From the opening shot, The Missing Cow (Heruwa Goru) plunges us into a world consumed by an unspoken dread.
The camera lingers on the vast expanse of the bamboo grove, its tangled darkness – an opening – a watchful eye over the distant village. We are introduced to Sabiya Begum (played by Lima Das), a widowed mother of two.
While her daughter is by her side, her son is currently away. During a conversation of theirs over the phone, she shares her concern about their missing cow, which hasn’t been found yet.
He assures her that it will be found and also informs her of his return in three days. Overjoyed, Sabiya prepares for his homecoming and eagerly anticipates his arrival. But hope soon turns into horror for Sabiya as the joy curdles into dread after a chilling sight one night that ends up shattering her world.
Writer-director Bhaskar Hazarika, who has co-written the script with Sunayana Dutta, taps into the psychological fears of a mother, illustrating the extent to which a mother’s imagination can spiral when her son is absent.
Charged with an atmospheric sense of eeriness, the film keeps the audience on edge right from the opening scene even though the final reveal might not come as a complete surprise. The film’s sound design should also take centre stage while discussing it because it creates a certain mood and atmosphere of dread and sorrow that pushes the narrative’s dark themes forward.
Inspired by a true story, The Missing Cow ties together the fate of the son and the cow with the menacing presence of the bamboo grove that maintains its haunting gaze throughout the short film hinting at a hidden threat or an unknown force beyond human understanding. Is Hazarika symbolizing the indifference of nature? Or is it a conduit for a malevolent force? Or maybe it is a gateway to another realm? The film doesn’t answer that. But in all certainty, the grove is sinister and has the power to claim and negotiating with it comes at a price.
Beneath the atmospheric tension and haunting imagery lies The Missing Cow‘s attempt to explore the questions of life and death. In a nightmarish landscape Sabiya’s boundaries between her reality and the supernatural blur confronting her with the cruelty of fate, and the enduring power of a mother’s love. It is a stark and unsettling vision, but one that remains for some time, prompting us to ponder the mysteries of existence and the thin line between the natural and supernatural, and hope and despair.
The Missing Cow offers no easy answers. Lima Das’s effort in portraying Sabiya is evident, but her inherent eccentricity from real life could be subtly sensed in the character of Sabiya, a financially struggling Muslim widow primarily engaged in farming. The fit with the role might therefore demand consideration. Or maybe I have watched Aamis more than necessary.
Frequently, we use the term ‘horrors of the past’ to depict something horrific and brutal that has happened in the past. However, this horror is typically associated with anything but the supernatural, unless it’s a story told by Bhaskar Hazarika. And in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, a subject that involves COVID-19 lockdown, separated families, fake news, and the struggles of migrant workers, might have taken an overtly sentimental and less impactful form. The kind that is tried and tested to attend to the likes of a population that grew up with melodrama. Yes, Chandra Mudoi’s GO GO I was a terrible film. But director Bhaskar Hazarika transforms this simple narrative into a genuinely horrifying genre piece, showcasing his unique approach to storytelling yet again. Therefore, I assert that The Missing Cow is a short film about COVID-19, presented in a way that only Bhaskar Hazarika can.
The Missing Cow is produced by Sohum Shah, Mukesh Shah, Amita Shah and Adesh Prasad under the banner of Sohum Shah Films, known for producing films like Tumbbad and Ship of Theseus, and co-produced by Shyam Bora, is supposedly part of an anthology that binds together tales of Covid-19 and horror.
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The fifteen-minute short film in Assamese was also previously screened at the Dharamshala International Film Festival 2023. The Missing Cow also won the Best Film Award (jointly with Akanshya Bhagabati’s Son of the Soil) at the recently concluded 2nd NEFVTA (North East Film & Video Technicians’ Association) International Short Film Festival.
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