A seriously injured Ramchandra Mangaraj lies on a mat on the floor of his house, gasping for breath. He is sent home by jail authority after it is found that he has least chance of living. He is attacked by the jail inmates, with whom he has past enmity. A quack checks his nerve, pronouncing that he can save Mangaraj by his unique treatment,but in vain.
The house which used to throb with activities, with several people coming and going and several others engaged in various kinds of works is now silent and deserted. Here, Mangaraj used to make law at his small kacheri room with shrewd Champa and other lathi-wielding henchmen by side. Champa flees with most valuables and jewelleries, but only to be killed in the most gruesome way by his aide. Most followers of Mangaraj also take possession of his assets after he goes to jail on the charges of murdering Saria, a gullible and barren rustic woman, who is trapped by the landlord in league with Champa to dupe her of a fertile farmland measuring six acres and a third.
Mangaraj’s ascendency is full of thrill and his fall highly pathetic. leave alone his body guards, even his own sons and family members are not present at home at a time when he is lying on his death bed, uncared-for. It is the befitting end of a usurper, conman, imposter, sadist, call him which way you like.This is a scene forming the climax of Chha Mana Atha Guntha, a film based on the novel of same name by Fakir Mohan Senapati. The film is directed by Parvati Ghosh and in the cast are Bijay Mohanti (Bhagia), Parvati Ghosh (Saria), Mamina (Champa) and the one and only Sarat Pujari (Ram Chandra Mangaraj). The other minor characters are played by Ashim Basu, Amarendra Choudhary , Gloria Mahanty , Prasana Mishra, Chandan Nayak, Sarada Nayak, Geeta Rao, Rukmuni, Niharika and Sandhya. The film is a masterpiece with Sarat Pujari at his height as a talent master. His dialogue, ways of utterances, gait, get-up and gesture are superb as he is playing out the role of a tricky and greedy landlord.
When a villainous Mangaraj dies, it soothes the heart and mind at the display of poetic justice, but when Sarat Pujari breathed his last on Monday in Bhubaneswar, it stirred up grief that probably words do not match to describe.The Odia art and film industry lost a prominent figure, someone who is born after thousands of years. It was an irreparable loss to the State and a shock for film and art aficionados.
Pujari showed his acumen as an actor and a director in many films, TV serials and soap operas. He acted in about 50 films and directed several others. His first film was Mahalakshmi Puja. Other prominent ones where he acted and directed are Jiban Sathi (1963), Matira Manisha (1966), Kaa (1966), Arundhati (1967), Taapoi (1978), Ashanta Graha (1982), Astaraga (1982), Andha Diganta (1988), Bhukha (1989), Drusti (1990), Aranya Rodan (1992) and Aranyaka, and Shesha Drushti (1997).