Filmmaker Shantanu Mishra passes away

Odia film director Shantanu Mishra passed away in the Capital Hospital on Thursday night. He is survived by wife, daughter and son.

Among those few film makers who led the alternative cinema movement in Odisha, the name of Shantanu Mishra comes second, the first being Manmohan Mohapatra. While Mohapatra has directed 11 films, Mishra has four films to his credit and this is the second highest number in the arena of art cinema direction.

Mishra, a post graduate in Mathematics, has enormous  experience of acting on stage, writing and direction. His debut film Mukti Masal (1990), which bagged five State film awards , also fetched one award for Mishra for the story of the film. Mishra himself had confessed that Mukti Masal was only a depiction of his own village life in Kendrapara.

Mukti Masal's storyline revolves around revolution of the oppressed class, while his second film Asha (1993) depicts the conflict among individual families and the society. Mu’ra Murchhana (1995) is a wise experimentation with dreams, ambitions and material aspirations of a lower-middle class family, while Dure Diganta (1999) reflects the dilemmas traditional fishermen face in view of modern strides.