AAO NXT revives Dasyu Ranjan’s novel
Odisha’s First independent OTT platform AAO NXT always aimed at showing web series, feature films and documentaries across a wide variety of genres, satiating the need of 50 million Odia’s across the globe who are deprived of quality cinema/content in their mother tongue. They believe in bringing a path breaking change in entertainment at par with the changing international film making/showcasing scenario.
The platform now all set to bring back the classic Odia literary genre into the digital platform. The enigmatic world of ‘Dasyu Ranjan’ a timeless crime drama by the legendary Odia mystery writer Pramod K. Panda is now turn into comic web series titled ‘Dasyu Ranjan’ Series, by the OTT platform.
Releasing the teaser Thursday of the comic the makers said “ Get ready to Dive into the enigmatic world of ‘Dasyu Ranjan’ as never before! Unveil the captivating aura of legendary Odia mystery writer Shri Pramod K. Panda’s iconic ‘Dasyu Ranjan’ Series, a timeless crime drama that has held audiences spellbound since the 70’s. Experience the classic tale reborn in the form of immersive Motion Comics, weaving art and storytelling into a mesmerizing blend. Stay tuned for the exclusive release on AAONXT, where the past meets the future of entertainment.”
It is directed by Ranjit Mohanty and Produced by Kaustav Dreamworksin association with PACAD Animation.
During the old days there used to be a series of cheap, yet popular and widely circulated Odia detective novels. The most famous amongst them was the DASYU RANJAN (Dacoit Ranjan) series.
The novels would invariably start like ” Raati Adha Cuttack Raja Rasta Re Teera Bega Re Chhooti Chalichi Kala Rangara Austin car”, meaning, “it’s midnight. On the highway of Cuttack travels an Austin car at the speed of an arrow.” I have never seen an Austin car in my life. But I can assure you, driving a car, Austin or otherwise in Cuttack at arrow speed would earn a safe ticket to heaven.
The occupant would be no one but the legendary Dasyu Ranjan.
He stealthily enters Zamindaar ( Feudal lord ) Roy Choudhary’s palace, where a grand party is going on. Liquor flows like river Mahanadi during monsoon. Dasyu Ranjan dramatically enters into the scene and manages to steal the diamond necklace of Zamindaar’s Kanya ( daddy’s darling daughter) and escapes before his act is discovered.
Ranjan was more like an anti-hero, a Dacoit with a golden heart. He along with SAATHI (accomplish) Ratan, would always give a slip to the legendary Odia Detective, the chain smoking Inspector Bijay Babu who perpetually trails Ranjan. Bijay Babu keeps on smoking cigarettes one after another, ignoring cups of tea going cold. His persuit also goes cold, yet unable to fathom the mystery of Ranjan. At end, when the real villain chains Bijay Babu to feed him to his pet Octopus, Dacoit Ranjan comes to rescue. Bijay Babu exclaims, ASCHARYA (Wonder), is he really a DASYU ( Dacoit) or DEVTA (God). This is invariably the last sentence of the novel.
Those DASYU Ranjan series novels were written by one Pramod Kishore Panda. Most of them were repetitive, with minor changes in plots. They usually came with names like SAGARA PATHE (onwards sea) RANJAN, PEKING (as Beijing was called then, China was still a 3rd world country) ABHIMUKHE (towards) RANJAN, MOSCOW (during height of Cold War Moscow was perceived as an Indian friendly Paradise) RE RANJAN (Ranjan in Moscow ) and myriads gluts of smut. Nevertheless, they sold like hot cakes.
As a filmmaker, Ryaanh aka Ranjit was personally mentored by Christopher Doyle,
Emily Young, Andres Viel, Makhmalbaf family, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aparna Sen, and A.K. Bir during his professional journey. Growing-up with the best of both worlds when compared to popular and artistic contents in both the genre of Animation and Live Action, Ranjit is pragmatically engaged in sharing his experiences and expertise with the world through his own found PACAD Animation studio and an indigenously raised OTT called AAO NXT since its inception days.
AAO NXT is Odisha’s First independent OTT platform aimed at showing web series, feature films and documentaries across a wide variety of genres, satiating the need of 50 million odia’s across the globe who are deprived of quality cinema/content in their mother tongue.