ODIA MOVIE DAMAN –Scripted History

Ashok Palit

The best Odia movie. One of the best movies now.1st  time after 5 yrs 60% of seats were filled for an Odia movie in a multiplex. . And the best part of this film is every single frame is covered in odisha and in this film you don’t get any vulgarity content. Kudos to Devi Prasad Lenka & Vishal Mourya for giving us this extraordinary movie to us. This movie is a tight slap to the Cuttack-based so-called Ollywood filmmakers. They should retire & give work to this kind of new. Creative filmmakers. The duo’s Mumbai movie-making skills are visible on the screen. Probably this will remain BabushanMohanty & 2nd lead named Dipanwit Das Mohapatra’s best & memorable film.

Malkangiri is a district of Odisha state which shares its border with Andhra Pradesh. Malkangiri, a predominantly tribal district, affected by Naxals and infamous for poverty and malnutrition, is a hotbed of malaria. Odisha carries more than 40 percent of India’s total malaria burden. Malkangiri, a very high-risk district, reports about half of the total malaria cases in the state.

The district administration was intrigued by the surge in malaria cases. The district administration received the long-lasting insecticidal nets from the Central government and distributed four lakh and twenty-nine thousand nets among villagers in January, February, and March 2020. However, the malaria caseload continued to show a rising trend. Then, the collector of Malkangiri, initiated the process for the interdepartmental convergence to launch the Malaria-free Malkangiri Campaign. The campaign also included conducting camps in different remote areas of Malkangiri. Camp name was DAMaN “Durgama Anchalare Malaria Nirakaran”. It was decided that officials and workers from all 14 line departments will work together to control and eradicate malaria. This campaign has borne fruits and has now emerged as the Malkangiri model.

The film is set in 2015. Siddharth (28 years old, handsome, and fair) is a young doctor who completed his

MBBS. According to Odisha state rule, a new doctor is obliged to give his service in a rural area or pay the bond fee. Siddharth is appointed in Janabai PHC which is situated in the cut-off of a Malkangiri district. Siddharth is not happy to leave Bhubaneswar and give service in such a remote area which is infamous for Naxal dominance and no basic facilities.

Siddharth try all his means to cancel the appointment but couldn’t do it and had to join the service. The journey from Bhubaneswar to Janabai was like a nightmare and Siddharth couldn’t enjoy it. He travels on a patchy road in a tracker filled with passengers, takes a small boat to cross the reservoir, and walks long to reach the PHC center. He was frustrated, tired, and annoyed. He meets with Ravi who was a pharmacist in the hospital. He spent one night in the old quarter which was more like a haunted house. Without electricity, he struggles at night and is bitten by mosquitos. He decides to leave the place early in the morning.

In the morning he was all set to leave but then he was requested by a local tribe man to save his girl’s life. The little girl had a high fever and her situation was serious. The little girl’s cute face and her severe situation make Siddharth check her. He the treatment the girl and meanwhile, the girl’s father requests him to visit his interior village as more parents are there. Siddharth decides to go to the village. Siddharth visits the interior village. The journey was full of struggle. Siddharth ride on a mule, climb dense forest mountain, cross the rivers, and reaches the village. Siddharth does treatment and sees the simple lifestyle of villagers. He gets to know that most people are suffering from Malaria. He also sees how tribal peoples are under the influence of local Tantik or Disari or local doctor who gives them fake medicines in name of treatment. He gets disturbed and demands from Chief Medical Officer provide proper checkups, treatment, and medicines to people. The CDMO ask him to do service on his own. Siddharth then visits all 151 villages and does treatment

.One day, while checking people in a remote village, Siddharth is encountered by the Naxal group who were in the village to find an informer. Naxal makes questions to Siddharth and leaves the place. It was quite a disturbing experience for Siddharth. Immediately, He sees there is a Naxal wife who can deliver a baby at any time and no village people want to help her because of Naxal fears. Siddharth decides to take her immediately to Malkangiri hospital. He and Ravi carry naxal’s wife through the forest and river. They reach the river bank but because of bad weather, they got unable to find a boat to go to another side. Siddharth then decides to operate on her in Janabai PHC himself. The ignorance of naxal’s wife by his community people makes Siddharth angry. Later. All village peoples come to the PHC center and apologize for their actions. Siddharth then starts his work again. He finds that mosquitoes are the only major reason for people’s illness and if we can curve mosquito bites then we can save people. He then finds the idea of LLIN (Long lasting intertidal net). It is a net that kills mosquitoes when mosquitoes sit over. it.

He distributed LLIN in all 151 villages but after 6 months Malaria cases rises again. Siddharth got worried that he did all right now what was stopping him to overcome Malaria cases? He finds that people are not using the net. Then he thinks deeply about how he can motivate people to use the net. He comes up with the idea of DAMaN. He presents the idea to Collector and he gives a green signal. In the DAMaN program, the Collector ordered all departments to cross-check all village people whether they are using net or net. Slowly, Malaria cases are reduced and Malkangiri achieves zero Malaria cases and becomes a role model for the world. Siddhartha’s rural service also comes to an end and he goes back like a hero from the village

Banner: JP Motion Picture

Producer:Dependra Samal

Music: Gourav Anand

Lyric: Jp Wordsmith, Bapu Goswami

Costume: Arun

Makeup: Sudhir Dalai

Editor:Debi Prasana Lenka

Dialogue: Debi Prasana Lenka

Cinematography: Pratap Rout

Sound:Tusharkanti Jena

Art: Bishu

Story,Screen Play & Direction: Debi Prasanna Lenka& Vishal Mourya

Cast: Babushaan Mohanty, Dipanwit Das Mohapatra, and others

Genre: Based on a True story

Songs:

• Nichhatiya Mana (Singer(s): Babushaan Mohanty | Lyrics: J P Wordsmith)
• Dhemsa (Singer(s): Anurag Das (Lulu), Gaurav Anand | Lyrics: J P Wordsmith)
• Daman – Title Song (Singer(s): Rituraj Mohanty | Lyrics: J P Wordsmith)
• Ekla Chale Re (Singer(s): Gaurav Anand | Lyrics: Bapu Goswami )