An innocent and naive father with two motherless children living a happy content life in a village gets lured by a shady townsman who claims to be a businessman and promises to make him rich. The naive father then goes through a series of kafkaesque events. One thing leads to another driving the man's life into a downward spiral. The height of which would be his thirteen year old daughter being trafficked into prostitution.
There are ways in which the film appears to be an echo, Patterns of similar action takes place at different point throughout the film which makes us more familiar with the characters and the overall theme of the film hits us stronger, really putting us in the shoes of the protagonist and what insanity of a world he's experiencing. The continuous background of railways. The growth of the family dog. The repetitive shady men. And most importantly the daughters habit of speaking during sleep. We see her innocent dreams to her most traumatic.
All rivers start from somewhere, then gets separated and in the end reunites. So do the characters in the film.
Mahanadi is a cautionary tale for those who didn't already know and a social commentary for those who see the obvious. For me Mahanadi was all about the side effects of being naive and irrational in a cruel cruel world.
