''Khyanikaa: The Lost Idea'' is a 2017

Odia language Odia (;"Odia"
''Lexico''. , ISO 15919, ISO: , ; formerly rendere ...

independent

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

written and directed by

Amartya Bhattacharyya Amartya Bhattacharyya is a filmmaker, writer and artist from eastern India. He was awarded the National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film Cinematography, Silver Lotus (Rajat Kamal) for the Best Cinematography in non-feature film at the 63rd ...

. The film won the state award for Best Editing at the 29th

Odisha State Film Awards The Odisha State Film Awards have been conferred by the Department of Culture of the Government of Odisha, India. The awards were initiated in 1968. The awards are decided by independent juries formed by the Department of Culture. The jury u ...

which was awarded to the filmmaker

, who was also the editor of the film. The treatment of the film is more like a satire with moments of humorous illustrations of serious reality and often merging into spaces of magic realism and surrealism. The film was the only Odia language film at the Indian Panorama at 48th International Film Festival of India 2017. The film also gathered a lot of critical acclamation at the international film festival circuit. The film is produced by Swastik Choudhury under the banner of Swastik Arthouse. The film was premiered at Hidden Gems Film Festival in Canada followed by a number of other festivals including the Dhaka International Film Festival and Ethiopian International Film Festival. The film won the Honorable Jury Mention award at 5th Noida International Film Festival 2018.

Cast

* Amrita Chowdhury as Idea * Swastik Choudhury as British * Susant Misra as Lazy Man * Choudhury Bikash Das as Mad Man * Hrushikesh Bhoi as Fate *

Dipanwit Dashmohapatra Dipanwit Dashmohapatra is an Indian actor and theater artist who predominantly works in Odia movies and web series. Early life Dipanwit was born in Soro in Balasore district of Odisha to Jyotsna & Jeetendra Dashmohapatra. He did his schooling ...

as Postman *

Anu Choudhury Anu Choudhury is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Odia, Telugu, Chhattisgarhi, Bengali and Hindi films. She has starred in more than 65 films. Her debut Odia film was ''Maa Goja Bayani''. Career Career in Odia film industr ...

as Commercial actress * Bhaswati Basu as Lazy Man's wife

Critical reception

The film earned a lot of critical acclaim from the film festival circuit. The Navhind Times listed Khyanikaa in its list of must-watch films of IFFI for 2017. Film critic Taryll Baker, in his review published on UK Film Review, writes - "''Amartya Bhattacharyya''’s ''Khyanikaa: The Lost Idea'' throws us into a wonderland filled with impeccable colour and strange but convivial characters." Soumika M Das, film critic of the New Indian Express, writes - "Defying the conventional formula of filmmaking, director Amartya Bhattacharya explores the problems of contemporary lives with satirical undertones in his Odia film, Khayanikaa The Lost Idea. His portrayal of the plot resembles the fashion in which a modern author presents his ideas in a stream of consciousness novel."

Controversy

In June 2020, Khyanikaa released on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

s, but was removed from the Indian territory after a couple of days. An official spokesperson was quoted saying "The Odia film ''Khyanikaa: The Lost Idea'' was inadvertently made available by the distributors of the film, through the self-publishing program Prime Video Direct. We regret this error. When Prime Video launched in India over 3 years ago, we were offering content across 5 Indian languages namely Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Marathi. Since then, we have carefully and consistently curated our local library, which currently features content in 9 Indian languages including Hindi, Kannada, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam." It led to a strong protest on social media. While film lovers used the hash tag #BringKhyanikaaBack as a mark of protest, Koraput MP Saptagiri Ulaka met the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Jadevekar to raise the concern.

Film festival screenings

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 5926914 2010s Odia-language films 2017 films