Mishing cinema
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i)North-East cinemas: Interesting times/
By Utpal Borpujari, Deep-Focus, December 30, 2012 Utpal Borpujari
ii)Deep-Focus
iii)Ignore, and be ignorant. Cinema from the Northeast has verve.
By Utpal Borpujari Outlook
iv) Teresa Rehman
Tehelka/ Mishingrenaissance September 17, 2008
Teresa Rehman
Tehelka/ Mishingrenaissance September 17, 2008
RAJEEV DOLEY laughs as he says, “What Amitabh Bachchan is to Bollywood, I am for tribal cinema in the Northeast.” Doley is the handsome star of Migan, the first film to be made in the Mishing dialect of Assam. Based on a Mishing novel by Indreswar Pegu, the film is about a young man who goes to Tibet in search of a Yoksa, a famed and powerful sword. Doley also stars in Ayang Ago, a commercial film with a love triangle involving a village boy and a city girl. After the films’ release Doley was so popular that political parties were ready to offer him a ticket for the assembly polls.
The Mishing community, which had grown used to watching Hindi and Assamese cinema, has longed to watch films in their own language. “Women, children and even village elders come to see me. They found it incredible that there was a film in their own dialect. People walk miles to the mini-video halls to watch my hits,” Doley says.
Amongst tribes in northeast India, literature and culture is passed on primarily through oral traditions, but films in tribal dialects that reflect their social and cultural ethos are also becoming an important tool. Doley believes his films are also helping to conserve the tribal culture for future generations.
Another veteran filmmaker, Manju Borah, too has got quite busy suddenly. One of the rare filmmakers who have been seeking out meaningful subjects for her films on a frequent basis at a time when many filmmakers were struggling to get funds, Borah has just completed the shooting of a Mishing-language film titled “Koyad” (Erosion). With music by Isaac Thomas Kottukapally, who has worked with her in more than one project in the past, the film takes a look at “erosion of different emotions in life”, as Borah puts it. The film has the river-man relationship, which is so crucial to the lifestyle of the Mishing community, as its backbone, and is about the human spirit that always triumphs.
Borah has also announced a full-length animation feature film on the 15th century saint-social reformer-cultural icon Srimanta Sankardeva, which will also be the first full-length animation film to be made in the entire North-East India. The filmmaker plans to release it in Assamese, Bengali, Hindi and English, and the animation is being developed by Kolkata-based Kaleidoscope Entertainment. Borah is also associated with another interesting project, a mainstream comedy titled “Baralar Bhar” (The House of the Bachelors), produced and directed by Malayalam filmmaker Mani C Kappen. Shot in Assam and Bengal, it is the story of an Assamese boy marrying a Bengali girl and their subsequent travails in a comic format.
Assamese films
See also Assamese cinema
Another young filmmaker, Bidyut Kotoky, also made a promising debut recently with his National Film Development Corporation (NFDC)-released “Ekhon Nedekha Nodir Xhipare” (As the River Flows) finally getting theatrical release to encouraging response from the people after nearly two years in gestation. The Hindi version of the film, which sensitively tackles the issue of how the common man of Assam has suffered because of the over three decades of insurgency and social unrest, is also expected to be ready soon. The film ran for four weeks in Guwahati and local film industry insiders said it had the potential to do much better financially all across the state if a proper pre-release publicity campaign had been carried out.
The fact that several other interesting Assamese films – “Dwaar” by Bidyut Chakraborty whose debut film “Raag Birag” had wowed audiences in several international film festivals for its deeply philosophical tone, “Adhyay” by Amulya Manna whose previous film “Aideu” had chronicled the life of the heroine of “Joymoti”, Aideu Handique, young filmmaker Rajesh Bhuyan’s take on female foeticide in “Me and My Sister”, and septuagenarian director Prabin Bora’s socio-cultural drama “Luitok Bhetibo Kone” – are getting ready to hit the big screen puts the local film industry at a possible turning point from where things can get only better.
Films from Sikkim
Even Sikkim, the eighth North-Eastern state, is seeking to put itself on the cinematic map through Pradip Rasaily’s film “Katha”, an effort at serious storytelling. Once can only hope – in a year when the Indian film industry celebrates its 100th year – that the trend continues, and the trash abates.
[Xnepali]
‘Katha,’ a love story, should rightly be called an Indo-Nepali film. it was shot in East Sikkim, where Nepali-speaking people live, and was released in Sikkim before being released in Nepal. The director, Prashant Rasaili is known for directing another popular movie ‘Acharya’. Although the movie was appreciated critically, it wasn’t successful commercially. ‘Katha’ is his boldest experiment, starting the shooting without any script. The script and dialogues were created simultaneously during the shooting at location and torch lights were used while shooting. It was the first film of Saugat Malla as a solo actor. Usha Rajak, whose last hit movie was ‘Iku – The jungle man’ (First part) only does few selected movies.
(Published in Deep Focus Cinema, December 2012 – the 1st issue of the relaunched version)
