Far away from the brouhaha of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), was another event equally laudable in Goa. Mallikarjun college tucked away on the Southern tip of Goa hosted an International Interdisciplinary Conference on Indian Cinema and Women from 3-4 February 2017. I chose to focus on films from the North East of India.
Although
there is a fair degree of contribution of films from the North East to the
Indian film industry, much of the efforts go unnoticed. Regional film has sadly
lost out and continues to lose out to the exorcising influence of Bollywood,
its glam quotient, its suave marketing and its allure for the youth. North East films seem to explore more mature
themes of men and women in their mature years. Set against a backdrop of
insurgency, killings and dislocation, it is these voices which we seldom hear –
or choose to ignore.
The
movie AFSPA 1958 (2006) written and
directed by Haobem Pabam Kumar is a documentary film in Manipuri about the
Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958 which gives sweeping powers to the
security forces. It reaches back to the episode of the torture and death of
Manorama Devi and the consequent protest by Manipuri women who disrobed and
walked through Imphal in 2004. Journey to Nagaland (2011) is an
animated film from Nagaland about a young girl led by dreams to her roots. The Headhunter directed by Nilanjan
Dutta, is a film from Arunachal Pradesh which tells about the erasure of the
old ways of life of the tribals.
With
regard to Assamese film, the latest poetic offering Dau Huduni Methai/ Song of
the Horned Owl (2016) by Manju Borah catalogues the human cost of insurgency
seen through the eyes of a rape victim Raimili. Adomya (2014) by Bobby Sarma Baruah tells the story of Juri
infected by her AIDS-stricken husband who dies later. Juri has to bring up her
daughter in these circumstances.
From
Bhupen Hazarika’s trailblazer Shakuntala
(1961) in Assamese to Santwana Bardoloi’s Adajya
(1996) also in Assamese, directors have provided keen insights into the psyche
of a woman. The themes have been bold. Adjaya,
is about Giribala a young attractive widow who has to confront her needs when
an American scholar comes visiting. The
film is based on a novel by Indira Goswami and is set in the 1940’s in Assam.
Widowhood
has also been the theme of Padum Borah’s Gonga
Silonir Pakhi/ Wings of the Tern (1976). In Aparoopa (1982) by Jahnu Baruah, Aparoopa is forced to give up her
University education to marry a rich tea estate. She later realises she was a
pawn to repay her father’s debts. She begins a dalliance with an old classmate.
Agnisaan (1985) by Bhabendranath
Saikila dwells on the theme of the revenge of the first wife who has been
discarded. In Kothanodi / River of Tales (2015) Bhaskar Hazarika has taken
recourse to Assamese folktales weaving in witchcraft, infanticide and snake
worship – practised by women and endemic to Assam.
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Published in Gomantak Times Weekender, St. Inez, Goa on Sunday, 19 February 2017.
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