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165

EXPLAINING REALITY: ODIA PARALLEL FILMS

 Ranjan Kumar Rath

Except 'Bollywoodisation' (imitating the office, but cut a new path in filmography. His making of Bombay Entertainment Films) 1, Odia cinematic language shook the audience with its films around 1970s were also influenced by the bluntness and originality. Both Mrinal Sen and growth of 'new wave cinema' movement, which inspired many young film was also known as 'Parallel Cinema'. Some makers of the 1970s and 1980s, particularly people believe that there has been no separate graduates of the FTII, Pune to follow their concept of 'mainstream' or 'parallel' cinema. footsteps. This new generation of film makers Both are inseparable from each other and cannot adopted social themes, used new techniques be seen as two distinct and altogether separate and evolved a new cinematic language. They entities. Some films are more artistic and some are all known for their originality, subversion of are less. Shyam Benegal says, “Meaningful films conventions and firm belief in the 'auteur' are ludicrously called 'parallel' cinema'." 2 theory (Director's Film) of the film. 4 Before the coming of the so-called masala3 films, Directors like , Satyajit one cannot distinguish which were masala or Ray, Mrinal Sen etc. of the early phase and later which were parallel or art films. But, it is a fact Shyam Benegal (Mandi,1983), Bhumika, Ketan that a new trend was originated in mid 70s of the Mehta (Mirch Masala,1987), Basu Chatterjee (Ek last century, where some people realised that Ruka Hua Faisla, 1986, TV Movie), Saeed Akhtar mainstream films were not adequate to project Mirza (Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! ,1984), Nabendu the real day-to- day life of the people. Their Ghosh (Trishagni,1988), Chandrakant Joshi sufferings and feelings needed more scope to be (Sutradhar,1987), (Saaransh,1984, projected. So, exclusively some meaningful Arth,1982), Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay! ,1988) etc. down to earth cinemas were made to show belong to the group. Actors like Nasiruddin audience their real life which was far away from Shah, , Amrish , , those reflected in the mainstream masala films. , , Sadhu Meher, Sabana These cinemas gave movie-goers something Azmi, Girish Kannad etc. were the products of more than meaningless entertainment. It also this movement. Most of them were qualified affected Odia film industry. trained artists. They also acted in commercial Indian Parallel Cinema: Origin and Masala movies and supported the parallel Development movement; because it was not easy for them to Mrinal Sen is considered as the pioneer work in parallel movies as full time workers of the new genre called 'New Wave' cinema. In where payments were very meagre. 5 the early 1970s, he was its main proponent and Origin of Parallel Films in he had to do a lot of explaining soon after the One can see this new experimentation in release of his Bhuban Shome (1969). Without Odia films. During the 1970s and the 1980s, imitating the superficial projections of parallel cinema entered into the limelight of commercially successful movies, which were Odia cinema to a much wider extent. A group of usually mixtures of rapid actions, exuberant young people like of the 'parallel films' of and irrational dramas, violence, erotic dancing Bombay and other regional fields, produced and singings, Mrinal Sen could produce a film realistic cinemas in Odia also. It is also a fact that that was not only a financial success at the box –

Lecturer in History, U.N. (Auto.) College of SC. & Tech., Adaspur, , Odisha, 754011. E-mail : [email protected] SANSHODHAN ISSN 2249-8567 166 many previous Odia films were artistically very National Film Award festival (1978).7 superb and they also tried to project the actual Manmohan Mohapatra and his Films life of the Odias in real sense. One can see the Manmohan Mahapatra, a former Odia films of previous years like Bhai Bhai (1956) students of Film and Television Institute, Pune, of Gour Ghosh, Matira Manisha (1966) of Mrinal brought significant recognition to Odia film Sen etc. These were excellent films which industry at the national and international levels projected the inhuman practices of casteism, through his productions of Sitarati (Winter untouchbility and the impact of Gandhian Night) (1982), Niraba Jhada (Silent Storm) (1983), national movements on peasantry in very lively Klanta Apararnha(Tired Afternoon) (1984), Majhi manners. In those days, movies were heavily Pahacha (The Middle Stair) (1986) and Nisidhha inspired by Odia literature. But with the coming Swapna(Forbidden Dream) (1987). Sitarati was of the so-called masala films, the tastes of the made on the story of eminent novelist of Odisha, audiences were shifted to unreal and fantastic Bibhuti Pattnaik. Surya Deo, an eminent cinema domains of imaginations. These films were critic of Odisha says that Sitarati made it meant for pure entertainment and capitalist distinguished from other for its approach to the profit. But, a time came when some young basic realities of life. 8 directors in Odisha wanted to draw the All these films were exhibited at attentions of audience to the realities of their life. International Festival of Indian Panorama. Low budget films were made as parallel Niraba Jhada was shown in Pesaro festival in cinemas did not require huge capital. These Italy and Cork Festival, Ireland, and Film films re-established the importance and Festival of America. In 1985, Klanta Aparanha necessity of meaningful films in Odisha. (The Tired Afternoon) was released. All his films Biplab Ray Choudhury was the first were awarded with best regional films at film-maker of this genre who made Chilika Tire National Film Award ceremonies. It is a fact (On the Bank of Chilka Lake, 1977). It was the story that these films were not commercially of the struggle of an oppressed, illiterate-fisher- blockbusters, but these succeeded in analysing folk, being swindled and kept in check by the the modern value conflicts and social business sharks and how they revolted back. behaviours taking place in Odisha. 9 Nearby Chilka Lake, there are cluster of villages In the film Sitarati, the hero and the inhabited by the fishermen. They have been heroine Pranab and Aruna loved each other exploited by the large fishing companies. during their childhood. But when the father of Raghu, a revolutionary village youth, led the Aruna died all the responsibility of the family village to confront the private fishing company. were bestowed upon her. She got a job of a The Manager of a fishing company tried to teacher in a school by the help of the father of demoralise and divide the unity of fisher-men Pranab. But Pranab's father Akhilbabu had the who were no longer ready to be exploited by the secret desire to grab the landed property of middlemen. The movement started following Aruna. He conspired to put Aruna in different the method of non-violence. But due to the problems by which she would be forced to sale inhuman oppression of the exploiters the her properties at throughway price. Aruna movement turned violent. The miserable life of faced lots of difficulties when she was unable to the fisher-men of was very vividly meet the growing expenditure of her family. 6 reflected in the film. Bijaya Mohanty, an Many came forward to help her with immoral alumnus of National School of Drama, Delhi, intentions. But she withstood all the problems debuted as the leading protagonist of the film. single-handedly without caring all these His performance was superb for which he problems keeping faith in her love. Meanwhile became a household name in Odisha. He made Pranab returned to village after completing his his arrival creating awe in Odia filmgoers. The education in a city. The relation between Aruna film received the Certificate of Merit and Rajat and Pranab became intense. Aruna and Pranab Kamal as the best Odia film of the year at decided to marry each other. But Akhilababu SANSHODHAN ISSN 2249-8567 167 wanted heavy dowry. Aruna was incapable to snatched away. 11 fulfil the demand of Akhilababu. The relation Klanta Apararnha (The Tyring Afternoon) between Aruna and Pranab became strained was made on the life of three retired Govt and eventually their marriage could not be service holders, their individual problems, the materialised. Pranab married the daughter of a life of their children and their role in the family rich man who could give dowry of big amount. after retirement. Hemanta Das was brilliant in Difficulties made Aruna strong enough to this film. His ability as one of the greatest actors sacrifice her love for the cause of her family. of contemporary India was proved in this film. Surya Deo says that the theme of the film Majhi Pahacha (Middle Staircases) was was not a new one. One can find such stories in made in the year 1986. This cinema was totally other mainstream films. The approach of the based on the problems of a middle class family director to make the film very realistic and and its earthly burdens. It highlighted how In thought-provoking was the mile-stone of the the face of realism the ideology could break film. Unlike the masala stereotypes, Sitarati has down. This film shows how an employed young portrayed the human relations with its subtle man of middle class rural Odisha, who once bondings. The most important highlight of the upon a time promised not to take dowry and film was how Sita Rati indicates a woman could writes poems against dowry system, finally become strong and powerful to withstand all breaks his vow and takes dowry. He burns his societal pressures. How she underwent changes poems. How his social realities forced him to in herself. Aruna struggled against the society break his promise is the main highlight of the and all its blind beliefs. The cinema portrays the film. village traditions, customs and culture which The others cinemas of Manmohan were still old-fashioned and feudal. The Mohapatra were Andha Diganta (The Blind psychological turmoil Aruna underwent in her Vision), Nisidha Swapna (The Prohibited Dream), live, the conflicts she saw in between her family Agnibina (The Veena of Fire), Kichhi Smuti Kichhi and love are very superbly manifested by Anubhuti (Some Memories and Some Experiences), Manmohan Mishra. 10 Bhina Samaya (The Different Time), Muhurta (The The next was that Niraba Jhada (Silent Moments). Storm) released in the year 1984 by Manmohan Maya Miriga: A Unique Creation Mohapatra. Again Mohapatra made a film on Nirad Mahapatra, FTII alumni, has been the problems of village life, but in a very new relentless in his scrutiny of the Odia family un-dramatic manner. All the excesses of system in films like Maya Miriga (The Mirage) dramatic representations were avoided in the (1983). It was concerned with the gradual and film to make it very new in taste and irreversible process of disintegration in a presentations. The film is very slow in middle class joint family living in a small town portraying the life in rural Odisha. It gives in Odisha. The making of Maya Miriga was an enough time to the viewers to internalise the exciting experience of improvisation within the conflicts in rural mass. This film portrays how a broad framework of a written story. With a Zamindar exploits the peasants and the latter small crew and a team of non-professional bear these taking their suffering as the wish of artists, the maker of the film pitched tents the God. The director also has indicated how months in advance to dress up an abandoned new types of ways are invented to exploit the house including its courtyard. At one level, it poor farmers in contemporary times. The was the emotional attachment to the family as farmer of the village was forced to leave his against freedom for oneself that provided the ancestral house to go for an unknown city with mainstay of its conflict. At another, the conflict his grown-up daughter in search of livelihood. aroused from the social reality of the middle He became a labourer in the city. But he class: its economic status as related to higher promised at the platform to return to his village education, better jobs and higher positions in one day where his ancestral property was the social hierarchy. But ultimately the film was SANSHODHAN ISSN 2249-8567 168 about certain emotional bonds which make up a return of her husband. But the husband did not way of life and the painful realization that they return, rather sent papers for divorce. Another cannot last. 12 Maya Miriga got national and art film of Pranab Das was Agni Sanketa (The Sign international awards which were released in of Fire). This cinema was also based on village 1984. Nirad Mohapatra believed in the principle life and its traumas. Sachibabu was the main that if someone wants to make good films, does character of this film. After working in a tea not make flop films. 13 company of Assam he returned to his home. His Other Film Makers eldest son was a government servant and A bunch of Odia film makers of the last younger son Rabi was an automobile mechanic. two decades (most of them students of the Film He has also an unmarried daughter. They all and Television Institute of India, Pune) have were living in their paternal home. The made a valuable contributions to Odia parallel mentalities and value systems of Sachibabu and c i n e m a m o v e m e n t . O n e o f t h e m o s t his sons were not same. The family broke down distinguished was A.K.Bir, whose work when the sons demanded share in property included Aadi Mamansa (Last Judgement), when their sister was yet to marry. The dream of Lavanya Preeti (Love for Beauty), Aranyaka (The Sachibabu was shattered. Pranab Das portrays Forest Dweller) and Shesha Drushti (The Last the life of present social scenarios very superbly Vision). Raju Mishra's Ulka (The Meteor) and in his films.15 Surendra Sahoo's Dora did create some ripples Another director of this genre was in Odisha. Other film makers like Sagir Ahmed Apurba Kumar Bir. His first cinema was Adi have focused on children who grow up without Mimansha (The Early Solution) made in 1989. It is love and care in Dhaare Aalua( A Ray of Light) a bilingual film made in Odia and Hindi. The (1983), and Prafulla Mohanty on child marriage actors were , Mohan Gokhale, in Bhanga Silata (Broken Slate) (1987). 14 This Neena Gupta, Gloria Mohanty, Bijainee Mishra, form of cinema allowed them to enhance a and Lalatendu Rath. The film reflects the certain aesthetic sensibility, a political sweet and sour relationship between two awareness and engagement with social realities neighbours, one Odia and the other non-Odia of and a new stylistic approach of film-making. Marwari origin. The caste consciousness enters Sagir Mohammad's film was Dhare Alua into their relationship on the issue of cleaning a (A Ray of Light. This cinema was based on drain which flows in between the houses of psychological traumas of two young men. Bulu these two immediate neighbours. Finally the and Ranu were the son and daughter of strong will to live with love and fellow-feeling Hemanta who was a journalist. But some overcomes the caste consciousness and both the notorious people killed their mother and the neighbours again start a new life of father fled away. Both the children became togetherness. 16 The film won the Nargis Dutt orphan. They took shelter in the house of their Award 1991 for best feature film on national neighbour Lalit Babu, the friend of Hemanta. integration and the best cinematography for One day when Hemanta came to take his A.K.Bir.17 children to his own home, the children refused Conclusion to go. Both the children hid them somewhere. But it is unfortunate that when the actors Hemanta tried to kill Lalit, but fortunately he and the actresses of Hindi or other regional realised his mistakes and surrendered to the films, who worked in Parallel Cinema became police. household names in the country and well- G i v i n g i m p o r t a n c e t o w o m e n acclaimed internationally, Odia actors of this psychology, director Pranab Das in 1985 made category failed to achieve that height. Odia Shesa Pratikshya (The Last Wait). It was made on counterparts became unsung. Only the the life of an isolated mother whose husband directors of the films became known. The films was working in the USA. She faced lots of also had no demand in Odia film market, problem to bring up her daughter and waits the though; many of them were excellent products. SANSHODHAN ISSN 2249-8567 169

Very few of the artists of Parallel Cinemas in 5. See also Ira Bhaskar, The Indian New Odisha were repeated in next films. They also Wave, Routledge Handbook of Indian could not work in masala or the mainstream Cinemas, 2013. commercial numbers, where as many of the 6. Bhima Singh, Odia Chalachitrara Itihas (o), leading actors of Hindi Parallel Cinemas Sitaleswari Prakashani, Cuttack, 2010, worked in mainstream films and earned money, pp. 320-322. popularity and recognition in India. 7. Directorate of Film Festival, 4 Nov., 2012; Anyhow, the parallel cinema in Odisha Ram Awatar Agnihotri, Modern Indian produced films of excellent potentialities for Films on Rural Background: Social and human thinking. It out rightly questioned the Political Perspective, 4 Nov., 2012; Bhima pathetic situations prevalent in India. The Singh, op. cit., p.322.) brilliant performances of the artists made them 8. Surya Deo, Odia Cinema: Rupa Rupantara indelible in those selected cinemagoers who (o), Srujana, , 2016, p.133. visited the halls to see these movies. The films 9. K. Moti Gokulsing, Wimal Dissanayake directly attacked the feudalistic hypocrisies of (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Indian the middle class, the poverty of both the urban Cinemas, Routledge, New York, 2013, p. and rural people and the nature of exploitation 69. and corruption. 10. Surya Deo, Odia Cinema: Rupa Rupantara Footnotes and References (o), Srujana, Bhubaneswar, 2016, p.134. 1. A s h i s h R a j a d h y a k s h a , “ T h e 11. K. Moti Gokulsing, Wimal Dissanayake 'Bollywoodization' of the Indian (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Indian Cinema: Cultural Nationalism in a Cinemas, Routledge, New York, 2013, Global Arena”, in Inter-Asia Cultural pp.134-135. Studies, Volume 4, 2003 - Issue 1, 2010, 12. Ajit Duara, “Maya Miriga', in Debonair, pp.25-39. June, 1994: Piyush Roy, “Maya Miriga: A 2. Shyam Benegal, “'Communications and Mirage called Life”, The South Asianist, Culture: Tradition, Modernity and Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 173–178. Postmodernism in Indian Cinema”, The 13. Nirad Mohapatra, “Absosh Kichhi 4th Subhas Ghosal Foundation Lecture Nahi”, Ravibar Sambad, Bhubaneswar, Address, agencyfaqs!, 08 September, 22.02.2015;Pranab Das, “Niradanka 2005. P r a t h a m a C i n e m a ” ( o ) , T h e 3. Indian cinema, mostly Hindi mix genres S a m b a d , 1 . 0 3 . 1 9 1 5 ; T h e in one work like freely mix action, Sambad,20.02.2015. comedy, romance, and drama or 14. K. Moti Gokulsing, Wimal Dissanayake melodrama. They also tend to be (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Indian musicals that include songs filmed in Cinemas, Routledge, New York, 2013, p. picturesque locations. The genre is 70. named after the masala, a mixture of 15. Suryo Deo, Odia Cinema Ra Rupa O spices in Indian cuisine. Rupantara (o), Pakhighara Publication, 4. Letitia Allemand, “How popular is the Bhubaneswar, p.141. Indian alternative movement and how is 16. Surya Deo, Odia Cinema; Rupa Rupantara urban poverty represented?,” India's (o), Srujana, Bhubaneswar, 2016, p.142. Parallel Cinema, Project work in Area and 17. 39th , International Cultural Studies, Academic year 2014- Film Festival of India, 27 Feb 2012; Surya 2015, Lousanne, pp.5-29.( Auteur theory Deo, op. cit., pp.142-143. of filmmaking views the director as the major creative force in a motion picture. It was born in France in the late 1940s)

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