Pratikshya: A Tale of Dreams, Desperation and Aspirations

Pratikshya: A Tale of Dreams, Desperation and Aspirations

The famous quote from the TVF’s series Aspirants says, “Patience, Perseverance and Dedication, Ye Jiske Ander Sabse Strong Hoga Na, Ban Jayega IAS.” If we take a look at any state or central government jobs these days, we’ll find the above line to be true. Unlike earlier, undoubtedly now the literacy ratio has gone up but unemployment is a major issue. So with the competitive environment aspirants are struggling hard to get a government job. The family dependent on the aspirant also struggles a lot till he/she doesn’t get the job. Recently Amiya Patnaik Productions unveiled the trailer of their upcoming feature film Pratikshya, which is based on such dreams, desperation and aspirations. In a time when most of the Odia films are being trolled for poor making and copy paste content, the trailer of this film has created new hopes among the Odia audience. People are showing their appreciation through various social media platforms.

Trailer link: https://youtu.be/E_p4kHzZBTM

 From the makers of Hakim Babu, Pua Mora Kala Thakura, Tulasi Apa and the recent blockbuster web series Gangs of Puri, Pratikshya has been selected in the 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) which will be held in Goa from 20th-28th November. It’s the only Odia film among 25 films in the feature film section. Recently,  the movie has won the ‘Best Story Feature Film’ Award at the Washington DC South Asia Film Festival (DCSAFF) 2022. Produced and directed by Anupam Patnaik, it is all set to release all over Odisha in cinema halls on 2nd December 2022.

Starring talented actors like Dipanwit Dasmohapatra, Choudhury Jayprakash Das, Barsha Patnaik, Sreela Tripathy, Abakash Mishra, Roopambika Nayak, Susil Mishra, Roshan Bisoi and Deepak Upadhaya, the film also has the megastar of Ollywood Siddhant Mohapatra in a very special role, which has not been revealed yet.

The plot of the story revolves around Sanjay, a skilled but unemployed graduate, who is adamant about finding a government job. Bipin, his father tries hard to convince Sanjay to do any job as his retirement is at bay. The burdened family has its share of joys and tears with Sanjay. However, an incident changes the fate of Sanjay and his family. As the old adage goes, desperate times need desperate measures, Sanjay goes into the darkest corners of his mind to find a solution to all his problems. Little does he know, the path he is on, the things that he wants will take away the things which are of much higher importance. A frustrated Sanjay keeps waiting for eventuality while losing his objectivity on the real problems around him. He keeps waiting to reap what he has sowed, but alas who to devour it with! Although the story is mainly built around the theme of waiting for the worst to happen to the ailing father, it is not limited to only this. There’s a parallel theme in the movie: while the unemployed son is waiting to get a job, his girl-friend, waits for their marriage to finally happen.

Anupam Patnaik is confident that this film will end the dry spell in the theaters and bring back the long lost audiences of Odia films. The film is inspired from a short story written by Sarala Puraskar winning author Gourahari Das. The team has put in a lot of effort in creating this film which took three years to come to life. Anupam said to My City Links, “The story revolves around a son realizing his father’s importance in his life. Something I relate a lot with. Hakim Babu, which was my father’s first film, was selected for the National Award when it was released and my first film got selected in the Indian Panorama, IFFI this year. It feels surreal to even think about this connection. I am extremely happy and proud of my entire team who made this possible. We hope the receding Odia audiences will get back to theaters to watch a film which has its heart in the right place.”

The screenplay and dialogues have been written by Roshan Bisoi. The cinematography mantle was held by ace cinematographer Deepak Kumar. The young composer duo Ankesh Anand and Ashish Pradhan have handled the background score and the music, while indie musician Bivash Rath has composed one song. The feature film consists of three songs sung by Ashish Pradhan, Bivash Rath, Humane Sagar and Biswajit Mohapatra. Abhishek Tripathy took care of the sound design while the lyrics have been penned by Durga Madhab Panda, Priyaranjan Sahoo and Sumit Panda. The sync sound has been done by Chandrasekhar Sharma. Barsha Patnaik was at the helm of things for the production design and costume design. Pratikshya marks the last feature film of veteran editor late Deven Mishra, who has poured his heart and soul into the film.

Talking about his debut film as a protagonist, Dipanwit said, “Along with me it is the debut feature film of our director Anupam, writer Roshan, DOP Deepak and composer duo Ankesh and Ashish. There are so many debutants in this project so the experience was amazing working with like minded, young and talented guys. I hope our audience will love it.”

“Anupam bhai has given a very personal touch to this film. He has shared some untold stories he has gone through. That’s something which helped me a lot along with the workshops we had for the film. I have seen my friends desperately applying for government jobs like anything. So I have used a few of my own observations to play the character,” Dipanwit signed off.