Pushkara (Odia movie)
Rating: 3.5/5
I watched Pushkara in Bangalore today evening with my family. The movie is an adaptation of Odia novel Nadabindu.
What I liked:
1) Sabyasachi's career-best performance stands out throughout the film. Supriya, Ashrumochan and Choudhary Bikas Das also did quite well. Nobody could have played Sunanda better than Supriya. Kudos to her.
2) Original story based on a novel and the direction and treatment are honest without any commercial masala
3) Odia culture and Puri provide a great value addition to the screenplay
4) Despite a tragedy, the film manages to touch heart strings of audience and evokes strong emotions
Areas of improvement:
1) Screenplay was a bit slow in the first half
2) The transformation of Nilakantha to Pushkara should have been explored a bit more and shown
3) Due to budget constraints, the funeral setup looked a bit haphazard. It could have been shown in a more realistic way.
4) The movie at times gave the feeling of a TV serial, especially the scenes after Nandu's death where her family members were mourning felt very cringe to me
I would urge fellow Odias to watch the movie in large numbers and support good Odia films. It is critical to keep Odia cinema vibrant so better films can be made in future.
Thanks for reading.
