Nani Ma

The writer-director Subashish Panigrahi with his intricate screenplay wants the viewers to go back to their roots and attempts to reach a wider set of audience hooking them by adding a personal touch to the storyline through the female protagonist Musamoni Panigrahi.

The plot of the film-Nani Ma revolves around a 95-year-old woman, Panigrahi who must share her songs as well as stories before they are lost or she is gone and also what long-term effect these elements of culture can have on the future generation.

Nani ma opens with a photo of Musamoni Panigrahi and a long paragraph following a nonlinear narrative making it easy for the filmmaker to provide the minute details to the same so that the audience feels involved with the content. The voice modulation utilised by the narrators of the movie helps build an emotional connection as well as establish the subject matter the dramatic piece deals with. The mustard colour used for font of the name of the film has the connotation of warmth, creativity, optimism, and diversity elements that the director wants to communicate to the viewers. The colour palette, set design, lighting, dialogues, costume, hair, makeup, and props have been kept natural and add realism and relatability to the script. The short messages incorporated just before the credits roll in allows the film to stay with the audience for a while even finishing the movie.

In terms of performance, Musamoni Panigrahi as the female protagonist brings the necessary experience and a perspective that can educate people about the Indian culture as they would be the future torchbearers and spread it so that it does not get lost with the old people. Panigrahi is happy to interact with the narrators and give them first-hand experience as she sings songs and tells them stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharat.

Laximikanta Tripathi is the male narrator. He makes sure that the audience does not lose interest in the film and comes up with new tactics to be aligned with the visuals being shown and also takes care of continuity as the story moves forward. Tripathy ensures that the Odia dialect he utilises is understood by the audience and they don’t get bored.

Nani Ma talks about the importance of preserving art and culture and passing it on. The documentary reiterates the significance of girl education for the overall development of our country India. The dramatic piece also restates that women were only given the responsibility in earlier days to make sure that the language, bridal songs, poems, stories, and even the death songs doesn’t fade away but the time has come to change this and provide the much-required exposure to men too. The dramatic piece also highlights that fokelores and melodies helped the new brides to express what they felt while away from their parent’s place. The cinematic piece tells us that we should be proud of the place we belong to and our mother tongue as it defines our true identity.

I want to appreciate Subhashish Panigrahi to choose a topic that needs to be discussed and we as Indians don’t get enough opportunities to do so but I also feel that the length of the films could have been trimmed to make the same more effective in the eyes of the audience.