Yarwng
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The authors …
… of Indpaedia’s articles on Kokborok cinema are:
Indigenous Herald <> Osservatore Romano <> 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
The film
Yarwng (Roots) (2008)
95 minute
Kokborok
Subtitled in English
Premiered at the Nazrul Kalashektra, Agartala on 4 September 2008.
Tagline: ‘A romance on the idyllic banks of Raima and Saima swept away by the floodgates of Change’
The film is about the people who inhabited the once-prosperous Raima valley of Tripura.
The film narrates the story of a people swept off their feet by social change. The script is based on the setting up of a hydel project (electricity generating dam) on the Raima and Saima rivers that ended up submerging the “corn-basket of Tripura”.
There is a fine moment in Yarwng (Roots), a new film from Tripura, where one character, a dispossessed tribal, asks a disturbing and prescient question: "If we keep giving away our land, how can you call us poor?" (Namrata Joshi Outlook)
The making of the film
"It's the heart of my film," says filmmaker Father Joseph Pulinthanath. Yarwng, made in the local Kokborok language, is a lyrical film, shorn of any technical flourishes but brimming with compassion and humanity.
The original tribal inhabitants and the Kokborok language are in a minority now.
They were evicted after the valley was submerged when a dam came up on the Gumti river in 1976. "They had no land documents, were given no compensation, nothing was done for them," says Pulinthanath. It's a film on their desire for a home and their dreams about their lost land. It is also a tenderly etched love story— of Karmati and Wakhirai, who would perhaps have got married had the rushing waters not thrown their lives apart. "It is a protest on behalf of the excluded as well as a celebration of their spirit of survival in the face of upheavals," Pulinthanath says.
The process of making the film was as basic and rudimentary as its simple narrative. Yarwng was made on a princely sum of Rs 26 lakh (collected from church sources) on digicam, and then blown up to 35 mm. It was shot in the interiors, in Isoraipara village, near Gandacherra township. "It's a most backward area, without electricity, water, high school or health centre," says Pulinthanath.
Though the film used local actors and crew, technical support (camera and sound) came from Thiruvananthapuram. "Some of the actors were totally raw; they had not even seen a camera before. They were not acting at all, just doing what they were told to do," he says. Pulinthanath is reluctant to call Yarwng "his" film. "It's our film," he says emphatically, "it's about a community...and not about the individual who made it."
Crew
Produced by Don Bosco Sampari Pictures Tripura
Story, Script, Direction Father Joseph Pulinthanath, sdb
Producer Joseph Kizhakechennadu sdb
Camera Kannan
Editing Sasi Menon, Mahesh Narayanan
Music Bikash Roy Debbarma
Background Music Abhijit Bose
Story Consultants Meena Debbarma, Gautam Debbarma, Rajesh Debbarma, Sushil Debbarma
Translation Meena Debbarma, Sushil Debbarma, Gautam Debbarma, Rajesh Debbarma, Chandan Debbarma, Madan Debbarma,
Songs Bikash Roy Debbarma (Yarwng, Sal Sok Phainai), Chira Kumar Debbarma (Nwng Samani Kok)
Playback Singers Bimal Debbarma, Manushi Debbarma, Chirakumar Debbarma, Konthoti Jamatia, Kimi Halam.
Cast
Karmati Meena Debbarma
Uakhirai Nirmal Jamatia
Ma Surabhi Debbarma
Sukurai Sushil Debbarma
Debra Bimal Singh Debbarma
Ainati Jasmine Debbarma
Yathek Judharam Reang
Grandpa Nikunja Molsom
Ochai Manohar Jamatia
Ochai’s Wife Padhirung Reang
Choudhury Amulya Ratan Jamatia
Choudhury’s wife Suchitra Debbarma
Agent Madan Debbarma
Agurai Galem Debbarma
Mereng Rabindra Jamatia
Thunta Nanda Hari Jamatia
Kekli Krishna Chura Jamatia
Moi Usha Debbarma
Nobar Laldiga Molsom
Berma Boy Mishan Debbarma
Berma Boy’s Ma Buddhalaxmi Debbarma
Agurai’s Wife Shantirung Reang
Khumbarti Purnarung Reang
Khumbarti’s Daughter Mari Reang
Khumbarti’s son Vikas Reang
Villager with Townsmen Pabiram Reang
Soldiers Ajit Roga, Rabi Debbarma, Subudh Debbarma
Honours
Won a national film award
Yarwng was the inaugural film of the Indian Panorama at the International Film Festival of India held in Goa in 2004. This led to protests from several groups in Goa. A Google Group sprang up called ‘Place for Kokborok but not Konkani at IFFI’ [1]. GoaNet protested. ‘KOKBOROK BUT NOT KONKANI: IFFI 2004 has a sure place for even a Kokborok film but not a single one in Amchi Maim Bhas Konkani.’ [2]
Synopsis of Yarwng
Sukurai (Sushil Debbarma) has just learned that his wife, Karmati (Meena Debbarma) had been the lover of his jhum companion, Wakhirai (Nirmal Jamatia). He demands an explanation from the woman. Karmati tells her husband that she and Wakhirai were to be married. But on the previous night of her marriage, the newly built dam submerged her village and separated them forever.
In fact, Karmati tells her husband the story of her village, Bolongbasa that got submerged in the ‘dammed’ waters of the twin rivers - Raima and Saima and of its many families that, like hers, had to bid farewell to a way of life and shift to higher places and depend on jhum for subsistence.
Memorable among the villagers of Karmati’s story are the Choudhury (Amulya Ratan Jamatia), her own father, who got hurt when the soldiers came and destroyed his house on the previous night of Karmati’s marriage with Wakhirai. The happenings leave a wound not only on his head but also on the source of his pride and zest for life. He succumbs to death and makes an unceremonious exit from the story.
For the village Ochai/priest (Manohari Jamatia) laden with an ailing wife and a few questions, the harrowing times are a test of faith. When he moves out, we see him take along his sick wife, but leave behind those mantras and materials related to his profession. Perhaps, he has forgotten; perhaps, he has not.
As many were unwilling to move, elephants are used to destroy their huts and thus induce them to leave. It is impossible to fight against such force and people leave.
Sukurai gets a total picture of what happened only when Wakhirai completes the story and tells him what happened to his family. Shattered at being separated from Karmati a night before their marriage, he moves out along with his Ma (Suhrabi Debbarma), Grandpa (Nikunja Molsom), his sister Ainati (Jeshmi Debbarma) and her flashy looking husband Debra (Bimal Sing Debbarma).
On hearing their account, Sukurai, himself a victim of the catastrophe that drove people to the hills from the fertile Raima valley, declares that he understands the twists and turns of destiny in front of which one is powerless. He decides his wife must meet her old Intended. To his slight surprise and great pain, Karmati sails away from him in search of Wakhirai. Will Wakhirai, now sobered by sufferings, dare ruffle the smooth sailing boat of Karmati and Sukurai? And for Karmati, is it simply a case of ‘little calculation gone awfully wrong’ or a deliberate decision to face her destiny bravely, come what may!
Alternative Synopsis of Yarwng
The waters of the legendary Raima and Saima nurtured the tender romance between Karmati and Wakhirai. But just when that romance promised to flower and bear fruit, the waters become unkind and sweep away their dream.
Yarwng is about how the gathering waters of a just-completed hydel project submerge the future of a group of villagers in Tripura. Some of those we see at close range, besides the Karmati-Wakhirai pair, are the Chokdri (the village headman), the Ochai (the village priest), and Agurai (the shopkeeper).
The Chokdri, not used to taking orders, must now yield to the orders from above and vacate his home amidst the high point of his daughter’s marriage preparations. The Ochai, after a life time of pujas and placating the gods must now walk away from it all with only an ailing wife clinging to his arms. Even Agurai’s shop that used to be the hub of all lively discussions gradually becomes silent and empty. There is also Wakhirai’s Ma, who must learn to accept that her efforts at holding the family together are no match for the brute force of destiny.
But there is a design even in the worst of turbulences. Some shapes and forms emerge out of chaos. If one is lucky, with the passage of time, they become a source of solace. But if not, the frightening fragility of those temporary shelters is bound to get the better of us, despite the passage of time.
See also
Father Joseph Pulinthanath, sdb
Yarwng
