Mathia
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
The authors …
… of Indpaedia’s articles on Kokborok cinema are:
Osservatore Romano <> Indigenous Herald <> Tripura Chronicle <> The Telegraph Wednesday, May 14, 2003 <> North-East cinemas: Interesting times/ By Utpal Borpujari, Deep-Focus, December 30, 2012 Utpal Borpujari <>Deep-Focus <>Ignore, and be ignorant. Cinema from the Northeast has verve. By Utpal Borpujari Outlook <>Teresa Rehman Tehelka/ Mishingrenaissance September 17, 2008<>Namrata Joshi Outlook
Basic facts
Mathia (2002) (The bangle)
Language: Kokborok
132-minutes
Dir Father Joseph Pulinthanath, sdb , an alumnus of FTII, Pune
Made by Sampari Pictures, a Don Bosco production house
Lead actors: Meena Debbarma and Jayanta Jamatia, both tribals and college students at the time.
Asked about the absence of professional artistes in his film, Fr. Joesph said both he and his producers saw this as an opportunity. "We held a series of workshops both for the lead artistes as also for the extras, but even then, there were some problems and we had to shoot more footage than usual."
Honours
Writing in 2002 Zia Haq Telegraph had called it ‘Tripura’s first film in Kokborok.’ However, elsewhere it has been referred to as ‘the 3rd feature film ever in Kokborok.’ Which were the first two? In the absence of the specific names of Kokborok films made before Mathia, Indpaedia accepts Mathia as the first feature film in Kokborok.
In any case it was one of the first full-length digital feature films in the country and claimed to be the first one set in northeast India.
Winner of the first prize at the Niepoklanow (Warsaw) festival in 2004.
Winner of Tripura State’s first film award,
The first film from Tripura and the first in the Kokborok language to a) win an international award and b) to enter the Indian Panorama at India’s international film festival.
Its lead actress Debbarma was later honoured by being made a jury member for the 53rd National film festival.
When Mathia (Bangle) won the Kokborok Sahitya Academy organized a public event in Agartala to felicitate the film crew. The film was also felicitated by the Tripura Government's Tribal Research Institute
The minister for Tripura State Tribal Welfare, Mr Aghore Debbarma, granted Rs200,000 as a lifeline to salvage the priests’ sinking motion picture company “Sampari Pictures”, riddled with huge debts.
Synopsis
Mathia, which, is about the relationship between a tribal boy (Banthu) and a girl (Kwchwngti) suspected of being a witch.
The lovers decide to marry in defiance of the villagers, who finally accuse Kwchwngti of casting an evil spell on the village. A tribal court sentences the girl to death and forbids Banthu from meeting her.
When lovelorn Banthu meets his beloved for the last time in her tong (a hut on struts) near a forest, Kwchwngti entreats him to always remember her as “a normal girl”.
In the poignant climax, Banthu is shown weeping inconsolably as the girl he dearly loves is led to a cruel death at the village’s ceremonial altar.
Zia Haq Telegraph adds: A “witch” who gets sucked into the quicksand of “desire and memory” is what Tripura’s first tribal film, Mathia (The Bangle), depicts. It is a story about bewitched tribals cocooned in a time warp.
The film also showcased the determination of a team of art professionals to take up cudgels for hundreds of tribal woman who, after being branded witches, are buried alive.
Witch-hunting is prevalent among tribals of this northeastern state, including Jamatyas, Hrangkhawls and Debbarmas, who comprise nearly 30 per cent of the population. The practice is, perhaps, analogous to sati, which reared its ugly head in Madhya Pradesh recently.
The film grapples with the sensitive subject of socially-sanctioned murder of women identified as witches.
With an outlandish storyline — that of a youth falling in love with a “young witch”— the film has been appreciated by hundreds of tribals “for whom it is meant.
“Even as we were shooting the film, witch-hunting was going on in a nearby village. Shooting was disrupted and we didn’t know whether to carry on or try to stop the menace. But the last of that incident is yet to be heard,” the director said.
According to Pulinthanath, the law is not enough to deter this savage practice, which is throwback to medieval times. The tribals will react violently if any incursion is made into their traditional way of life, especially if an attempt is made to change the way the tribals go about life.
Before her bizarre burial, the “witch”, Kwchwngti, requests Banthu, her lover, to stand by her grave. Hemmed in by his society’s sacrosanct beliefs, Banthu ultimately hands over his love to the village jury. Two factors have had an overwhelming impact on Kwchwngti life: The desire to live a normal life and a passionate longing for love.
But the verdict is out — she is a “witch”, destined to be buried alive. Banthu is brainwashed into believing that Kwchwngti is the cause of his mother’s death. He has no way other than to let go of her.
“This is the first attempt to deal with the problem by their own folks. It’s like trying to effect a change from within,” Pulinthanath said, referring to the actors who are tribals, mostly non-professionals. Meena Debbarma and Jayanta Jamatya, the lead pair, were both students in Agartala colleges.
The film
Mathia was shot mainly in Baramura, a tribal heartland of Tripura, with an entire village and its surrounding jungles as locations.
Osservatore Romano wrote: Tribals are a minority and forgotten people in the State. Of 3.2 million people in the State, tribal people form only 31 percent. The need to raise tribal issues prompted the Salesian duo to take to film-making as a part-time job.
The priests’ debut film Mathia is a house-hold name in every tribal home today in Tripura. It tells the story of many innocent but ill-fated tribal women (as many as 36, in a span of two years, as per 2002 records) that were brutally killed by “the village” after a hastily held meeting. The custom has, over the years, degenerated into a ploy for getting even with helpless people for personal gain.
Mathia took on the “witch-within” theme and wove around it a love story of sacrifice, forgiveness and change of heart.
Women in remote corners of Tripura would start crying while watching Mathia, which is about witch-hunting. Villagers even started shouting “Witch!” whenever they saw its lead actor Meena Debbarma.
See also
Father Joseph Pulinthanath, sdb
Mathia
