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

Assamese Translator

Assam Times seeks English to Assamese translators!
Join our volunteer team.
Email editor@assamtimes.org.

Random Stories

VAT hike fuels protest, anger

6 Jul 2016 - 3:44pm | AT News
The hike in VAT seems to have fuelled no less protest across the state on Wednesday where many parties and organizations have pinned the blamed on the Sonowal Government.AJYCP activists in large...

AGP dares Himanta to name 2 MLAs in CM's residence

19 Apr 2009 - 12:36pm | editor
The Opposition Asom Gana Parishad has dared Congress leader Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma to disclose the names of two party MLAs who called on Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi at his residence.Addressing a press...

General Health Check-up Camp at Press Club

3 Jun 2011 - 1:47am | editor
The Apollo Clinic, Guwahati in association with Guwahati Press Club has organised a general health check-up and awareness camp for scribes on June 4 (Saturday). The camp will start at 10 am in the...

Assam launches 3 news health sachemes

31 Jan 2012 - 3:24pm | editor
Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday launched three new schemes in Assam to give new born babies and pregnant women dose of good news. Named as Janani Sishu...

Other Contents by Author

The actual meaning of the word Bhot Jolokia, the world’s hottest chilly

Rebati Neog Assam's Bhoot Jolokia has become famous as the worlds hottest chilly a few months back. Guinness Book of World Records has awarded this title to our very own red chili and the media all across has been covering this event widely. But almost all reports in English named this chilly as “ghost chilly” translating the name directly from Assamese. In Assamese “bhut” stands for “ghost”. Bhot actually means people of Bhutan. Awarded chili is Bhot Jolokiya not Bhut Jolokiya In Assam everyone knows it. Some journalist made this mistake sometime back and it is continuing

One more Rhino dies at Kaziranga, this time due to floods

Kaziranga : One rhino was drowned at Kohora Range in Kaziranga National Park. This is the first reported death of any big animal in the park after floods submerged more then 60% of the park area. Officials believes that the rhino actually died at lest one week ago and was over aged. The horn was intact which proved that it is not a case of poaching.

After flood, the new killers are Tiger and Rhino in Upper Assam, Rhinos all over Upper Assam

Guwahati : A Leopard killed one teenaged boy and injured five others on Wednesday in Upper Assam's Dibrugarh district. Police sources informed that 11 years old Dhirsai Garh, son of Maheswar Garh of Bhadoi Panch Ali went to bring back his cattle herd on Wednesday evening when a leopard attacked him. He succumbed to his injuries immediately. Angry villagers managed to track down the leopard in a tea garden near Bhadoi Reserve Forest. They attacked it immediately with a sharp weapon. The Leopard attacked in retaliation and injured five people. Later however the villagers managed to kill the man-eater. In another incident, two Rhinos moving out from Kaziranga National Park created panic in...

Army Fatigues banned in Kamrup rural areas

Guwahati: Army fatigues (olive green stripes) have been banned in Assam from 1st of August in view of the Independence Day on 15th of August 2007. Every year it is observed that the State witnesses an escalation in violence before the Independence Day celebrations and it is easy for militants to wear army fatigues and mingle with the crowd. Moreover there have been reports of incidents from Dibrugarh where ULFA militants had dressed in army fatigues and harassed woman in some villages. And hence the administration has decided to go ahead with the ban.

ASEB employee killed, cash Rs. 2.6 lakh looted at Nagaon.

Nagaon: Unidentified gunmen killed an Assam State Electricity Board employee at Nagaon on Thursday and flew away with cash amounting to Rupees 2.6 lakhs. This amount was the cash collection of the day at Nagaon Electrical Division-1, which is the only revenue collection branch for the entire district from consumers against their monthly bill. This happened when two staff members of the office and a security man were boarding a vehicle with the cash in a bag to deposit in the Bank at 2.45 PM. Two armed youths who were loitering there for some time came close to the vehicle and tried to snatch the bag. When challenged they fired at the driver, and one of the ASEB employees, Guna Das. Das was...

IIT Guwahati gets grant from HP

Guwahati: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati has been given a grant by Hewlett Packard (HP) amounting to approximately $75,000 worth of technology.HP India Director, P Ravindranathan announced at a press conference that the grant was aimed at integrating mobile technology and educational infrastructure and transforming the way subjects are taught on its campus. The grant would comprise things like HP tablet PCs, wireless networking cards and printers , optical drives and stipends for people to complete work on projects which have to be completed within a year, Gautam Barua, Director IIT, Guwahati welcomed the grant and said that it would benefit the students and the...

Court orders stay on Anganabadi appointments

Guwahati: Guwahati High Court on Wednesday stayed the appointment of 13,318 numbers of Anganabadi Workers in the Social Warfare Department. This would have been the biggest appointment in the second term of the Tarun Gogoi led Congress government. The Social Welfare Department had published a selection list to fill up vacancies in 6659 centers located in various places of the state a few days back. Post this advocate Rita Devi had filed a writ petition at the High Court alleging discrimination in filling up of these vacancies. Accepting the application, the court has stayed this process until further orders and has asked the Government to file an affidavit within three weeks.

Police open fire on protesters affected by floods, minor injured

Barpeta: Police opened fire and lathi-charged a group of flood-hit people on Wednesday who were blocking a highway near Barpeta town demanding urgent relief. One minor and several other people were injured in this incident. About 1500 people were taking shelter at Bhella High Secondary School since Saturday last, but not getting any kind of Government relief or other support. The angry villagers blocked Barpeta-Doulashal road on Wednesday evening in protest. A police team led by Additional Superintendent of Police reached the spot immediately and tried to clear road forcefully. When people protested, police lathi charged to disperse the mob. People started pelting stones and brick pieces...

Assam Artists join hands for “Save Kaziranga campaign”

Guwahati: Popular singer Zubeen Garg and many others joined hands to save Kaziranga National Park, the home of the one horned Rhinoceros in Upper Assam. On Wednesday a team of at least twenty artists led by Zubeen camped at Kaziranga, attended several street meetings, held a protest march, distributed leaflets, sang a song specially composed for the occasion and drew a painting on the theme save wildlife, preserve Kaziranga to create awareness among common people residing in nearby villages.They also encouraged volunteers of different NGO and local people who engaged themselves in night patrolling on National highway 37 passing through the Park area to save animals from speeding vehicles...

As floods inundate Kaziranga, the question is whether it is a curse or boon

Guwahati: After weeklong heavy down pour, floodwater submerged the world famous Kaziranga National Park in several places. Park authority informs that at least 60% of the park area was inundated and water level is rising day-by-day covering more area. It is yet to be ascertained, whether floods are a curse or blessing to the park known for the one horned rhinoceros worldwide. Three years of consecutive draught damaged the ecology of the park whereas fresh floods every monsoon helps park grazing lands to grow plenty of grass creating a good stock of étagè for the entire year. Flood waters also helps to carry out excess production of fish from marsh and low lying areas of the park...