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

Random Stories

Militant diktat defied; R-Day celebrated

26 Jan 2012 - 3:13pm | editor
Braving a boycott call by 12 militant outfits, Assam joined the nation in the celebration of the 63rd Republic Day on Thursday. Thousands of people attended the central function at the Khanapara...

2 dead in Golaghat border shoot out

12 Aug 2014 - 6:10pm | AT News
An uneasy situation prevails in Dhansiri area in Golaghat district along the Assam-Nagaland border after suspected Naga miscreants shot dead two local residents on Tuesday. The shoot out took place...

ULFA(I) wants Bihu to be skipped

5 Apr 2020 - 1:12pm | AT News
Guwahati: The United Liberation Front of Asom(I) has urged the people to skip the upcoming Rongali Bihu in the time of COVID19 menace.   In a video message,  a senior leader of the...

Bearing Witness: The Impact of Conflict on Women in Nagaland and Assam

31 Aug 2011 - 1:05am | editor
The Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research and the Heinrich Böll Foundation have pleasure in inviting you to a series of events to be held in a number of cities in India through...

Other Contents by Author

Rajdhani Express attack: 50 injured

A fresh orgy of violence erupted in Kokrajhar on Tuesday where the Rajdhani Express was attacked by some persons even as the entire train services to and from the Northeast was hit. Unidentified persons pelted stones and attacked the coaches of the Guwahati-bound Rajdhani Express at Gossaigaon in Kokrajhar district damaging four coaches, though there was no casualty or injuries. The train has been turned back and halted at Kamakhyaguri station bordering West Bengal, but the authorities were considering to take it to Coochbehar.

BJP raps Delhi, Dispur on violence

BJP on Tuesday came down heavily on the government for the escalating violence in Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri district where 25 people were killed and 500 families have been displaced. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, party spokesman Nirmala Sitharaman said that the violence is communal and that the prime minister should immediately issue a statement. She further called it is a problem of illegal migrants. According to her, “Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was trying hard not to call the violence communal but we know it is so as informed by our team vising the state,”. Meanwhile, a special home ministry team will be rushed to Assam to assess the security...

Minority bodies stage demo in New Delhi

Around 400- minority groups staged demonstration in front of the Assam Bhavan in New Delhi on Tuesday. Shouting slogans against Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, the protesters demanded the scrapping of the BTAD. The Home ministry has asked for the additional deployment of 24 troops to Kokrajhar district. The ministry has commissioned 24 more companies to be deployed in the towns of Dhubri and Chirang. According to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, Dispur was monitoring the situation, and confirmed that nearly 50,000 people had fled their homes in the restive Kokrajhar district.

Rein in situation: PM tells CM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday called up Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and took stock of the situation prevailing in Kokrajhar and Chirang. During the telephonic conversation, the prime minister directed Gogoi to do everything possible to control the violence. The prime minister also promised Gogoi more central assistance. Sporadic incidents of violence and arson are continuing in Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri districts. The situation was tense in Bongaigaon and Udalguri districts. Around 70 houses in four villages at Bijni in Chirang district were torched. Over 50,000 people are housed in relief camps.

Transit remand for Amarjyoti likely

The Assam police are likely to get Amarjyoti Kalita on the transit remand on Tuesday a day after the prime accused in the G S Road case was arrested in Varansi. The police team from Guwahati has arrived in Varansi to procure him in their remand.Amarjyoti would be produced before a local court on Monday. He would be brought back to Guwahati on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Molestation: main accused with UP police

In a major breakthrough, the prime accused in the gory GS Road incident Amarjyoti Kalita surrendered before Varanashi police on Monday. Kalita, a casual employee with Amtron, was on the run after police identified him along with 15 others. He is identified the main culprit of the entire episode where a teenaged girl was molested and stripped by miscreants for 30 minutes in the absence of police. A special investigation team set up to probe the case held 15 miscreants including a journalist and the operation to nab the prime accused. A team of police is on the way to Varanashi to get him in transit remand on Tuesday.

2 dead in Teok road mishap

Two persons were killed and 10 others have been injured when a Tata mobile carrying them met with a tragic mishap near Jorhat on Monday. The mishap took place at Badulipar in Teok when the vehicle carrying a group of devotees rammed into a roadside tree on the NH 37 on the way to Sivasagar. Two devotees died on the spot while the injured have rushed to the hospital.

Gogoi for stern action in Kokrajhar

Tarun Gogoi has directed the district authorities in Kokrajhar and Chirang to take stern action to check the violence which has left 14 dead. Talking to reporters on Sunday, he condemned the violence in the district and directed the authorities to take strong measures to stop the violence. He said that he has also directed the police, army and paramilitary to take all possible measures to prevent further outbreak of violence.

Gogoi greets Pranab Mukherjee

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday congratulated Pranab Mukherjee on his victory in the Presidential poll. Talking to reporters he exuded hope that he would provide guidance to the government and the country. Gogoi said,”On behalf of the people of Assam, I congratulate him and wish him all the best.”

ULFA blames govt for violence

ULFA’s anti-talk faction on Sunday blamed it all on the government’s divisive policies for the violence in Kokrajhar that claimed the lives of 15 people. In a statement sent to media, the outfit said that the governments have always attempted to divide the people of the state on communal lines and the recent disturbing incidents in Kokrajhar reflect this trend. According to ULFA, it is sad that in the land where people of different communities and religion have been living in peace and harmony such incidents of violence and hatred was taking place.