Skip to content Skip to navigation

Tripura film bags first National Film Award

By editor |

Internationally acclaimed Kokborok film YARWNG (Roots) won the first national film award for Tripura at 56th National Film Awards (2008) held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, 19 March, 2010. The President of India Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil handed over the medal and certificate to Don Bosco priests Joseph Kizhakechennadu (producer) and Fr. Joseph Pulinthanath (director) for their second feature film.


Pulinthanath dressed in white cassock and Kizhakechennadu in his preferred saffron lungi and half-sleeved white kurta were among 52 film award winners of 2008, including high-profile Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra and the doyen of Indian Cinematography V.K. Murthy who was awarded country’s highest honor in cinema - the Dada Saheb Phalke Award.


Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Smt. Ambika Soni and Dr. S. Jagathrakshakan, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, and other officials accompanied the President.


Accent on People’s Cinema


The award winning 95 minute film Yarwng (Roots) tells the story of large-scale displacement of tribal people that took place in the tiny Northeastern state when a hydel project was set up there in the late 1970s. Yarwng was the opening film at the prestigious Indian Panorama section of the 39th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Panaji, Goa, November 2008.


According to the filmmakers, the script of Yarwng emerged from the numerous encounters they held with displaced people in the sanctity of their ramshackle homes. “All the incidents and emotional turmoil we see in the film were etched in the subconscious psyche of the people. All we did was to get close to them and feel their stories as they recalled them with looks, sighs, tears and also words,” recalled the priest director and winner of national and international awards.


“Although the technical team came from Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) and the support team from Guwahati (Assam), the best part of the production was the involvement of the local people,” says producer Kizhakechennadu who claims cinematic traditions from his legendary relative John Abraham, a genius in Malayalam cinema and founder of a people's cinema movement called Odessa.


All the artistes and production hands were from Tripura state including noted actors Meena Debbarma who plays the lead role of Karmati, Amulya Ratan Jamatia, Nirmal Jamatia and Surabhi Debbarma.


Yarwng has traveled throughout India and has been screened in major cities around the world including New York, Brisbane, Moscow, Taipei, Stuttgart and Dhaka.


Yarwng also won a Special Jury Mention Award at the 3rd Eye Asian film festival held in Mumbai in 2008.


The film, part-financed by Church organizations – Missio Germany, Signis and the Salesian Congregation is also a compelling testament to the commitment of the Church and the Don Bosco Society to preservation of local, indigenous cultures and people.


C.M. Paul, New Delhi

Comments

KOUSHIK HAZARIKA's picture

Submitted by KOUSHIK HAZARIKA on Sat, 27/03/2010 - 07:06
In the year of the brilliant Samson and Delilah, BIFF will bring a stream of films by or about Indigenous people, called Colourise films. These include The Inheritors, which documents rural Mexico, capturing the dignity and humanity of people in the face of incredible exploitation. Both Roots and Birdwatchers tell a universal story of displacement from land and culture.

Pages

Add new comment

Other Contents by Author

Assam scribes murder cases: PM steps in

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh would step up to nab the killers of Assam journalist Kamala Saikia, who was murdered by the separatist militants 18 years ago. This was disclosed by Dr Singh as he was listening to the Indian Editors' Guild officials in Delhi on Friday. Editors Guild of India president Rajdeep Sardesai led the delegation who apprised Dr Singh of the killig of journalists in Assam. The prime minister promised to take up the case with Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi once again. The Priem Minister would meet a delegation from Journalist Kamala Saikia Memorial Trust during his next visit to Guwahati.

Centre unhappy with Assam, Manipur

The Centre is quite unhappy with the law and order in Assam along with Manipur and Nagaland. Addressing the Chief Ministers’ Sumit in New Delhi on Monday, prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh and home minister P Chidambaram said the things have remained unchanged in these three north eastern states. The Prime Minister said funds for border development have remained unutilized and that North Cachar hills anf BTAD areas are still on the boil. In his speech Chidambaram cleared that the Centre would talk to the insurgent outfits only if they surrender. The home minister also said the ceasefire ground laws would be strictly followed in the north eastern states.

NC hills burns again; 2 killed, 40 houses set on fire

Two persons were killed, several others have been injured when suspected Naga miscreants attacked a tiny Dimasa hamlet in North Cachar hills district on Monday. The incident took place in the morning as a group of miscreants stormed into a Dimasa village Bankah and set on fire the houses where as many as 40 houses were gutted in fire. A few of these miscreants started indiscriminate firing on the villagers who were running out of their houses where two persons were killed and several others injured. Police came to the spot but by then the miscreants have fled from the spot. It ,may be noted that more than 100 people were killed, over two hundred others have been injured in a...

PM promises action in Assam scribe murder cas

The Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has promised to take initiative on the process to nab the killers of Assam based journalist Kamala Saikia, who was murdered by the separatist militants 18 years ago. Dr Singh was briefed about the professional hazard of media persons in Assam-where more than 20 editor-journalists had fallen prey to various anti-social elements in the last two decades-by the Editors Guild of India president Rajdeep Sardesai during a meeting on August 14 in PMO. Interacting with the editor’s guild president, the prime minister assured to raise the matter with the Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi once again. Dr Singh, who represents Assam in Rajya...

2 H1N1 suspects tested negative in Assam

Two suspected cases of H1N1 infection have tested negative in Assam hardly 24 hours after the state confirmed its first patient of the kind. Two persons, suspected to be infected by the killer swine flu have been admitted at the isolation ward at the Jorhat Civil Hospital on Sunday. Their blood samples have been referred to the Dibrugarh based screening centre for confirmation. Reports confirmed negative. Notably, one Dhiraj Yadav, a 21 old boy from Pune is undergoing treatment at the MM Chaudhury Hospital on Saturday. Dhiraj, who is pursuing a law course in Pune came to visit his sister at Beltola in the city a few days back.

2 H1N1 suspects tested negative in Assam

Two suspected cases of H1N1 infection have tested negative in Assam hardly 24 hours after the state confirmed its first patient of the kind. Two persons, suspected to be infected by the killer swine flu have been admitted at the isolation ward at the Jorhat Civil Hospital on Sunday. Their blood samples have been referred to the Dibrugarh based screening centre for confirmation. Reports confirmed negative. Notably, one Dhiraj Yadav, a 21 old boy from Pune is undergoing treatment at the MM Chaudhury Hospital on Saturday. Dhiraj, who is pursuing a law course in Pune came to visit his sister at Beltola in the city a few days back.

My three weeks at Mushroom Development Foundation

My name is Gareth Knott and I would like to inform you about my experiences during the three weeks that I spent with MDF. I am 22 years old and currently I study Mathematics at the University Of Bath, England. I have taken a year out of my studies and during this time I worked for 8 months for an insurance company in England before embarking on a round the world trip. In the previous 6 months I have been fortunate enough to visit the United States of America, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, China, Singapore and India. I became interested in MDF after I came across the organization on the internet. Following a correspondence between Pranjal Buruah and I, I gladly took the...

Assam confirms first H1N1 case

Assam on Saturday confirmed its first H1N1 case in Guwahati. An 21-year-old boy was tested positive for Swine flu in in the northeast state. According to Health department officials, the samples of the youth, who was admitted on Friday in the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital in Guwahati was sent to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at Lahowal in Dibrugarh. The pateint's residential address was given as Beltola in Guwahati. The patient had been kept in the isolation ward of the MMCH. This is the first of the 11 suspected cases of swine flu to test positive while the results of three others are awaited.

Eschew violence: CM to rebel outfits

Assam Chief Minister Trun Gogoi on Saturday makes a clarion call to the misguided youths to eschew the path of violence to help the state develop on all fronts. Unfurling the national tricolour and inspecting the guard of honour by army police and para military forces at the Latasil Playground on the 63rd Independence Day in the morning Gogoi said his government has a slew of measures to ensure an all round development of the state. He said the government is considering a rural development council to boost the rural economy. Gogoi expressed grave concern over the uneasy law and order situation in the two hills district and said these would be firmly dealt withy. He further said the hills...

7 Assam Rifles jawans killed in Nagaland

In a tragic road mishap at least seven Assam Rifles personnel were killed, when their vehicle slipped into a deep gorge in Nagaland on Thursday. Tne incident took place in Peren district as they were travelling on a routine duty on Thursday when their vehicle fell down into a gorge nearly 18 km away from Tenning. The victims are a Junior Commission Officer and six jawans of the paramilitary force, officials said, adding some other jawans also received injury.