The Assamese film industry is growing and with it is growing the genres of movies that are made. New directors and storytellers are coming out with various perspectives to build and present a story, a tale with narratives that are very new to our set of audiences.
Nellier Kotha, directed by Parthajit Baruah, did exactly that. The contemplative nature and slow pace of the movie humanised the narrative of the biggest massacres witnessed in the state of Assam to have the audience understand and ponder over the generational trauma that has been left behind by the events of the morning of February 18, 1983.
The movie does not portray a shred of violence but somehow it expresses the pain felt even years after the tragedy transpired.
We have seen that movies based on historical chapters or real-life incidents, often, portray or convey the general perspective. It usually just depicts the entirety of the incident that transpired, the events that occurred and the impact it left first-hand, which is more or less the consensus.
However, movies portraying a different perspective, the event from the point of view of a different section, in my opinion, is what makes all the difference.
We have seen this example in Begum Jaan, adapted from a fictional Bengali movie named Rajkahini, where the Indo-Pakistan partition was seen from the perspective of sex workers as they fought to save their homes.
A recent example of this can be seen in Railwaymen, where we see the "railwaymen" fight through time to save as many people as possible during the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
It is fascinating to hear a story from various perspectives and Nellier Kotha reveals that beautifully.
Rajiv (Arghadeep) when visiting Nellie 40 years after the massacre, knows only so much as the next person about the events that unfolded. We see throughout the movie how one by one, his preconceived notions about the place and its people were slowly diminishing as he starts learning more and more about the place and its people.
This is revealed in one of the first scenes after Rajiv reaches Nellie and Iliyas tells him about speaking to the Headmaster of the Adarsh Jatiya Vidyalaya in the area. Rajiv is surprised and confused at how there exists an Adarsh Jatiya Vidyalaya in a Muslim-populated village.
The next scene showcases the Headmaster of the Vidyalaya singing 'O Mur Apunar Dexh' along with the students of the school.
When speaking to Rajjv, the Headmaster states that recalling and talking about the massacre is not something that he is keen to do as it only arouses pain in him. He also reiterates how all the children in the school have lost someone in the massacre.
The Headmaster tells Rajiv how he and all the people in the village have thought of Assam as their homeland and Assamese as their own mother tongue, he explains how the idea behind starting the school was only to make sure that the new generation could be true to their roots and could read and write in Assamese.
As Rajiv spends time in Nellie, he realises that the residents are just ordinary people trying to get by, trying to provide for their families just like the rest of us.
One of the most beautiful things about the movie was that it did not get into the details of what exactly caused the massacre or the political aspects of the massacre. It showcased the psychological impacts of the massacre that has scarred, not only the ones who lived to talk about it but also the succeeding generations as well.
The film is a slow-paced, contemplative movie that leaves a lot of room for the audience to ponder and think about the events, It gives you the space to ponder over what you just watched and draw conclusions based on how your emotions were tingled.
However, I still feel like there was a lot more than the movie could deliver, given its premis, tone and characters, however, it just could not. There were parts where I felt, the dialogues did not require the ‘poetry slam-ish’ delivery.
The humane and natural element of the movie, even if for a quick minute, during some of the scenes, disappeared because of the almost poetry-like phrases or threads of conversations, making the entire exchange between the characters feel very forced.
Apart from that, the movie overall did kind of relay the sentiment that it wanted to pass on to the audiences. The movie is a solid 7 out of 10 and should be watched by people not only because it is an Assamese movie but also ver fewer movies in this specific genre have been produced in vernacular languages.
Contemplative cinema, might not have the glitz and glamour of a usual commercial movie with loud background scores and extravagant sets or dance routines, but I feel like, these are the movies that usually not only itch our brains but also pick on our emotions as humans.
Films like Nellier Kotha might not be movies that would be in your top 10 all-time favourite movies, or movies that you would want to watch over and over again, but they would definitely trigger a part of your soul to question the right and the wrong, question ethics, and the role of humans into facilitating a society overall.
(The author is a media professional by day and a binge-movie watcher by night. All views and opinions expressed in the article are the author’s own)