Odisha-based filmmaker ecstatic after UK invite

Bhubaneswar: Odisha-based independent filmmaker Amartya Bhattacharyya is ecstatic after his Odia feature film Khayanikaa- The Lost Idea, got yet another overseas invite for screening. The 89-minute feature film produced under the independent banner of Swastik Arthouse is officially selected for Cardiff International Film Festival and is set to have its UK premiere at Cardiff later this month. 

“I am overwhelmed that one of my films has got a call from the organizers of prestigious Cardiff International Film Festival. I am hopeful that it would leave an impression in the jury’s mind like on earlier occasions,” a beaming Amartya expressed.

This film had an excellent response at its world premiere at the Hidden Gems Film Festival in Calgary. Amartya said “In a letter from Louis B. Hobson, a film critic for over forty years had described it as “a film that practically assaults the senses.There are scenes of jaw-dropping beauty which could be compared to lines or images in a poem“, and this was absolutely overwhelming. Right now, I am immensely joyous and excited for the premiere at the Cardiff Film Festival.“

The film also had a strong response at Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival 2017 at Mississauga, Ontario in Canada.

The film is a fantasy driven tale of two men, a poet, and a painter, claiming possession over the same Idea in a rural village portrayed as a wonderland. The idea is personified as a beautiful young lady, free of all bondages. The two men try to justify their claim over the Idea through their forms of art, in the end losing the idea forever due to the materialistic obsessions, rigid notions, and prejudices of the real world.

This movie is shot by a DSLR in and around the peripheries of Bhubaneswar and Puri. The film, being an independent film, is like a home-made piece of art where a post-production studio hasn’t been used. From color grading to sound mixing, everything is done by Amartya on his home desktop which makes it a lot more special to him, he said.

Expressing his thoughts on the movie, he said, “Contextually, the film is extremely relevant in the present day where people are obsessed about copyrights to possess their ideas. The expression of an Idea can be copyrighted, but an Idea is a free stream of consciousness”.