Seeta Raati (1982)

Melancholy film-novelette set in rural Orissa. The rich Pranab (Nanda) loves the poor Aruna (Roy) but class differences keep them apart. Their story is woven into the cultural divide between the city and the village and into rural politics. Eventually the woman realises that the class gap cannot be overcome and she resigns herself to her fate. Mahapatra’s feature debut inaugurated the New Indian Cinema type of ruralist realism in Oriya.