For the connoisseurs of cinema in the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, all roads led to the Jayadev Bhawan here on Thursday evening, literally, for the screening of the five decades old Odia film Kaa.
About an hour before the scheduled screening, people were seen reaching the auditorium to reserve their seats! And many were seen standing inside the auditorium to watch the movie and its cast and crew who are alive. Such scenes spoke volumes of the people’s sentiment for the bygone golden era of Odia cinema. It was also an answer to the question on why people are losing interest in the present day Odia cinema.
Thanks to the painstaking efforts of the Film Journalists’ Forum (FJF) of Odisha, the film could be screened decades after it went into oblivion.
“It took us months to trace out the film that was lying in obscurity in different formats at different locations. With the help of the film’s producer-director and lead actress Parbati Ghose, we could reproduce this edited version of the original movie reducing its length by thirty minutes and three memorable songs missing from the screening. The Department of Culture of the State Government provided us financial support for this initiative,” acknowledged FJF secretary and Odia film historian Surya Deo, the brain behind the series of screening of the nine old Odia classics — which are regarded as milestones — in the city during recent years.
Following inauguration of the event by MP Prasanna Patsani, noted novelist Prativa Ray and Commissioner (Culture) Manoranjan Panigrahi among others and prior to the screening of the film, personalities associated with the making of the movie were felicitated.
Among them were singer Pranab Patnaik, lyricist Swaroop Nayak, costume designer Khirode Nayak and producer-director-actress Parbati Ghose. A booklet containing rare facts regarding the film was released on the occasion. Floral tributes were offered to the 10 personalities who were an integral part of the film but are no more. They were director-lead actor Gour Prasad Ghose, singer Akshya Mohanty, lyricist Narasingha Mohapatra, music director Bhubaneswar Mishra, singer Raghunath Panigrahi, dancer Sanjukta Panigrahi and actors Byomakesh Mohanty, Krushna Chandra Pande, Geeta Dutta and Mananda Sundari.