Debutant Satyajyoti as Jayadev in Lal Odhani. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, April 15: Director Kapilas Bhuyan’s upcoming film Lal Odhani (red veil) promises a heart-wrenching story that easily fits in the genre of Odia parallel cinema that has lost steam in the present scenario.

The film is not meant for audience expecting a six-pack-ab hero or a scantily clad eye candy, nor it has any item number or gangs of goons beaten hands down by a superhuman protagonist. Ready for release, Lal Odhani is based on Maoism as the undercurrent theme.

Both the lead actors are debutants. Jayadev played by Satyajyoti has only two passions in life — playing soccer and flute. But both his passions have the same source of inspiration — love of his life, Aparna, played by Manishita. Aparna, a Bhubaneswar girl from upper strata of society, gets pregnant and goes against her family to marry Jayadev, a boy from Keonjhar with a modest economical background.

On their wedding night, a special squad of police intelligence wing arrests the groom on charges of having affiliation with the Maoist movement.

While the first half of the film takes time to establish the characters, the second half narrates the incessant endeavours of the family members to find Jayadev’s whereabouts.

The film also stars actors Tapan Kanungo and Anita Das as Jayadev’s distraught parents. Shweta Acharya plays Maya, Jayadev’s elder sister and Pinku Patnaik plays Aditya, Maya’s journalist fiancé.

Except for a soothing background music given by New York-based Jay Gandhi and a recitation of a poem penned by Bishnu Mahapatra, the film does not have a song.

The cinematography is by Satya Prakash Rath and Ravi Patnaik is the film editor. The production design is by Sukant Panigrahy and Mayur Moharana has looked after the art direction.

Lal Odhani is the first feature film of Bhuyan — a journalist-turned-documentary filmmaker.

“The audience will have to sit through the first half, because the real action unfolds in the second half. It does not comment on anyone directly and a lot has been left to the imagination of the audience. If one is observant enough, he can notice that I have used a lot of symbols and even the name of the film is a metaphor,” said Bhuyan, who has also penned the dialogues.

Being an issue-based film, the tone and tenor of the two-and-a-half hour film has been kept serious.

Produced by Manjari Films, the movie is likely to release next month.