Odia Film ‘Mindgame’: The ‘Great Expectations’ Fall Flat

Bhubaneswar: On Sunday, Manoj Mishra-starrer ‘Mindgame’ was screened to a packed house at Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF). The film is an investigative thriller that explores the mindset of a criminal and is reportedly inspired by the true incident of a parcel bomb case—masked as a wedding gift—in Odisha’s Patnagarh.

The film—which was first titled ‘Patnagarh’ in 2018—was dropped from the 25th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) in 2019 after Soudamini Meher—wife of the key accused, Punjilal Meher, who was arrested in 2018 for his alleged involvement in the blast case that claimed the lives of newly-wed Soumya Shekhar and his grandmother—sent legal notices to the festival organisers and Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), urging the authorities to stop the film’s screening at the prestigious event.

Amid all obstacles, as actor Manoj Mishra said in his Facebook post, the film was finally screened after it was issued a censor certificate with the name being changed to ‘Mindgame’.

The mixed audience in the house clearly reflected the ‘great expectations’ attached to the Odia film. From the film’s title (dropping hints of a psychological thriller), a borrowed star cast from the southern film industry and Bollywood to its creation at the hands of an award-winning director, Rajesh Touchriver, the ‘expectations’ had their own reasons. But, the art of storytelling suffered to a great extent, at least in the first half of the film.

Though the makers had claimed it to be a piece of fiction, the ‘true story’ tagline that got attached to the film unconsciously, owing to the controversy it had sparked, acted as a spoiler. Hence, the script appeared to be a linear chronicle of events, sans cinematic twists and turns that could keep minds engaged.

What came to the film’s rescue in the latter half was the acting expertise of the experienced star cast. Actors Manoj Mishra and Atul Kulkarni managed to stay afloat in a plot that lacked coherence, excitement and thrill. The constraints of shooting locations gave birth to a film, which needed more layers to establish itself as a crime thriller.

But, what sets the film apart from the regular Odia commercial films is its universality. The credit goes to the subject. What leaves a lasting impact on the minds of the audience is the film’s powerful and haunting background score. It’s a challenge to fictionalise true crime incidents and yet present it realistically. Having accepted the challenge, the makers seemed to have given a realistic touch to the film through its cinematography, which appears to be uniform for a major portion of the film without having unanticipated change in angles and movements, to bring in a refreshing change from the usual larger-than-life depictions of crime thrillers or super-cop flicks.

From the response at ‘Sirsirmanch’, Manoj Mishra is optimistic about the film’s fate once it is released in Odisha. “The pride of being Odia doubled when the outside audience was waiting for me to take a selfie with me after watching Odia cinema. After yesterday evening, I have become more positive about Odia cinema (sic),” he wrote.