Director: P.L. Das; Writer: P.L. Das; Producer: Sushanta Kumar Adhikari; Cinematographer: Niranjan Dash; Cast: Hanu Dulari, Satya Mishra, Premalata Dash, Rabi Panda, Naba Panda
Summary: Ethnographic fiction film set among the Bondo
tribals in the remote Malkangiri district of
Orissa. The Bondos are still outside of the
national mainstream, and believed (in the
colonial classification of Indian tribes) to be
homicidal savages. The film features several
members of the tribe and tells the story of
Lachhim, a tribal who has won a national
reputation in archery, who returns to find his
reformist efforts thwarted by the villain Mangla
as political reform takes on the tones of sexual
rivalry. The non-naturalism of the untrained
actors (many of whom have been largely
unexposed even to viewing cinema) clashes
interestingly at times with a documentary-like
camera style, but often appears simply
awkward.
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