As expressed by Stanley Kubrick, “one man writes a novel. One man writes a symphony. It is essential for one man to make a film.”
The film entertains, but it also addresses, represents, and communicates with its audiences. Cinema has evolved into a multi-layered medium. A film influences, and shapes a community’s, society’s, and country’s perception. It’s a strong influencer and a mirror for humanity. Jyoti Prasad Agarwalla crafted the first Assamese film, Joymoti (Joymoti, 1935), in which he tried to achieve socialist realism and created an immediate connection between society and cinema.
The entrance of great filmmakers Padum Baruah and Bhabendranath Saikia in the late 1970s and Jahnu Barua in the early 1980s brought about a rebirth in Assamese cinematic discourse in the 1970s and 1980s.
Assamese cinema has recently experienced significant metamorphoses, with further immature filmmakers entering the sector. Filmmakers like Rima Das try to explore realism by depicting village life while emerging filmmakers like Mrinmoy Saikia indulge in middle-road cinema.
The Assamese film industry is undergoing tremendous changes with the evolution of OTT platforms and so is its content. Upcoming filmmakers are maintaining a safe distance from showing reality in a raw manner and even hyping it up with lots of elements which in turn makes reality like a distant star.
Mrinomy Saikia, also known as Rupak da, who directed Kritikal Kouple, explained how they are trying to portray reality in a manner which is not that raw but also devoid of elements that make it melodramatic. “Movies of Jahnu Barua Sir, Rima Ba, Rima Bora ba, depict reality in a way which is very raw, similarly in some commercial movies, the reality is portrayed in a very overdramatized way where people find it a bit hard to relate. But in series like Kritikal Kouple, people find it more relatable maybe because of the dialogues where you won’t find ornamental language.” “I am someone who doesn’t have much knowledge of literature,” he says. “ The way we are talking now, people on the screen should talk in that way too and using ornamental words leads to the loss of realism because people don’t talk in that way.” There’s a lot of criticism going on regarding language and its usage. “People might criticize the language we used,” Mrinmoy said, “but every language evolves and it won’t get lost as long as we talk, therefore we try to use that language which is very raw.” He too said how the depiction and the usage of language differ from filmmaker to filmmaker “At times certain filmmakers focus a lot on the language, on the body language and portray in a way where reality gets diluted and there are filmmakers who depict reality in a very raw form. Then there are a group of people like me and Kenny da who portray modern reality.”
His upcoming series Kolongpar is the story of gangsters of the Northeast. With the essence of reality and a bit of drama, Kolokngpar is based on the virtual place called Kolongpar, an adaptation of Nagaon, where one can find immense circulation of drugs. After the trailer got released, the people of Assam who love to put a tag on everything tagged Kolongpar as the “Mirzapur of Assam.” “Kolongpar is not the Mirzapur of Assam,” Mrinmoy said. Mirzapur is a story of North India and Kolongpar is a story of Northeast India, he added. Assam is not free of organised crimes, illegal trading, and massive circulation of drugs and this is proof that there are gangsters in Assam. “The gangsters of Assam are masked people, they don’t reveal themselves, instead they wear gamusa and give speeches and Kolongpar is a story about these people.”
Kritikal Kouple, which is embraced mostly by the youth, reached a separate fan base after its release. This series shows the modern problem of today’s generation and the anxiety that they go through along with it. Kritikal Kouple is as of 2022 as it is. One of the first series in Assam that talks about live-in relations, this series too underwent criticism by a small section of people due to the portrayal of scenes involving drinking, usage of slang and portraying live-in relations. “ Live in something which has been legalised by the supreme court but on the other hand people are not even aware of it.”
A small section of people too raised questions regarding the usage of slang in his upcoming series Kolongpar and criticised it. “The slang in Kolongpar is not for cheap publicity or getting views,” Mrinomy said. “It has always been a debate among the filmmakers that slang is a part of the society and why can’t people accept it?” Recently the movie Pushpa has been accepted by the people of the country, they watched it, and they made reels and whatnot but certain scenes of that very movie were problematic. A misogynistic movie that objectifies women has been overlooked, loved and accepted but a scene where a drug dealer is beating a person and uttering slang becomes a problem. It’s total hypocrisy how people accept gender biases, belittling women, and sexual objectification in movies and criticize when a character utters slang. “A person in anger, releasing his inner demonic nature has no control over his language. He might utter slang and we can’t do anything about it.” “It’s high time the people should look at the bigger picture and realise the right and the wrong.”
Kritikal Kouple has been embraced by a lot of people. The youngsters can relate to the struggle of each character. But it is seen that somewhere the audience has been limited. Kritikal Kouple found it difficult to pave its way toward a mass audience. “The target audience of Kritikal Kouple are the people who are aware of the issues that have been highlighted in the series,” Mrinmoy said. He added, “An upgrade in the audience is needed and progressive thoughts should be encouraged.”
Issues of Assam are not only limited to floods and agriculture. Unemployment, mental well-being, and the courage of standing against the age-old customs and rituals are part of today’s reality. Cinema can influence people and it’s time for filmmakers to introduce modern reality to the people.
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