In its continued effort to screen classics of Odia cinema, city-based Film Journalists’ Forum (FJF) has announced to host a special screening of the President’s Award winning movie Kaa, made nearly half a century ago, at the Jayadev Bhawan here on Thursday evening.
FJF secretary Surya Deo informed that apart from screening of the film, personalities involved with the making of the movie are being invited to the show, who would be honoured on the occasion.
“Kaa” is based on one of the best selling Odia novels by legendary writer Kanhu Charan Mohanty. Published in 1953, it had bagged the prestigious Central Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958.
The movie had claimed the President’s Award in 1966, he informed.
The film was produced by celebrated actress Parbati Ghose, the first female producer of eastern India and it was directed collectively by three persons under the pseudonym of Siddharth that included the producer, her actor-husband Gour Prasad Ghose and Ram Chandra Thakur from the then Bombay film industry. Interestingly, both the brothers of Parbati Ghose who have been famed film personalities of the Odia film industry today – Sarada Prasanna Nayak and Swaroop Nayak — were also involved in the film as the screenplay writer and actor respectively.
Eminent musician Bhubaneswar Mishra, known to the film industry as Sri Kumar, had scored the music for the film while Narasingha Mahapatra, Sarada Prasanna Naik and Devdas Chotray had penned the lyrics. legends of Odia film music — Nirmala Misra, Raghunath Panigrahi, Akshaya Mohanty and Pranab Patnaik – were among the playback singers, the hosts of the show said.
The film witnessed the debut of Delhi-based eminent Odissi dance Guru Mayadhar Rout as dance director for cinema while legendary Sanjukta Panigrahi performed in it.
“Kaa-writer Kanhu Charan Mohanty was overwhelmed with the celluloid version of his book and was moved to tears. The then MP and former Odisha Chief Minister Nandini Satapathy had also attended the premiere and had highly appreciated the film,” Deo shared.