Maya Miriga (1988)

The Mirage (1988) on global platforms:

Movie basic details

Current status - Released
Total runtime - 120 mins.
Release date - 10-04-1988
Release year - 1988
Genres - Drama

Overall ratings and scores for The Mirage:
Happiness Score - 6.8/10, World Popularity Score - 0.6/100, IMDB Score - 8.8, Metascore - N/A, Internet Movie Database - 8.8/10, .
The Mirage movie has Total Global Votes - 4, Total IMD Votes - 24

The Mirage Movie Introduction: Movie The Mirage, release year 1984 is written by Nirad N. Mahapatra and directed by Nirad N. Mahapatra. The leading star-cast in this movie are Kishori Devi, Sampad Mahapatra, Manaswini along with the other stars and crew members.

Trailers, Clips, Featurettes and Behind the Scenes

Movie overview and plot by Anagha Shashank

Movie in-short: N/A

Movie story-line: In this quiet drama about a large and loving family, what the parents want the most for their children -- a good education -- causes them to endure what they want the least for themselves, an empty house. As this engaging story opens, a retired schoolteacher and his wife are at home with their four grown sons and one daughter. The oldest son is a teacher whose wife is expecting a baby. The youngest son is a student in New Delhi and, defying custom, his young wife opts to go live with her own family while her husband is at school instead of remaining with her in-laws. Will her behavior and that of the younger generation undermine the tradition that holds the society and family together? After the youngest son graduates and gets a job, he and his wife move across the country to New Delhi. As the siblings continue to grow and develop their own lives and families, the mother and father face a gradual and inevitable adjustment to living without them.

Movie synopsis: Maya Miriga - the Mirage was the first and the only feature film directed by Nirad Mohapatra. The film was highly acclaimed and has won several awards in India and internationally. It certainly is a milestone in Odia cinema and a period piece that captures the breakdown of a joint family in the mid 1980s. For me, the mark of an excellent film is when you watch it, you forget that it is a film! Only a few directors can do that and Nirad Mohapatra has done that with Maya Miriga. When I saw it for the first time while I was in Zurich, I forgot that I was in Zurich! For 115 mins, I was back in my childhood with my family in my country.It is a simple story that depicts the family dynamics in a joint family where three generations live under one roof. Raj Kishore Babu (Satpathy) is a school headmaster on the verge of retirement who lives with his mother, wife, four sons and a daughter in Puri (a small coastal town in Odisha). His eldest son Tuku is married to Prava (Manaswini) and they have a baby daughter. The second son Tutu (Sampad Mahapatra) gets a prestigious government job and his marriage is arranged with a spoiled and selfish daughter of a rich family (played by Sujata). Sujata is unwilling to stay in the joint family and so begins the fragmentation of the joint family of Raj Kishore Babu. Tutu and his wife leave and the eldest son Tuku also plans to leave home soon with his family for a better job in another city. At the end of the film, in a particularly poignant scene, Raj Kishore Babu, while playing with his granddaughter asks her "will you too also leave us".The loneliness of elderly parents abandoned by their adult children is also heartrendingly portrayed as the friend with whom Raj Kishore Babu takes walks tells him about his son in America who keeps telling him that he is coming back to visit him but never does!Mohapatra has great compassion for the characters as he addresses the conflict, as well as the love and closeness that exists in a joint family. The cinematography by Raj Gopal Mishra is outstanding in capturing Nirada Mohapatra's vision for the film. Every scene is like a vintage painting: the saris drying on the clothesline, the eldest daughter in-law lighting the coal fire, the safety pin in her bangles, the government calendar and the clock on the wall, mosquito netting over the bed, the earthenware jug for water on the wooden stand, the lounge chair on the veranda, the weathered yet stately house painted in ochre! Mohapatra has taken ordinary household scenes and made those extraordinary and unforgettable.None of the cast had ever acted before except Manimala (the mother) who was a renowned stage and screen artist. Particularly notable is the role of the grandmother played by Kishori Devi, who was 75 at the time! Manaswini is flawless in her role as the ideal eldest daughter-in-law of the house. Not only she is exquisitely beautiful, but also emotions wash over her face like rainwater on the windowpane. The direction by Mohapatra is so subtle and the acting is so natural that one would never realize that the actors had never acted before!Nirad Mohapatra as a director belongs in the same pantheon as Satyajit Ray and Ingmar Bergman! This film brings back memories steeped in nostalgia. This is a beautiful, lyrical, and poignant film directed by the creative genius Nirad Mohapatra! Although he made many documentaries after Maya Miriga, it is such a pity that he never made another feature film! He has made a film that is so great in its simplicity that it is amazingly stellar!

Highlights - The Mirage (1988)

Total budget - $0.00
Total revenue - $0.00
Produced by - National Film Development Corporation of India
Produced in - India
Available languages - Oriya (),
Homepage URL -
Awards won / Nominations - 1 win
Certificate(s) -

Lead Actors, Writer(s), Director(s) of The Mirage (1988)

Lead Actors - Kishori Devi, Sampad Mahapatra, Manaswini
Writer(s) - Nirad N. Mahapatra
Director(s) - Nirad N. Mahapatra