Nirad Mohapatra’s Landmark 1984-Odia Film Maya Miriga Returns to the Big Screen

Bhubaneswar: Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) has announced that it has successfully restored famous movie maker Nirad Mohapatra’s 1984 Odia classic ‘Maya Miriga’ the most feted film in the history. The movie returned to the big screen in cinema halls in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday. The film was screened at Keshari Talkies after a formal opening by Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi Chief Minister in the presence of legendary actress Waheeda Rehman.

Opened for the public for free, the screenings got a huge response from Odia movie lovers.

The release coincides with Film Heritage Foundation’s flagship annual international film preservation and restoration workshop – the 10 edition of the ‘Film Preservation & Restoration Workshop India 2025’ that is being held at the Kalabhoomi Odisha Crafts Museum in Bhubaneswar from November 12 – 19, 2025. Film Heritage Foundation took up the restoration of this forgotten gem as it was in poor condition and we were in danger of losing a precious part of our film heritage.

Nirad Mohapatra’s requiem to the joint family “Maya Miriga” propelled a lesser known regional cinema into national and international recognition at the time it was made. However, since that time both the film and the filmmaker faded away into oblivion.

Noted film critic Maithili Rao termed the vanishing of Nirad Mohapatra from the movie making scene after such an ‘exquisitely elegiac, immensely moving first film’ as one of Indian cinema’s greater unanswered questions.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, director, Film Heritage Foundation, said, “It gives us immense satisfaction to be able release the restored version of Nirad Mohapatra’s ‘Maya Miriga’ – the only feature film he made – in cinemas in Bhubaneswar for the public in Odisha, especially as the restoration of the movie was extremely challenging and took three years. We have literally raised the film from the grave having found the negative in a very poor condition abandoned in a warehouse.”

He added: “Through its unhurried gaze set to the haunting soundtrack composed by Bhaskar Chandavarkar and remarkably subtle performances by the nonprofessional cast, the many-layered film tells the moving story of the disintegration of a middle-class joint family in a quiet town that still has resonance in the India of today four decades since the film was made. Unfortunately, the preservation of Odisha’s film heritage has been neglected and much of it is lost. I hope that the restoration of ‘Maya Miriga’ will inspire a movement for the preservation of Odisha’s neglected film heritage.’

Film Heritage Foundation’s policy is to restore hidden gems of India’s regional and artistic cinema that are in danger of being lost to the world. “We have to our credit several world-class restorations of such films– Aravindan Govindan’s two Malayalam films “Kummatty” and “Thamp” , Aribam Syam Sharma’s Manipuri film “Ishanou” and Girish Kasaravalli’s Kannada film “Ghatashradda.” Hence “Maya Miriga” was almost an obvious choice – not just for its beauty and the fact that it was in danger of vanishing, but also because it was a very important film from Odisha whose restoration would serve to bring Odia film heritage back into the limelight,” Dungarpur observed.