Guwahati to hold filmfare awards in February 2020: Sight & Sound

Prantik Deka

Guwahati to hold filmfare awards in february 2020

It is now officially confirmed. The most prestigious and glamorous cine awards – the Filmfare Awards, will be held in Guwahati – the 'Gateway to the Northeast', in February 2020. The Film fraternity, cine artistes and movie aficionados in Assam have hailed the Assam Government's move to bring the Filmfare Awards to Guwahati for the first time. Several actors of the Assamese cine industry and movie lovers of Assam and the Northeast have welcomed the move, terming it as a big step towards attracting Bollywood to the region. This is the very first time ever that the gala event will be held out of Mumbai.

The Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Times of India Group, the organiser of the filmfare awards ceremony on November 25, eventually paving the way for organising the 65th edition of the National Filmfare Awards at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium at Amingaon tentatively on February 15, 2020. Attending the MoU-signing function held at the Vivanta by Taj hotel in Khanapara, the State chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the hosting of the prestigious event would definitely help take Assam to the national stage and showcase it as 'one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the country'.

The awards ceremony is one of the oldest and most prestigious film events in the country. It may be mentioned that the first Filmfare Awards function was held at the Mumbai Metro Cinema Hall on March 21, 1954. 'Do Bigha Zameen' was adjudged the Best Film at the inaugural function. The Filmfare Statuette is generally made of bronze – its height is 46.5 cm and it weighs around five kilogram.

Guwahatians are, however, apprehensive whether they will be able to enjoy the glamorous event, which is worth anything between Rs 20 and Rs 30 crore. The prices of tickets for the event could be too costly to be availed of by average citizens. The minimum price for tickets sold in the last award ceremony held in Mumbai was Rs 10,000.

According to ATDC Chairman Jayanta Malla Barua, the sole purpose of holding the Filmfare Awards function in Guwahati is to promote Assam's huge tourism potential by involving Bollywood. He said since the State will give all logistics to the organizer, the event will highlight Assam as one of the best tourism destinations in India.

Staying true to its reputation of being the most fashionable night of the year, the red carpet will surely witness all the bollywood biggies such as Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, the Badshah of Bollywood Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Alia Bhatt etc.

theatre fest 'under the sal tree' in december

Assam's popular theatre group Badungduppa Kalakendra is going to hold its annual theatre festival 'Under the Sal Tree 2019' from December 15, 2019 to December 17, 2019. The small, one-of-its-kind theatre festival is held in the sal forest of Rampur in Assam's Goalpara district. Surrounded by nature and deeply embedded in values of traditional theatre, it aspires to reconnect man to nature by using theatre as a means to pass on stories. The Badungduppa mostly comprises of local villagers trained and taught by the late Sukracharjya Rabha, a visionary theatre practitioner, who established the Badungduppa Kalakendra in 1998, and is touted to be one of the country's few contemporary 'tribal' theatre groups.

This year, the festival, which will be inaugurated on December 15, promises an enthralling spectacle for the audiences with some thrilling plays that will be performed in a serene and beautiful location that is so close to nature.

Apart from Badungduppa Kalakendra, other theatre groups like West Bengal's Santipur Sanskritik, Bangladesh's Sadhona, Odisha's Taranga Theatre and Manipur's Khoripabha Artist's Association will also be showcasing their plays in the upcoming theatre festival, with nature serving as the prop.

On the first day, Badungduppa Kalakendra's 'Kukuiraja' and 'Rakto Upakhyan' by Kaushik Chatterjee will be shown. While the second day of the festival will showcase 'Seetar Agni Porikha' by Naznin Hasan Chumki and Anup Hazarika's 'Charandas Chor', the last day will display Gyanaranjan Sathua's 'A Night with Gandhi' and 'Meenai' by Ranabir Khoisnam.

The theatre festival was first held in 2008 and was started by the legendary theatre director from Manipur Heisnam Kanhailal. Theatre groups from Europe and Latin American countries have participated in the event's previous editions. The festival is also a campaign against global warming, the ever-increasing human-animal conflict and plastic menace.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal recently visited Badungduppa Kalakendra and met the artistes.

assamese short film shines in iran

'Kaan Phusphusot Phusphusoni' (Poetry of Whispers), a short film by Assam's Maharshi Tuhin Kashyap, bagged the Best Student Film (Fiction) award at the International Moving Film Festival (IMFF) in Iran recently.

'Kaan Phusphusot Phusphusoni' was selected from 3046 entries that were received from across the globe. The 12th IMFF, held in Abadan in Iran, screened106 films, which were selected from 120 countries. Established by the International Moving Film School (IMOFIS), IMFF is an annual international event, where films of various independent filmmakers are screened.

The emotionless life of the city is seen to make people mentally distant from each other even though they live in the same space. Frustrated with his monotonous and melancholic life in a city-based hostel, Biswa gets a call from his girlfriend Mukuta who has left for her native village in Assam. Mukuta's mother is no more and her father lives alone at home when she is away. During the phone conversation, Biswa realises the contrasting difference between Mukuta's relationship with her home and his own relationship with his city life. He finds it interesting enough to make a film out of it.

The film's artistes includes Maitri Das, Eemon Ray and Apurba Saha. While Akashnadh N.U is the director of photography, the sound has been designed by Piousmon Sunny and the editing is executed by Ashik Sarkar.

'Kaan Phusphusot Phusphusoni' also bagged the third prize at the Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival (BVFF) this year. The film also received the Best Director Award at the Cotton Fiesta Festival, held in Cotton College, Guwahati. It was also screened at the Dehradun International Film Festival and the Short Film Festival on Cultural Diversity and Peace, which took place at the Dhaka University in Bangladesh.

An alumnus of Girijananda Chowdhury Institute of Management and Technology (GIMT), Tezpur, the short film's director Maharshi Tuhin Kashyap is currently a student at the well-known Satyajit Ray Film And Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata.

assam's bhaona performed in dubai

Almost 500 years after Saint-reformer Srimanta Sankardeva's creation 'Bhaona', Assam's mythological folk theatre has now entered into the global arena with an English avatar.

A creation of the 16th century by Saint-reformer Srimanta Sankardeva, the 'Bhaona' was a form to convey religious messages to villagers through entertainment, primarily staged at 'Namghar' (places of worship) and 'Xatras' (Vaishnavite monasteries).

Some special features of 'Bhaona' include plays, dialogues, costumes, ornaments, entry and foot-steps of the characters and Assam's river island district Majuli is known for Vaishnavite culture and Bhaona.

50-year-old Arup Saikia – a resident of Jamugurihat in Assam's Sonitpur district and his two sisters Girimallika Saikia and Gitimallika Baidya have created a unique form of 'Bhaona' in the English language aiming to attract the global audience.

Recently, a team of 40 artistes including local musicians – the gaayan (singers) and baayan (instrumentalists), led by Arup Saikia performed 'Bhaona' in Dubai and highlighted the rich treasure of Assamese culture. It is for the first time that Assam's Bhaona has been performed in English on a global stage - an initiative of 'Prajanma Unmesh', a socio-cultural organisation of Assam that endeavours to popularise the Vaishnava theatrical performance for global art connoisseurs, and familiarise them with Assamese culture and traditions.

"Bhaona is a unique cultural tradition created by Saint Sankardeva about 500 years ago. But gradually, the popularity of Bhaona is diminishing. We are trying to preserve this unique culture of Assam by performing in English language other than Brajavali – the original language of Sankardeva. We are attempting to keep the theme of Bhaona intact by using the songs, tune, raag and taal of Bhaona," Arup Saikia said.