Moirangthem Maniram's Mon Jai
(I feel like):
Review by: Meghachandra Kongbam *
If someone would like to know about the burning problem of the youths in the present day Assamese society, don't go to anywhere to find it out. Simply watch the Assamese film - MON JAI (I FEEL LIKE), a maiden directorial venture of Moirangthem Maniram who is one of the young talents of Assam.
Every Assamese youth must watch this movie to see themselves how they are pulling on in the society. Mon Jai was among 20 outstanding feature films of the country selected for Indian Panorama 2008 and shown in the 39thInternational Film Festival of India 2008 in Goa held from November 22 to December 2.
Delhiites got the chance to see the film on December 14 at Siri Fort Auditorium in the public screenings of Indian panorama films 2008 organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India from December 12 to 21. The 178- minute Assamese film under the banner of Moirangthem Movies depicts the life of four unemployed youths from lower middle class families of Tinsukia in eastern Assam.
They are entangled by their own misfortunes. Manab (Zubeen Garg), the only son of a retired school teacher, is constantly annoyed by his father's helplessness, sister's (Rimpi Das) limitless hopes, and mother's (Rina Bora) unabated chidings. He loves a college girl (Nisita Goswami) but cannot muster enough courage to express his feelings for her. Nayan(Pabitra Margherita) has a bedridden father and two elder sisters waiting to get married. Tapan (Gyanendra Pallab) and Akan(Nabadeep Borgohain) jointly run a PCO but it earns just enough for the evening's buzz. Akan is a happy-go-lucky character and stays in a rented house.
Tapan shares his ancestral house with his elder brother's family, and all his sister-in-law misses no chance to crudely remind him that he is living off his brother's earnings. All four spend the day at a tea stall or in front of the PCO. Excepting Nayan , the rest talk only about how to earn money. Nayan is the most sober and also a tee-to-teller. Though burdened with his own household problems, he never refrains from giving useful advice to his friends. When Nayan's father dies, he leaves home to work with an uncle in a distant township.
One day the police round up the three as terror suspects. Three days later they are bailed out but the 'terrorist' stamp sticks and they lose every chance of landing a clean job. Frustrated with the situation they find themselves in, they hatch a plan to get rich quick.
Accordingly they kidnap a rich businessman. They even received a huge ransom from his family but, being amateurs, they end up killing the hostage. This creates a huge furore - everybody condemns the heinous crime. However, the insurgent groups deny any involvement in the incident, but given their family backgrounds, no one suspects Manab, Tapan and Akan. With the passage of time the incidents is forgotten.
The repentant trio, though, cannot escape pangs of conscience nor touch the body. One day Manab's father chances upon his share of the ransom money and learns about his son's involvement in the kidnap-death. The shocked father disowns his only son and forbids him to even light his pyre. Manab leaves home, travels till he reaches a monastery and devotes himself to service of the people.
Tapan, being more aggressive, tries to forge on in life. Unwittingly he gets involved with an anti-social racket and dies in a police encounter. Akan marries his girlfriend-Sewali (Jonali Devi) and becomes the father of two kids, but cannot forgive himself and goes out of his mind. Nayan, with all his conviction and sincerity, becomes an officer of the Assam Civil Service and is serving as the SDO in Tinsukia.
The opening sequence of the film has Manab expressing his heart's desire. He wants to be a Mahatma Gandhi, an Ambani, a Tendulkar when watching cricket, an Amitabh Bachhan when enjoying a movie, Bishnu Rabha and so on. This is Mon Jai, the eternal Wish. Again Mon Jai, the beautiful is also a painful in the present day Assamese society where there is full of social evils like a corrupt bureaucracy, little regard for age, gender and human values, fragile patriotism, non-idealistic and mercenary attitude of the insurgents, yellow journalism, terrorism killing innocent people, bandhs and hordes of Bangladeshis crossing the porous border into Assam.
The film maker boldly communicates his audience pointing at these social evils with example in the film. Singing sensation Zubeen Garg, Ya Ali fame of the film- Gangster comes up with a distinctive level as an actor enacting the role of a short-tempered, restless, passionate and sensitive character.
The background song - Mon Jai rendered by Zubeen Garg is a haunting piece. The beauty of the film is how the film maker has well fabricated each and every contemporary social and political issue into the complex storyline and has made the film to entertain the audience with an impact.
While talking about the film, Moirangthem Maniram who was also the scriptwriter and producer of the film said, "Being born and brought up in Assam, I have witnessed the circumstances that influence people in insurgency and terrorism infested State. My film deals with the human longing for all the things one can think of during youth. But when a State is paralyzed by terrorism and insurgency, the picture becomes different With limited scope of growth, and watching people enjoyed with ill-begotten luxuries of life, the three protagonists become opportunists seeking easy money and fame, They even indulge in wrongful activities in the shadow of insurgency".
The film was released at two cinema halls in Assam on September 12, 2008 after getting its clearance from the Central Board of Film Certification on August 29, 2008. The film was the second Assamese feature film released in the year 2008. Born in 1970 at North Lakhimpur in Assam, Maniram, a Meitei did his schooling from Doom Dooma Don Bosco School, Tinsukia. He loved movies since his childhood.
His late father Bonbihari ran a tailoring shop next to a Cinema hall at Tinsukia and he had a good chance to see all kinds of movies. His father Bonbihari hailed from a village called Phumlou, near Mayang Langjing in Manipur. His father settled in Assam at the age of 14 years after completing a training programme in tailoring trade from ITI Jorhat.
Maniram acted in a One Act Play for the annual day of the school while he was Class VII standard. School authority knew his hidden talent and, in the next year, entrusted him for scripting and directing the One Act Play. He attended a Video Film workshop organized by the All Manipur Video Film Makers and Producers Association in Imphal.
While he was reading TDC first year in the college in 1990, he worked as an assistant director of an Assamese Video film. He became an independent director since 1995 and scripted and directed more than 25 TV serials, documentaries and telefilms in English, Assamese and Manipuri for Doordarshan and Government departments. Lamenting on the present situation of Assamese film industry, Maniram said that 73 year old Assamese film industry was now almost dead.
The film industry which had once a record production of 20 films a year produced only three films in the year 2008. The main reason behind the dead of Assamese Cinema was the State government's total failure in implementing its State Film Policy. There was still confusion in the process of returning the entertainment tax collected from the Assamese film to the film producer as reflected in the film policy.
The monetary incentive for national or international award winning or Indian Panorama film reflected in the policy was on the paper only. The Government had been the silent spectator when the cinema halls in the State were closed down one after another. The Assam government acknowledged those sports persons who won a silver or a bronze in a national competition, whereas it always forgot to express a word of thanks to the Assamese film maker who brought the laurel of the State in the international arena.
Maniram Stated, "Assamese films are made by those new comers who love Assamese film and do not think of monetary benefit from it. Every Assamese must encourage these film makers and producers with patriotic zeal by way of watching at least their Assamese films, as done in the case of Bengali cinema or Malayalam cinema."
"Why had our great Assamese film makers like Jahnu Barua left Assamese films and switched over to the films of other languages?" He asked, "Will it be possible to celebrate a grand centenary ceremony of Assamese Cinema on the days to come when the Assamese film industry has been extinct?" Moirangthem Maniram is the shining star from Manipur in the sky over the Mighty Brahmaputra. Let him be bright more and more.