Manmohan Mahapatra (b. 1951)
First Oriya art-house director; later made ruralist melodramas. Graduate from Utkal University, then from the FTII (1975). Début feature was a critical success, establishing the landscape of feudal Orissa as the setting for most of his films. His most acclaimed films are Neerab Jhada and Klanta Aparanha. Early films present a bleak and cynically tragic view which, according to the director, emanates from local conditions, although the cinematic idiom deployed is similar to that of the Assamese director Bhabendranath Saikia.
FILMOGRAPHY: 1975: Anti-Memoirs (Sh); 1982: Seeta Raati; Voices of Silence (Sh); 1983: Konarak: The Sun Temple (Sh); 1984: Neerab Jhada; 1985: Klanta Aparanha; 1986: Trisandhya; Kuhuri; 1987: Majhi Pahacha; 1988: Kichu Smriti Kichu Anubhooti; Nishitha Swapna; 1989: Tathapi; Andha Diganta; 1990: Agni Veena; 1992: Bhinna Samaya;