Odia Classic ‘Rakta Golapa’ Screened At FJF

Odia Classic ‘Rakta Golapa’ Screened At FJF

The 16^th ‘Smruti Chhaya’ organised by the Bhubaneswar based Film Journalist Forum (FJF) screened the classic black and white Odia film ‘Rakta Golapa’ from the late 70s at Jayadeba Bhavan on Monday evening. The attendees included some of the cast and crew of the film including most of the Ollywood actors and prominent personalities Gadadhar Puty , Iti Samant, Dr Rajani Ranjan.

Produced under the banner of Banani Films in Jeypore, the script of the film was written by Dr Bijaya Kumar Nanda and dialogues by Bibhuti Bhushan. The film was directed by Bhimeswar Rao.

One of the 6 producers of the film Sashank Sekhar Mishra, actress Banaja Mohanty, actor Suresh Mahapatra, production controller cum actor Ramesh Panigrahi and two singers of the film Pranab Patnaik, Jaganath Panigrahi were felicitated at the event.

Other actors like Sriram Panda, Radha Panda, Gobinda Sahoo, Sarat Mohapatra, Rama Samantray, Balaji, Radha and Kunja Nanda were also seen in the movie in different roles. Actress Halam, known in the South for her films, had also starred in Rakta Golapa. She was famous for her dance sequence in the film.

The dignitaries released a Booklet containing details about the film. Dilip Pani, who completed his PhD in Odia cinema, released his book on the occasion titled ‘Odia Chalathira Ra Sahitika O Sanskrutika Mulyayana’.

 The film released on November 9, 1977. 

‘Rakta Golapa’ is  a mysterious love story. Sarata, a researcher on tribal culture, falls in love with a tribal girl, Meera. Later, Meera dies unexpectedly. But Sarata is unable to accept her death. Sarata is forced to marry another girl, Sneha, but he does not accept her. By the time he begins to fall in love with Sneha, Sarata meets with an accident, after falling down a waterfall. As his body goes missing, everybody thinks he is dead. But Sneha thinks he is alive and waits for him. Later, society and family start blaming her. Around that time, Dr Ajay gives consolation to Sneha and proposes to marry her. Sneha initially rejects his proposal, but later agrees. In a twist to the tale, Sarata makes a dramatic entry just when Sneha and Ajay’s marriage is being solemnised.

The film has some popular songs with the music score by Dhananjaya Satapathy,  ‘Mamata ra madhumati sarami latika’ sung by Akshaya Mohanty and S Janaki, ‘Mana rasia re e mora mana chhuin ja re’ sung by Pranab Patnaik, Dhananjaya Satapathy and H.P. Geeta, ‘Manara manisha jadi’ sung by S. Janaki and ‘Bholare bhola’ sung by Dhananjaya Satapathy himself.

One of the audiences, Dibyajyoti Jena said, “Even today when we watch such Odia classics we feel that Odia films had a good standard at par with films in other languages then unlike the current crop of Odia films.”