Orissa Movie Reviews

Orissa” offered an impressive thread that could have been enlarged to a different extent. But sadly, director Padmakumar chose a different way. What happened rest is history.

Movie starts off with the arrival of Christudas (Unni Mukundan) and Suney (Sanika Nambiar) at Cuttack Railway station. Both seem to have well passed into their fifties. Crawling past through the memory lanes, we came to know about their past life. Suney resided in Ganjam, a place in Odissa. The village like many of the rural places in India those times gave no hope for girls who turned eighteen. The Devadasi system compels the girls to get self devastated in front of Kamadeva Prathap (Nyjil Prathap). Proclaimed as next to omnipotent, the man has had enslaved many girls from the village. The next turn was for Suney. But, as luck favored, due to the works of Meera Bhai (Tanushree Gosh), authorities took care of her and assigned two policemen to protect her, one being Christudas. Slowly, the love started to fume between Christudas and Suney.

As said above, slowly, the love started to fume between Christudas and Suney. But, the question is how slow….? It was as slow as snail. Sometimes, even the beautiful location too could not handle the patience of audience as was the case with the previous Padmakumar movie “Ithu Pathiramanal”. From the level of preaching, this movie went beyond the comprehension of an average movie watching experience. While one should admit that there was enormous scope for storytelling. For instance, the Devadasi system could have been used more effectively to create an emotional impact over the audience. The role played by Kaniha is one of the perfect examples of underrating a potential character. A Devadasi turned rebel, the character remained more or less a beautiful Devadasi.

A potentially good love story, “Orissa” wasn’t that much appealing which it is ought to be. Another thing to consider is the frequent use of Oriya language. Though the makers admitted it in the opening scene itself, the abundance of the particular language was not easily comprehended at the end, though they have given adequate subtitles and dubbing. And what about dialogues…? Lol.., you must have been living in the pre – independence era, or at least during the seventies to enjoy such text book dialogues in a movie. Except some instances, those dialogues failed to evoke the adequate pleasure for the ears.

In terms of heading towards climax, movie moved without many purposes. The transformation of the character of Kamadeva Prathap from a sheer hog to the twilight never deserves applause. Though we might have to appreciate the union of Christudas and Suney at the end, it has to have the warmth that needs to make us heartily think of them.

Performance: Performance wise, Unni Mukundan has marginally improved from his previous movies. Though he still prefers to stay like a rock piece when it comes to expressing, he could have a sigh at last that he was successful in those emotional portions. But, still he wants to catch up in romance portions. Sanika Nambiar has given a credible performance that she has more roles to do in Malayalam cinema.

Rest of the cast including Tanushree, Nyjil Prathap, Swasika, Kaniha were limited in some portions. Apart from those dubbing, there all performed well.

Technical sides: Cinematographically, the movie was not bad. Set in the beautiful locations of Odisha, the movie really offered you a nice environment. Coupled with some awkward BG music and amateurish editing, the effect of the cinematographic department lessened. It is better not to talk about the lip synch of the artists.

Albeit not forgetting the goodness of the older version of Unni Mukundan, the same was not visible in the case of Sanika Nambiar. Apart from those silvery hairs, she was too young to be called an old lady. But, one must admit the efforts taken behind the set designing and art direction. Those were the actual heroic parts of “Orissa”.

Music: Music was the killer element of the movie. That doesn’t mean for you to expect some killer music. It should be comprehended like this that music almost killed the movie. Although some were not at all that bad, the Back ground music really wasted the movie. With some terrible mismatches, this department has really bulged out in exposing the fragilities.

Script: Script wanted to be more specific when it comes to dealing a story. The staggeringly written script afforded more burdens of missing some characters somewhere through the movie. Apart from giving expression to the lead characters, the script never tried to focus on the supporting cast. The characterization of the villain character too failed completely to cope up with the common sense.

Direction: M Padmakumar did a below average work in “Orissa” as he really struggled to carry on with the essential pace required. He was expected to perform better than “Ithu Pathiramanal”, but seems to be in reverse gear. Wonder, is this is the director who took “Vasthavam”