Director: Jahnu Barua; Writer: Jahnu Barua; Producer: Sailadhar Barua, Jahnu Barua; Cinematographer: P. Rajan; Editor: Heu-en Barua; Cast: Bishnu Khargaria, Susanta Barua, Arun Nath, Kashmiri Saikia Barua, Miral Quddus
Duration: 01:42:03; Aspect Ratio: 1.330:1; Hue: 107.980; Saturation: 0.030; Lightness: 0.211; Volume: 0.075; Cuts per Minute: 4.311
Summary: Barua’s Assamese modernisation melodrama
tells of the boatman Puwal (Kharghoria) who
ferries people across the remote Dihing river.
On the invitation of his son Hemanta (Nath), he
goes to see him in the city, Guwahati. Hemanta
invited the old man mainly to have him sign a
legal document that would enable the sale of
family land. The circumstances of the deal
disillusion Puwal, who returns to his village.
There, in the film’s second half, a bridge is built
over the river by corrupt politicians and
bureaucrats, losing the boatman his ancestral
employment. Constructed in two movements,
the film is held together by the relationship
between Puwal and his orphaned grandson,
Hkhuman (S. Barua), which becomes the
framing device representing the kind of
modernity that encircles the uncomprehending
old man. Elements of the plot resemble the
director’s earlier Halodiya Choraye
Baodhan Khaye (1987), but even the
symbolic revolt of the earlier film is now
missing.
Indiancine.ma requires JavaScript.
