post news network, Bhubaneswar, May 23: Public Screening of the award winning Oriya film ‘Chilika Tirey’ at the Soochna Bhavan Saturday generated an overwhelming response from the Oriya film industry and from the people of the city.
The screening, which was organised by the Film Journalists Forum at around 6pm in the city, saw many noted personalities of Orissa descending on the venue to take part in the celebration of parallel cinema. The Oriya classic was released some 37 years ago.
The movie screened at the venue Saturday was shot during 1977 and was released later in 1978. It was produced by Shyamghana Roy Choudhury, an exporter-turned film producer. Touched-up black and white print of the movie, directed by Biplab Roy Choudhury, was shown to the audience during the event. The restoration work has made the viewing experience of the audience sharper and more enjoying. The auditorium was jam-packed with cine lovers ranging from common men to noted personalities of the state.
Several luminaries from the film industry shared their views on parallel cinema and what brought them to the venue, with this correspondent. Speaking to Orissa POST, the noted Oriya singer Prafulla Kar said, “The film is very close to my heart. I contributed to this award-winning film, released in 1978, by singing a song. I was really glad to know that the movie later got the President award for its outstanding contribution to the film industry.”
Bijay Mohanty, who acted in the movie, when asked about his memories of the film, said, “There have been drastic changes when it comes to cinema of that era and now. When the movie was released I was young. I have seen in the past few decades the journey of the cinema. I have come here to give my support to such good things as screening of such a good movie as this.”
Another noted director of the parallel Oriya cinema Sabyasachi Mahapatra said, “The main motive behind coming to the special screening has been to support the movement of the forum. It has actually been my heritage and my work for cinema that compelled me to come and join the audience.”
When asked why parallel and other quality Oriya movies were not being screened in multiplexes he said, “For these things we need support from two main pillars. The government as well as the audience needs to support Oriya films in order to ensure it flourishes. It is really unfortunate that a movie, which sees packed house at small auditoriums, does not move to multiplexes.”
Narendra Choudhury, son of the scriptwriter and producer of the film Chilika Tirey said, “My father was an exporter earlier. Later he developed an interest in filmmaking and came up with a masterpiece that got the President’s award. During the last days of his life, he was working on another film called Raj Darbar, but he passed away and could not complete it.”
The screening of this movie was a part of the forum to retrieve, revive and screen several old Oriya movies for which, forget good prints, even proper records are rarely available. The organisers said it was a part of their movement to preserve the heritage of classical Oriya movies.
Secretary of the forum said, “This forum aims to preserve the old Oriya movies in order to make a repository of our cultural and creative heritage. A lot of quality movies were made in our language, but even their records vanished due to lack of awareness and laxity of the authorities concerned. We are meeting producers and directors of such movies in order to restore and preserve these quality creations for our next generation.”
Another member of the forum said, “The forum has around 200 members from all over the state. We aim to retrieve prints of rare movies, many of which are in bad condition. We often clean the prints and do the digitisation work to make sure those are available in good condition for the film lovers. Once the restoration work is done, we screen those movies to the audience here.”
The movie screening saw the participation of other noted personalities like music director Shantunu Mahapatra, actress Tandra Ray and others who were also part of the movie. The people involved in the making of the classic were felicitated on the occasion for their valuable contributions.
