Let us be the first ones to tell you that Vishal is a stickler for details. So the story of Mahanataka, which is a collaboration between Jeypore Film Company and production house Panchabati Srujanalaya, came naturally to him.
I have seen Indian classical drama drawing fewer and fewer audiences over the years," shares the 28-year-old. "My father was also a member of one of the drama associations and I have vivid memories of going to these performances. Writing the script, of course, was another matter altogether because that took a while as well. Because Vishal is also an art teacher at one of the Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas in Jeypore, he shot the film during Christmas, Dussehra and Pongal holidays though overall, he took just ten days in total. Written deftly and directed aptly by Vishal Patnaik, whose films have won multiple state awards, Mahanataka was shot back in October 2018 but released on YouTube only on June 23, 2020.
#ODIA FILM MOVIE#
Sudhakar Patnaik and Vivek Patnai k have produced the movie and Tosh Nanda has given the music for it If that's not irony, we don't know what is. Then there is that the allegory of a play within a film - in the film, the theatre director fights all easy entertainment options that have taken over drama and in the drama that the theatre director is directing, a king is fighting Western influences in his kingdom. The 22-minute-long Odia film is the story of a theatre director from the bygone era who jumps at the opportunity of directing a play but at the same time, battles multiple forces that prevent it from going on stage. Many have lamented the diminishing presence of Indian classical drama today, but only a few have done it like Mahanataka has.