Lanmei Thanbee
And now a Manipuri detective thriller

Review by: NaNi *

So far, people of the state have seen varieties of Manipuri films. Among them were feature, documentary, short, animation films etc. A few of these films had been selected for screening before international audience at international festivals and had bagged awards.

In comparison, time-consuming and big-budget films made in other big states, Manipur's films are made with ridiculously tiny budget and in very short period of time.

But it is surprising and also is a matter of pride for all the people of Manipur that our tiny-budget and short-time-consuming films strode over the heads of the other peers and brought laurels to India and specially to Manipur.

Boni in Lanmei Thanbee

Boni in "Lanmei Thanbee"

However, film making is not an easy task. It's a difficult art. There is no guarantee that anyone who has learnt something about film-making and has some amount of knowledge on the subject, would be able to bring out a good film.

What's important is the ability to see the ins and outs of a matter, know the culture and traditions of the society, understand the life-styles of the people and also the social behaviours and attitudes. Besides, it requires the ability, skills and knack to bring all these together in the mould of an art-form and present them in a single package of film.

Abenao in Lanmei Thanbee

Abenao in "Lanmei Thanbee"

In reality, what's being done in Manipur is that the film-makers are working using their talents, which they were born with or learnt through other sources, as their only resource to bring out films. It's certainly a laudable situation. May all of them be able to move forward-fast.

During the past short journey of the Manipuri films, the audiences have seen films with varieties of taste-salty, sour, bitter and sweet-all riding on technology. And our young film producers and directors have never had to look back. They are zealously making attempts of various kinds.

Among them all, Lanmei Thanbee, the first production of Leima Films which is all set, with shooting and all laboratory process over, for release, is also one such film.

The genre of this film, though goes along the same line as other films generally made with family drama and romance, tilts towards that of a detective thriller. This certainly is going to offer a completely new taste to the cinegoers.

A scene from Lanmei Thanbee

A scene from "Lanmei Thanbee"

Presently, we hear news of unidentified persons shooting one or more persons to death, 'shot at', 'shot dead', 'bomb left', 'bomb lobbed' and so on, all about killings on daily basis. All these are linked with insurgency or at least close to it.

To the contrary of all these happenings, selected persons belonging to a particular community get killed unexpectedly and mysteriously which surprise the people of the land. Questions like who did the killing and why are asked among the people.

A police officer starts investigating into the cases of mysterious murders and is on the trail of the murderer. Finally, as it should happen, the police officer finds out who and why. That's the central plot of the story.

The main cast include

  • Kaiku,
  • Raju,
  • Abenao,
  • Maya Choudhuri,
  • Diya,
  • Indu,
  • Lalitabi etc.

Production people includes

  • Music-Sorri Senjam,
  • Cinematographer-Mahesh Chhetri,
  • Story and Screen play-Narendra Ningomba,
  • The film is produced by Baby Khumanthem and
  • Directed by Chao-En-Lai and O Mangi.

According to the production controller of the film, Joychandra, the film is scheduled to be released on January 4 next year.



* NaNi reviews this film in Hueiyen News Service.
This article was webcasted on November 17, 2008.

Polls

Who is the Best Actress?

  • * Abenao
  • * Binata
  • * Devita
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