Assamese director Bobby Samra Baruah talking with audience
post news network
BHUBANESWAR: On the fourth day of the Indian Film Festival of Bhubaneswar, National Award winning Odia movie Hello Arsi was the highlight of the day.
Overall Sunday eight movies were screened namely, Aedan, Walking with the Wind, Hello Arsi, Mishing, Ajantrik, Night and Fog and Soul Kitchen.
The Prakruti Mishra and Parta Sarathi Roy starrer and directed by Late Sambit Mohanty Hello Arsi chronicles a day in the life of a young man and woman, strangers who have just met on a highway, sharing a car ride and a conversation that stretches on as both of them strive to find something emotionally meaningful in the situation. It is a portrait of the society in flux as the recent and rapid socio-economic changes in India and elsewhere has changed the social networks, ways of interaction and the meaning of home, threatening individuals with urban loneliness of epidemic proportions.
It may be mentioned here that the film won the National Awards in three categories at the 65th National Award ceremony held last year. The movie had won in the category of best Odia movie with Prakruti mishra winning special mention in the film and best dialogue categories. Unfortunately, the director and dialogue writer of the film, Sambit Mohanty, succumbed to brain stroke a few months ago before the awards ceremony. He had conceptualised, written the story and screenplay of the film. Such is the brilliance of the film that while announcing the awards, Shekhar Kapur, the head of the jury for feature films, said, “If I try to make this film, I will fail.”
Ajay Routray, the producer of the movie, who was present at the screening said the fact that the film is still getting appreciation is a big thing for us and added “it is a gift from Sambit to the Odia industry.” The way the film has been shot, it should be in the league of world-class cinema. The story has a local flavor, he mentioned. We got three awards at the National Award ceremony for this, which proves the kind of work we have put into making the film and the brilliance of director Sambit Mohanty,
Routray added.
Meanwhile, another movie that caught the attention at the festival on the fourth day is Mishing; a Sherdukpan language movie which is native to Arunachal Pradesh and is based on Sahitya Akademy award-winning author Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi’s novel.
The movie is directed by Bobby Sarma Baruah who had made critically acclaimed movie such as Adomya Sonar Baran Pakhi. The movie is set in the 1980s and deals with the folklore of Sherdukpen people. A Manipuri army deserter grows roots in the Sherdukpan community of Arunachal Pradesh and suddenly disappears only to resurface decades later and once again vanishes behind a curtain of curious questions.
Baruha said it is the very first movie made in the language. “It’s a dying language; hardly 4,000 people in Aka and Monpa ethnic groups in the villages of Rupa, Jigaon, Thongri and Shergaon in Arunachal Pradesh speak it. The idea is to preserve the language which is on the verge of extinction,” he urged.
Mishing is based on an eponymous novel by noted Assamese writer Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi, which focuses on a folklore about spirits of people who are dying. The film, set in the 1980s, has its screenplay penned by Thongchi himself. Almost all the artistes in the film are local people from the language-speaking communities.