Filmmaker M Padmakumar has built an image by presenting very different themes that are woven to appeal to the middle stream audiences of Malayalam. His latest in the series is Orissa.
The film is told through flashbacks as aged Christhudas (Unni Mukundan) and his wife Suneyi (Sanika) is back to her homeland, Ganjam in Odisha, from where their love story started thirty-three years ago.
Suneyi was born to the Devadasi community and was expected to be offered to Kamadeva Pradhan (Nigel Akkare), the reigning chieftain, as a ritual. Her elder sister Chandrabhage (Kanika) has already been transformed to a Dasi and is in the mansion of the ruling Deva Pradhan, whose village believes that unless this ritual is done, the community is sure to suffer from calamities.
Ratnavally, Suneyi's mother who files a petition with the police against this ritual, is shot dead by Kamadeva Pradhan. Following the efforts of Meerabhai (Tanushree Ghosh), a local socialist reformer, the Government arrests Pradhan, and Suneyi is given a lakh of rupee as compensation for her loss and two policemen to take care of her. Young Christhudas is one such policeman who joins his special duty.
Within days, Suneyi and Christhudas find themselves in love withr each other though they speak very different languages. And on one harsh rainy day as they are forced to spend a night in a cave, the villagers find them guilty for acting against their traditions. Suneyi is taken hold by the Pradhan family which decides to convert her as their Dasi on the Agni Purnami.
The villagers can only stand and witness the scene with terrified disbelief. But a schoolteacher brings up the issue in public and it reaches the national media. The Government adopts Suneyi and two policemen are assigned for her protection. The plot thickens when Suneyi falls in love with Christuraj, the Malayali cop who is her bodyguard.
Mainly filmed in locations near Cuttack, Orissa also has its parts shot in Mysore. The film, a musical, has six songs composed by Ratheesh Vega among which two are in Odia language. The film, made under the banner of Heera Films, will be released in Odisha during the Raja festival in June.
