Magunira Shagada

Synopsis

A bullock cart rolled along the road. A full moon shone overhead. Sitting at the back of cart the villagers talked and sang happily. A journey was in progress. For Maguni, the driver of the cart it was the journey of his life. As he stirred the bullock cart along the road, he felt at peace with himself and his surroundings. But like the silky moon, which gives way to the bright sun, time eroded Maguni’s life. His bullock cart found itself out of fashion with the advent of more efficient and faster bus service. All of a sudden everybody preferred the new transport service to Maguni’s bullock cart. Trapped between necessity and freedom of spirit, Maguni chooses the latter at great cost. However, neither time nor the taunts of the villager break his spirit. Alone and hurt, Maguni continues his journey and at last his family, including his newly married wife, are reduced to starvation. Starvation forces Maguni to part with his dear bullocks for survival. But the temporary respite fails to save Maguni and his eternal faith in human beings to crumble. Its finale shows an elegiac end with the death of Maguni and his wife.

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Review

In Magunira Shagada, director Prafulla Mohanty looked pained to explore a pathetic tale of a bullock-cart driver and its clan confronted by the challenge of ‘machine’-age. While exploring the tragic tale of Maguni and his gradual loss of passengers, bullocks, carts, property and then his wife and the rest in the face of ‘machine-propelled mini cars’, the director wheels forward an important message for us. He said, "The inexorable wheel of progress grinds on, regardless of the world that is crushed under the impact. This observation has continued to worry the sensitive artistes everywhere in the world. In India the debate crops up anew almost every decade, as old world values and even basic humanism fights the battle for survival. I salute this indomitable spirit that will not succumb even in the face of death". In times of bitter crisis faced by the Oriya film industry on the whole, the National awards, in whatever form they are, do provide shots in the arms and help individual filmmakers to survive with a certain sense of being.

Awards and participation