Manju Bora

Celebrity Overnight!

At Music Academy, Chennai, far away from Guwahati in Assam, she is in the illustrious company of stalwarts like D Rama Naidu, MT Vasudevan Nair, Shabana Azmi and Suhasini Mani Ratnam. And she is the star of the evening. Manju Bora, the debutant director from Assam was the recipient of this year’s Gollapudi Srinivas memorial award given every year to a new director from any Indian language film. The award instituted by Gollapudi Maruthi Rao carries a cash prize of Rs one lakh, a citation and a memento. Manju Bora won the award beating eight other contestants, for her maiden movie, Baibhav, which was also adjudged the best film at the Dakha International Film Festival. Manju Bora also won special mention from the national jury this year. Excerpts from an interview with the first-time director:

How did you develop interest in filmmaking?
Basically I am a short story writer. When popular Assamese filmmaker Rajen Rajkwa made a teleserial I assisted him. Besides, I co-ordinated a few projects including one for BBC’s Channel 4 produced by Brediti Lambhart. When I went to London, I found only two young girls managing the entire production. It fascinated me. When Rajen was making a commercial film he chose me as his chief assistant director and costume designer. After working for this movie, I got the confidence to handle a project independently. Even before this, it was my husband’s (Mr Dilip Bora, an IPS Officer who donned a brilliant cameo in Baibhav) dream to produce a film. Slowly things started happening. And the rest is history.

How did you arrive at the subject matter for your film?
I was never interested in making commercial films. It was my wish to attempt at meaningful cinema. So I approached popular Assamese writer Ranjit Sharma. We arrived at the script. The subject is contemporary. Today’s generation is in a confused state as it follows two varying lifestyles - one at home which is very much ‘desi’ and the other at school, college and office which is more West-oriented. I’ve tried to capture that conflict through the protagonist, the poet-hero of my movie.

How did you handle the theme?
It is an allegory of a poet. A turbulent past haunts him which results in a troubled married life. He goes into a self-exile, to find his roots and to stone for the sin of acquiring high status in society with the tainted money of his father. The protagonist’s quest for his roots takes him to a village, where he re-discovers himself amidst the simple village folk. Through the poet, I tried to probe into the human psyche.

How did you explain your ideas to the artistes?
I attend individually to all the artistes and explain the scene its backdrop and the whole subject, much before the shoot. A senior actress told me that I was the first person to narrate the entire script to her before hand. I wanted a particular face and figure for the poet’s role. So I called my friend Ashok Medhi from USA to play the part. For the CBI Officer’s role I chose my husband who is an IPS officer in real life.

Which scene in the movie appealed to you more on a personal note?
I was fascinated by the turbulent river Tiipi and surrounding hills in Arunachal Pradesh. There is no river bed as such, only a couple of trees on the bank. I found it an ideal location for the poet who comes in search of his roots. I felt that was the right place as the turbulent river matches the turbulent mind of the poet. The entire unit stood by me taking the risk and the scene has come out well, thanks to my cameraman Mrinal Kanti Das. Both the scene and the location were challenging.

How do you view the future of Assamese cinema?
In 65 years, we could produce only 220 feature films and this speaks of the state of Assamese cinema. Commercially, we are not doing well. We are still influenced by the Hindi cinema with which we can not compete in terms of budget. NFDC, Doordarshan and the National Awards have been the major source of strength for low budget regional films. But commercial cinema is throwing its weight on small budget regional films and throwing out from National television, with its sheer hype and advertisement value. If this trend goes unchecked, meaningful cinema will surely die out. In this unfortunate situation, the likes of the Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Foundation are the proverbial silver lining in the otherwise dark sky.

About your future project?
This time I have plans to make a love story based on a tribal folktale. The subject is contemporary and deals with the exploitations of women. I lived with the tribals just to get a feel of their traditions and lifestyle.

Naresh