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| In the Shadows of Raja: “Bou Buttu Bhuta” Redefines Odia Cinema with Spectral Allegory of Rural Struggle | | | Prerna Bhat | 7/18/2025 11:48:23 PM |
| When Jagdish Mishra’s Bou Buttu Bhuta opened on 12 June 2025, coinciding with the vibrant Raja Parba festival in Odisha it did more than send audiences fleeing their seats in fright; it shattered box-office records, becoming the first Odia film to cross ₹10 crore in net collections and ultimately grossing over ₹15 crore on a modest ₹3 crore budget . Yet its commercial triumph is merely the prologue to a film that transcends genre conventions, weaving horror, folklore, and social commentary into a richly layered tapestry. At its heart is Buttu (Babushaan Mohanty), a humble fish farmer whose longing to escape economic hardship collides with the supernatural when he becomes host to the vengeful spirit of Amari. Through this premise, Bou Buttu Bhuta reframes specters not as mere jump-scare devices but as embodiments of historical injustice and rural disenfranchisement.
Visually, the film is a masterclass in atmosphere. Cinematographer Rudrakanta Singh bathes the screen in the emerald hues of paddy fields and the muted gold of twilight, evoking both the fertility and fragility of agrarian life . By contrast, night sequences plunge into chiaroscuro, where lantern glow and drifting incense smoke carve ghostly forms against the thatch-roofed granaries. This interplay of light and shadow not only amplifies suspense but also symbolizes the shifting boundary between the living and the dead, the known and the unknown. The production design weathered fishing nets, damp earthen courtyards, and Ratnamala’s (Aparajita Mohanty) ritual paraphernalia grounds the supernatural in a palpably real world, reminding us that spiritual and worldly concerns often coexist in rural Odisha.
At the level of symbolism, Bou Buttu Bhuta resonates as a poignant allegory for marginalized voices. Buttu’s fish ponds, once a source of sustenance, become sites of violation when the ghost of Amari - a woman wronged and murdered by her community, seizes his body . Her possession is not random terror but a cry for recognition and retribution, echoing contemporary debates about agrarian neglect, caste-based violence, and the invisibility of rural women’s suffering. In one striking sequence, the rippling pond water reflects both the moon and Amari’s anguished face, suggesting that beneath the surface of pastoral calm lies a history of exploitation and silenced tragedy.
Narratively, the screenplay by Mohammad Imran eschews straightforward chronology in favor of a mosaic of flashbacks and present-day encounters, each reveal inching us closer to Amari’s untold story. This non-linear structure mirrors the unsettled past of the village itself, where collective memory is fragmented by guilt and fear . Director Mishra affords his actors room to inhabit their roles with subtlety; Babushaan Mohanty’s transformation from gentle husband-to-be into an instrument of otherworldly wrath is calibrated with small gestures an eye twitch, a half-heard whisper rather than overt theatrics. Archita Sahu as Rinki, the doctor’s daughter, provides the film’s moral compass, her compassion and scientific rationality clashing poignantly with Ratnamala’s mystical rites.
Sound and score elevate the mood to a haunting crescendo. Composer Abhishek Panigrahi blends low-frequency drones with traditional Odia folk instruments, creating an aural landscape that throbs with tension even in moments of stillness . The sudden absence of music replaced by the creak of a door or the drip of water becomes its own dramatic device. In scenes of ritual exorcism, vocal chants swell in dissonant harmony, underscoring the collision of ancient belief and modern fear.
While Bou Buttu Bhuta is steeped in regional specificity, its themes are unmistakably global. Rural Odisha, like many agrarian communities, faces the twin pressures of climate change - unseasonal rains, erratic water levels and economic precarity that push young people to migrate .
The film’s focus on a solitary fish farmer besieged by forces beyond his control captures this vulnerability, offering a meditation on how ecological distress and social injustice can awaken unseen specters in our midst. By dramatizing a ghost story that is also a chronicle of systemic neglect, Bou Buttu Bhuta bridges the gap between genre thrills and urgent social critique.
In its final moments, a dénouement that deliberately resists closure the camera lingers on Buttu’s empty pond as dawn breaks, the water calm yet charged with memory. This unresolved ending is a masterstroke: it acknowledges that the injustices embodied by Amari cannot be exorcised by a single ritual, nor can they be contained within the frame of a film. Instead, Bou Buttu Bhuta leaves us with a summons to bear witness, to reckon with the ghosts of history, and to ask what it means to restore justice to the land and its people before it is too late.
In the end, Bou Buttu Bhuta stands not merely as a cinematic accomplishment, but as a cultural lament - an echo from the heartlands that reverberates far beyond Odisha, if only we choose to listen.
Its confinement within regional boundaries is both a reflection of India’s fractured cinematic landscape and a tragic irony: that a film so universally resonant about memory, justice, gendered silence, and ecological decayl should remain untranslated in the national imagination. But perhaps, like Amari’s spirit, its story will find a way to rise through whispers, through water, through those who dare to speak of it. For in a time when mass cinema often trades depth for spectacle, Bou Buttu Bhuta dares to haunt not just our senses, but our conscience. And that is the mark of enduring cinema whether seen by millions or heard in the quiet corners of one forgotten village.
The Writer is student of MA Mass Communication , Anwar Jamal
Kidwai Mass Communication
Research Centre, Jamia Millia
Islamia, New Delhi |
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