‘Adim Vichar’ wins National Film Award as best Odia film

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Mar 24:

Award-winning Odisha based filmmaker Sabyasachi Mohapatra’s ‘Adim Vichar’ has been adjudged the best Odia film in the regional category at the 62nd National Film Awards announced today.

‘Adim Vichar’ (Ancient Justice), a sequel of ‘Sala Budha’, is based on the lives of the tribal people of Odisha. The movie, based on Sabyasachi’s father Kapileswar Prasad Mohapatra’s short story, is about a righteous elderly Kondh tribal, who turns rebellious when he is implicated in a case and produced before a court.

The protagonist of the film is an 80-year-old Kondh man, which has been played by 85-year-old actor Atal Bihari Panda, who also starred in Sabyasachi’s last project ‘Sala Budha’. Panda happens to be Sabyasachi’s father’s friend.

‘Adim Vichar’, which is in the Sambalpuri dialect spoken in western Odisha, is one of the five feature films selected for the regional category in this year’s edition. The other movies that were in the race are: ‘Krantidhara’, ‘Capital I’, ‘Bhaunri’ and ‘Suka Asuchi’.

Notably, the 65-year-old producer and director’s film has won the coveted award for the state after a gap of eight years. Prashant Nanda directed ‘Jianta Bhuta’ had won national award in the category of best regional film – Film on environment and conservation (Silver Lotus) in 2008.