Rajbanshi film attracts cinephiles at 28th KIFF

kolkata: Veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt in his speech at the inauguration ceremony of the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) mentioned how through feature films made in the rare or aboriginal Indian languages, one can preserve their mother tongue, literature, culture, and heritage.

Adding diversity to 28th KIFF, three films on aboriginal languages from West Bengal — Rajbanshi, Kurmali, and Santhali — have found their spot in Unheard India: Rare Languages film section. Other languages are Maithili, Byari, Sanskrit, and Rabha.

The Rajbanshi film 'Mansai' directed by Ashutosh Das tells the survival story of the common man from the Rajbangshi community. Rajbanshi is one of the most important languages of the people of the northern part of West Bengal. Ashutosh, who is a teacher by profession, is a Rajbanshi himself. Therefore, he chose cinema as a tool to tell the story of his community to the world.

"This is the beauty of the Unheard India section at KIFF. Cinema from lesser-known languages reaches cine lovers and through these films, the local folklore and fables are also documented," said Santanu Ganguly, curator of the Unheard India section at the KIFF. He also said the Rajbanshi film found enough audience at the film fest.

This is the second time KIFF is screening a Kurmali language film with Biswajit Roy's 'Tusu'. Director Shisir Jha's Santhali film 'Dharti Latar Re Horo' narrates the story of a tribal couple coping with the loss of their daughter in the Uranium Mining area in Jharkhand. Jha worked on the film for three years. His film shows the effect of uranium mining in Jharkhand, the vivid and organic culture of the Santhals.

"Two years back, we had screened a Santhali language film 'Phoolmani' directed by Dasharath Hansda when West Bengal minister Birbaha Hansda attended the KIFF as an actor in the film. Last year, when we screened another Santhali film 'Asha', the minister was at KIFF and spoke at length on the importance of preserving the rare languages of India," said Ganguly.

In fact, at the official announcement of the 28th KIFF, Hansda was present to introduce the Unheard India section.

Praatiek Sharma's Maithili language film 'Lotus Boom' has also created enough buzz among cine-goers. The film found appreciation as part of the Indian Panorama section at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

A film, titled 'Dharya' has been made in Byari language by Aditya R Chiranjeevi. Though his mother tongue is Kannada, Chiranjeevi wanted to make a film on Byari, a language mainly spoken by the Muslim community from the southern part of Karnataka and the northern part of Kerala.

Director Yadu Vijaykrishnan Parameshwaran's mother tongue is Malayalam but he chose to make his film 'Bhagavadajjukam' in Sanskrit. Meanwhile, National Award-winning director Hiren Bora's Rabha language film 'Nasimai' (Darling) is the only film from the North East.

"The Unheard India, which was introduced in 2015, has become one of the most important sections at KIFF and even the Bengaluru International Film Festival has also started focusing on the rare language Indian films," said the curator.

Ganguly also mentioned how he had found beautiful films made in some other aboriginal languages like Kumayuni, Gharwali, Chhattisgarhi, Pahadi, and Nepali. However, time constraints and other technical reasons barred the films from being screened at KIFF.