The Cotton University Film Appreciation Society, along with the Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Assam, is celebrating films from Assam in a festival titled Kotha Sobi, from 24th to 28th April. Besides the screening of films, the event will allow the audience to interact with producers, directors and lead actors of the films being screened. The objective of this festival is to develop a critical appreciation of films and film-making, and create better awareness of films being from Assam among communities across educational institutions.
For this edition of Kotha Sobi, the following films have been selected for screening:
Man with the Binoculars, Antardrishti (97 min) is the directorial debut of the highly acclaimed film director Rima Das. The film, which has received high appreciation across several international film festivals, is about how a man in the final stages of his life, reflects back on his life through the present. The protagonist realises how he is adversely affecting his surroundings, his daughter, his daughter-in-laws. But can he make the change that is expected of him, and can he in the process, discover himself come to free others and himself?
– Director: Rima Das; Writer: Rima Das; Actors: Bishnu Kharghoria, Rima Das
– Awards: Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2016; Nominated Best First Feature | First Feature Competition
Alifa – (2016, 109min) directed by Deep Choudhury – depicts a touching story of a family living in the outskirts of Guwahati. The film is a saga of the human–wildlife conflict, based on the basic questions of love, hatred, dreams and desires, as well as frailties of the human nature and wider social bonding.
– Director: Deep Choudhury; Writer: Deep Choudhury; Actors: Baharul Islam, Jaya Seal, Victor Banerjee
– Awards: Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director
Bokul, (2015, 107 min) the first film of director Reema Borah, has been widely acclaimed across various film festivals. The movie is about a 31-year old man, Raktim, who visits his hometown to attend his sister’s wedding, but is struck by the changes that the place has undergone while he was away for five years. When he realises that his old music teacher is missing, he sets out to find him. But in this search, he comes across three characters – a lonely old fisherman who spends his last days in the memory of his only son, a young rickshaw-puller who is bravely fighting communal prejudice to take care of his family, and a single mother who runs her shop independently – who are all coincidentally named Bokul. Raktim shares their personal journeys in the narrative that leads him to the final truth.
– Director: Reema Borah; Writer : Reema Borah; Actors: Ankit Borah, Anupam Borah, Nirab Das
– Awards: Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2016; Nominated Best First Feature | First Feature Competition
Kothanodi, (2015, 120min) written and directed by Bhaskar Hazarika, is a compilation of Assamese folktales. The film weaves four stories together in an interesting mix of whimsy and depth. Each story is odd and thought provoking at the same time. Some are situated close to each other geographically and appear to trod the same tracts of land, but are unaware of each other and are completely independent stories. Some have predictable ends, some have long stretches of jaw-drop surprise, while others go the opposite way.
– Director: Bhaskar Hazarika; Based on: Assamese Folktales; Cinematography: Vijay Kutty; Actors: Seema Biswas, Adil Hussain, Zerifa Wahid, Urmila Mahanta, Kopil Bora and Asha Bordoloi
– Awards: National Film Awards 2016; Regional Award | Best Feature Film in Assamese
Halodhiya Soraiya Baudhan Khai (1987) is an Assamese classic directed by internationally acclaimed director Jahnu Barua. In this social melodrama, a simple farmer becomes the victim of a greedy landowner. Bora (Indra Bania) is forced to give up the farm his father had paid for when the landowner asks for a mortgage receipt that was never given. He loses his livestock and sends his young son to work as an errand boy to the villainous landlord. Bora’s ultimate humiliation occurs when he is forced to put up political banners that espouse the virtues of the man who drove him from his land and ruined his life.
– Director: Jahnu Barua; Actors: Indra Bania, Pranjal Saikia, Purnima Pathak, Badal Das
– Awards: National Film Award for Best Feature Film in 1988; multiple awards at the Locarno International Film Festival in 1988
Local Kung Fu – (2013, 92min) written and directed by Kenny Basumatary – is an Assamese Kung Fu comedy based on the life of a young man, his girl friend and some crazy friends.
