. The film had
a fresh flavour. Based on the conflicting attitudes of two brothers
— one an atheist and the other a theist, the wife of the elder brother
acting as a catalyst for a compromise between the two. It’s rural
FTII GOLDEN JUBILEE CELEBRATION
Five student films to be screened today at Maquinez-I, begining from 12 noon
Power of myths is that they go
with all times: Elektra director
“I want to explore themes that have endless validity…
The story of Electra (a Greek mythological character) is
several thousands of years old, but it is still relevant,”
said Shyamaprasad, the director of the film ‘Elektra’.
“The power of myths is that they go with all times,”
he said.
The film, which was screened at IFFI 2010 in the
presence of its lead actress Manisha Koirala and
Shyamaprasad, explores the texture of desire and loss.
I have taken the same story of Electra into a household
in Kerala in my film. I wanted to see how that work
in a contemporary society in Kerala, the directors said.
He said the highlight of his film is the performances
by actress Nayantara and Manisha Koirala and actor
Prakash Raj.
He said it was unfortunate that people often relate
Electra to ‘Electra complex’. “I think it’s a basic story
within any family… it’s about the cycle of crime, revenge
and punishment,” he said.
Elektra is Shyamaprasad’s fifth film at IFFI. His earlier
film, Ore Kadal, based on Bengali novel by Sunil
Gangopadhyay, enjoyed the honor of being the inaugural
film of the Indian Panorama at the IFFI in 2007.
A still from Nirad Mahapatra’s National Award winning film Maya Miriga
PLATINUM JUBILEE OF ODIA CINEMA
Inauguration today at 3 pm at Maquinez I
**KRAMASHA
(2007)
Dir: Amit Dutta/
22min
Manisha Koirala at IFFI on Wednesday
Docs & shorts
by ramesh tekwani
milieu was quite convincing.
The Odia cinema’s glorious time, in terms of quality, came between
1960 and 1970. During the period, a number of Odia films
were made on book by popular novelist like Kanhu Charan Mohanty
(‘Kaa, Abhinatri’), Basanti Kumari Pattnaik (‘Amadabata’) Upendra
Kishore Das (‘Mala Janha’) and Kalandi Charan Panigrahi (‘Matira
Manisha’) to name a few. The film’s themes then centered around
the ideal women encountering various social and psychological conflicts,
ultimately emerging gloriously from all vicissitudes of life. The
female protagonists in ‘Sadhana’ and ‘Bhai Bhauja’ upheld the traditional
values and through tolerance and patience, overcome their
problems. During the entire sixties, two outstanding film were made,
they were ‘Nitai Palit’s Malajanha’ and Mrinal Sen’s ‘Matira Manisha’.
Commercially both the film did not do well but showed a definite
attitude in Odia cinema.
Major stars of fifties and sixties include Gour Prasad, Sarat Pujari,
Ratikanta and Pramod Gloria, Chapala, Shanti Sudha, Sukhalata, Jharana,
Geeta and Minati. Later, during the seventies and eighties, Prasanta
Nanda, Sriram Panda, Uttam Mohanty, Bijaya Mohanty, Ajit
Das, Tripura Misra, Banaja, Sujata, Malabika, Mahasweta, Deepa
Sahu, Niharika, Anita, Subhra Pati, Baisali, Aparajita, etc., appeared
in the leading roles.
From eighties to nineties, Miher Das, Sidhanta, Rachana Banarjee
ruled the industries. After Mahaswata and Prasanta Nanda,
Uttam and Aparajita, Sidhanta-Rachana, they acted in maximum
number of Odia films.
During the seveties, especially after the runway hit, ‘Mamata’
(1975) directed by Bymokesh Tripathy of Anapurna Theater, there
was a sudden rise in film production costs. Though a number of Odia
films were produced, no attempt was made to provide the basic
amenities to the producers in the state. To overcome the same and to
encourage Odia films, the Orissa Film Development Corporation Ltd.
was established in 1976.
The first colour Odia film, “Gapa Helevi Sata”, was made in 1976,
though a partially colour film, ‘Samaya’, had been made a year before.
During the mid seventies, Oriya cinema lost its direction, films
were made with the sole intension of doubling the investments, irrespective
of quality. During the eighties, a total of 119 films were produced;
maximum, 17 films, in 1986.
However, most important event of the Oriya film industry happened
in the eighties with the arrival of three directors of the “Parallel”
cinema”: Nirad Mohapatra, Manmohan Mohapatra and Sagir
Ahamed. All from Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, they
brought glory to the film industry. Nirad Mohapatra’s ‘Maya Miriga’
(1984) is a milestone in the history of Odia Cinema. It is the only
second Odia film to have won National Award for Best Film. Shagir
Ahamed ‘Dhare Allua’ was selected to Indian Panorama in 1984
along with ‘Maya Miriga’. On the other hand Manmohan Mohapatra
laid the foundation of new wave cinema in Odisha in 1982, with his
first film ‘Seeta Rati’, which was included in IFFI’s Indian Panorama
in 1982. Other notable directors are A.K. Bir, Shantanu Mishra, Biplab
Roy Choudhury, Pranab Das, Sushanta Mishra, Subash Das,
Bijoy Ketan Mishra, Prafulla Mohanty, Chakradhar Sahu, Sabyasachi
Mohapatra and Dolly Jena.
By 1990, the film industry was hit by the TV boom and faced a
threat from threat from mega-budget Hindi films. Number of theaters
did not improve, major banners were disillusioned about the
type of film to make. Some entered the small screen. Audience refuse
to see the same faces in every film. Since 2000 to till date,
Odia film production has increased. But most of the film were a remake
of Hindi, Telgu or Bengali films. Yet, it is heartening to note
that many new talents from the film institute are coming forward
to take up assignments in Odia films. The industry needs support
from all sections of the society to prevent it from withering away.
Let the platinum year be the harbinger of its revival.
The writer is a journalist and film writer based in Odisha.
What do you need the most
to make a film? Passion
N Vidyasagar and Manoj Srivastav at the discussion
I HAD always thought that something needed to
happen to provide inspiration to a documentary
or short filmmaker to get going. Today, I discovered
that passion, alone, is enough to get a film
made; and that is what got Ramprasad Adpaikar
going. He started with wanting to make a film.
Then, he went on to create a premise. A story developed
around this, a script written and shot.
The result, a film called Sin. An experimental
film that is, both, interesting to watch and discuss,
post viewing.
A picture may be worth a thousand words;
but, a few well chosen words woven into a story
can add value that is multiplied multi-fold. That
is what Chaitanya Tahane discovered when he
went out to check out the tea tasters at Darjeeling.
As the buyer takes a sip, especially a big
international one, he is given a colourful account
of the origin of the tea that he is sipping
so carefully : that the leaves are plucked at night
under a full moon by chosen virgins… the story
is built up layer by layer and as the buyer laps
up the story, the price of the tea gets enhanced.
Sometimes going up to fifty thousand rupees
and more per kilo. The buyer may or may not
have been convinced; but Chaitanya sure was!
He just had to put this on film. An ordinary expose
was too passé for this young filmmaker.
He took the real and fictionalised it in Six
Strands. How he shot the film makes a good
subject for yet another film.
Surjo Deb’s Twisted Bitter delved into creativity
and plagiarism. A story based on a story
and its aftermath. Leading on to a discussion of
ethics and choices before filmmakers. Deb may
have made a film that had plagiarism in its underlying
layers but he, together with his colleagues
on the dais and the audience were all of
one opinion. Ban plagiarism.
Well placed righteousness apart, the audience
that met these directors was curious to know
how these films got made and that how could
they be monetised. Saameer Mody of 1TakeMedia
provided a part solution. The 1 Take Media
Channel on the internet. If you have a short film,
then 1TakeMedia will take it up on a non-exclusive
revenue sharing basis. The returns depending
upon the clicks your film generates gets you
the money. There is nothing that works as effectively
as viral. Talk to Saameer, if you have a
film for him. He has an international audience
waiting for you just a click away.
The day ended with a message from the CEO
of ESG, Manoj Srivastav. He played an incomparable
duet with N Vidyasagar of Pickle Magazine.
The pipers were telling the audience how
they could shoot in Goa at a whole lot of interesting,
exotic, traditional, historic, sunny, watery,
breezy, staid, unique and once in a life time locations
and take back some money after all that. So,
when are you coming back to shoot in Goa?
The writer is a director and producer of short films and
has been moderating discussion sessions at the Short Film
Center.
Edited by: Shambhu Sahu on behalf of Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, New Delhi
Hindi Editor: Mukesh Kaushik
Printed at: Herald Publication Pvt. Ltd. Verna, Goa