AND SHE ROCKS
ASSAMESE FILMMAKER RIMA DAS IS FEELING A TAD OVERWHELMED. SHE ONLY FINISHED HER SECOND FEATURE, VILLAGE ROCKSTARS, A FEW MONTHS AGO, AND SHE’S ALREADY RAKING IN PRIZES.
After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Village Rockstars won best Indian film and two other prizes at the recently concluded Mumbai Film Festival, where it drew comparisons with Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali. Like Ray, she’s something of an auteur. Das did everything but star in the film—writing, directing, filming, editing and producing it.
Following 10-year-old Dhunu (Das’s niece Bhanita) who aspires to own a guitar and start a band with her mostly male friends, it features postcard-perfect cinematography and charming, artless performances by a cast of untrained child actors from her native village—nine of whom Das brought with her to Mumbai for the India premiere. For many, it was the first time they had left their hometown Chhaygaon or travelled in an airplane. Set against Assam’s beatific rural landscape, Village Rockstars offers a heart-warming and poignant portrait of childhood, as well as a moving depiction of the impoverished life of Dhunu and her widowed mother (played by Bhanita’s own mother Basanti). The film will close the Dharamshala International Film Festival and compete at the International Children’s Film Festival 2017 (November 8-14).
Das shot the film for 150 days across four years, working around her young cast’s school hours and the changing weather. It was while filming for her first feature, Man with the Binoculars (2016), also set in Chhaygaon, that Das met the kids who she says taught her “to unlearn”. “These kids became my crew and support system,” says Das, who has no formal training in filmmaking. “They believed in me and the film and that’s why we are here.” Shot in natural light, set predominantly outdoors and made with only Das’s 20-year-old cousin,
Mallika, as crew, Village Rockstars represents the true power of India’s independent cinema movement. To have greater creative control, Das made the film with her own limited funds.
Born in Chhaygaon to a teacher father and a mother who runs a printing press, Das graduated from Cotton College in Guwahati and then did her masters in sociology from Pune University. From there, she moved to Mumbai in 2003 to pursue her childhood passion for acting. But breaking into the business wasn’t easy. “My look, my language were different,” says Das. “I wasn’t brave enough to handle the pressure. I felt like a nobody.” She made ends meet by doing ad films, modelling and winning a few roles in serials. And she gave herself an education in world cinema through the films of Wong Kar Wai, Terrence Malick, Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkvosky and Quentin Tarantino. Among Indian filmmakers, Ray remains a favourite. She made her first short, Pratha, in 2009 and bought a camera a year later.
The restrictions Dhunu faces once she hits puberty are drawn from Pratha. The simple aspirations of the kids are reminiscent of Iranian films like Children of Heaven and Offside. Like the protagonists in them, Dhunu is spirited, not losing hope even as she is confronted by poverty and subsequently floods. Apart from celebrating Dhunu’s passion for adventure and discovery, Das salutes the resilience of motherhood and the tenderness of the motherdaughter bond. Das’s upbringing was more privileged, but she says she did channel her self-belief to Dhunu. “When I started out, my dream was for my film to travel to every corner of the world,” says Das. Her journey to international acclaim and Village Rockstars’ winning ways are proof that dreams do come true.
“THE KIDS BELIEVED IN ME AND THE FILM, AND THAT’S WHY WE’RE HERE”