Bhubaneswar: The National Award winning Odia film Hello Arsi was screened at the Soochana Bhawan here Tuesday on the birthday of late Sambit Mohanty, whose first film turned out to be his last.
The movie won the National Best Film award (Odia) in April. The late director won the National Award for the best dialogue and leading lady Prakruti Mishra bagged the Special Mention Award.
Viewers gave a positive reaction after watching the movie.
Gurujee Swetchananada said, “I have heard that the late Sambit Mohanty was an introvert. The noises in his head became dialogues in this movie. Hello Arsi is a very well made minimalist movie. The vibes it gives, the feelings it generates are usually common in Iranian and European art films. Seeing it in an Odia movie was a proud moment for me.”
The film has almost zero happening. Two individuals are travelling on a highway in the backdrop of factories and smoking chimneys, and they are either conversing with each other or with themselves.
“Are they lost? Where are they going, what are they doing, what will they do if they ever manage to reach some destination? Who really are they? And what is their story?” The audience, like the characters, are left wondering about the meaning of the movie.
Swetchananad said that every dialogue in Hello Arsi is quotable and philosophically rich. It becomes tiring after a while and you lose interest or get the urge to take a break. “This kind of movies usually have silent phases in them, but Hello Arsi has hardly any such phases where you can breathe for a moment or two,” he noted.
The story unfolds with a magical flow right from the time the two characters played by Partha Sarathi Ray and Prakruti Mishra meet in a car. The movie has metaphorical undertones. While Prakruti plays a girl who resorts to prostitution after her family suffers business losses, Partha’s character has no name.
Kedar Mishra, a film buff, said such stories are hard to find nowadays and watching such a movie in Odia is a proud moment. The film has taken us on a journey. Cinematographer Prasantanu Mohapatra has done a wonderful job with his camera capturing the nuances of the expressions of both the protagonists in a moving car to perfection.
Although most of the shots are static they do not look repetitive. The chirping of birds amidst the sounds of trucks and a bulldozer is a symbolic expression of the positivity of life.
Swastik Chaudhary, another spectator, said it was a brilliantly conceptualised film in today’s context where the dialogues and backdrops form parallel narratives.
It is for you as an audience to decode the parallelism there. The biggest merit of the film lies in its breaking away from the conventional mould, he added.
“What a first film it is dear Sambit Mohanty. Your absence is really going to hit Odia cinema. I hope Odia filmmakers and fans will get inspired by this movie and get more demanding in their taste,” Chaudhary said.
The movie marks the coming of age of Prakruti who gets a chance to prove her histrionic talent. Her restrained portrayal of the character Arsi has won her a lot of applause.
