“Just because you gave my land back, don’t think, I’ll vote for you. Don’t think the world around will never wake up,” cries out Rakheswar. His anguish and long suppressed anger are distinctly visible when he strikes at the face of the landlord’s poster pasted on a tree with his spade. The plight of Rakheswar, how he got back his land, is poignantly displayed in Jahnu Barua’s iconic film “Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai” (Catastrophe) that won the National Award for Best Film in 1988. The 12-time National Award winning filmmaker continues to be a voice of the subjugated, poor farmers and the marginalised.
Barua emerged as a staunch practitioner of alternative cinema and became the first Assamese to receive an International award – the Silver Leopard award – for “Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai” at the Locarno International Film Festival in 1988. Before that, Assamese film “Puberun” (1959) by Prabhat Mukherjee was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival.
In his journey of 40 years in the world of cinema, Barua has made 14 thought-provoking films which have transcended the linguistic, cultural and geographic barriers. Barua emerged as a filmmaker of note with his seminal work “Aparoopa”. The film projected an Assamese woman as breaking the expected norms and values of family and society.
As a socially conscious filmmaker, human values are always at the forefront in his films, and Barua believes that the idea of humanity was born in him when he was in the village called Japihojiya of Sivsagar district where he studied for two years. His protagonists such as Rakheswar in “Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai” (Catastrophe), Powal in “Hkhagoroloi Bohu Door” (It's a Long Way to the Sea), and Dandeswar in “Baandhon” (Waves of Silence) are ordinary human beings with ordinary human emotions and passions but are given ethical and allegorical dimensions.
Maternal bond
A still from “Aparoopa”
The image of his mother as a strong woman is often reflected in Barua’s films. He says, “In my childhood, I saw my mother managing the entire household chores and their families. Her leadership and wisdom have left an indelible mark in my mind.”
His female characters such as Aparoopa in “Aparoopa”, Ritu in “Firingati”, Mrs Barua in “Bonani”, Mrs. Khatun in “Kanikar Ramdhenu”, Trisha in “Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Mara” and Juree in his short film “That Gusty Morning” are strong women and in a way, shadows of his mother.
Aparoopa, the wife of a well-off owner of a tea estate, feels suffocated in the four walls of her bungalow. In spite of living in a conventional Assamese society, she elopes with her ex-lover Rana and thus breaks the social shackles. In “Firingati” (Spark), Ritu Baruah, a widowed teacher goes to an interior village Koronga and starts a school fighting against the evil forces in the village. While Mrs Khatan in “Kanikar Ramdhenu” (Ride on the Rainbow) is portrayed as a caring and loving superintendent of a juvenile home. She reprimands the police officer when he comes with a court order and enters inside the juvenile home in a police uniform. Similarly, Trisha and Juree are shown as emotionally strong girls who sacrifice their personal likings for their ailing parents.
Nature lover
Barua’s films are replete with evocative images, and the most recurring images are of sea, river and birds. Sea has become a strong symbol in films such as “Hkhagoroloi Bohu Door” (It's a Long Way to the Sea), “Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Mara” and “Baandhon”. Both the sea and life are suggestive of unpredictability.
Barua uses the sea as a central symbol for life itself, and his point of suggestion is not to surrender, but to keep moving. In “Baandhon”, when the old couple loses their only grandson in the Mumbai terror attack, they sit in a bench facing the sea and Dandeswar goes on saying: “We are common people. The world is too big for us. We have no choice but to have trust in it. But like you also, I don’t know why it has betrayed us again!”.
Again, in the film “Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara”, Uttam Chaudhary and his daughter Trisha face the sea and recite the poem, “ Lehron se Darkar nauka par nahin hoti / koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti…” by Harivansh Rai Bachchan.
The image of bird is repeatedly used as a symbol of liberty in his films like “Aparoopa” and “Pokhi”. Bird symbolises both freedom and captivity. Birds can fly away but they can be chained too in a cage. While the river, an image of lifeline and a means of survival, is strongly used in his films like “Halodhiya Choriya Bau Dhan Khai”, “Firingati” and “Pokhi”. The river Diroi in “Firingati” , the river Dihing in “Hkhagoroloi Bohu Door” and “Pokhi” are used as the recurring images which suggest the life force of the village people. On the other hand, the image of child in his films like “Halodhiya Choriya Bau Dhan Khai”, “Hkhagoroloi Bohu Door” , “ Pokhi”, “Tora”, and “Konkar Ramdhenu” is used to suggest a possibility of positive change in society.
Awarded with Padma Shri in 2003 and Padma Bhushan in 2015, Barua says, “Since the day I have been making films, awards are not my prime focus. It does give me immense joy, but I don’t carry forward the images of awards. I just move ahead after each award.”
