PROJECT DESH (2016)
WHAT IS PROJECT DESH?
desh dɛʃ/ noun INDIAN a person's or a people's native land.
Produced by Kahini Media
In a world that is increasingly made smaller by globalization, time and space have moved to a new level of intimacy and homogeneity. In the midst of this, are the people that were actually from the same land, with a deeply shared sense of space and time, that have now been thrust into strange lands and stranger customs. This is the beginning of a diaspora. The diaspora is probably an important, if not the most important element of 21st century demographics. Within it are feelings and yearnings for homeland, alienation, suffering, nostalgia and of course the happy situation of an immigrant’s dream. Project Desh is a platform for dialogue of the Assamese diaspora, a cross-geographical exchange of ideas. We start this journey with five ‘slice of life’ films in contemporary Assam, with five budding directors. The five short films that kickoff Project Desh are Bheku Bhaona by Sagar Saurav,Rong by Ajit Giri, Chaatak By Srishti Shreyam, Modaar by Amrita Goswami, Red +Yellow = by Snehankar. A slice of life presentation, these films question the Assamese conscience.
Bheko Bhaona by Sagar Saurabh
Introducing Sagar Saurabh and his short film Bheko Bhaona (Much Ado About Nothing) as the first film of the five part series. Growing up in the pristine countryside of Assam, Sagar Saurabh focuses on the languid ease of Assamese rural life and the essence of a delicately touched land of the past. His writing is rich with Assamese folklore and regional trivia, serendipity and idiosyncrasy, which is true to the valley of Assam. Bheko Bhaona is his attempt in his classic ‘son of the soil’ style to portray the story around a certain comedy of errors that unfolds in his native village. An unfolding story of a culture rich with increasing self importance and bloated egos in a land which stands for quite the opposite – green, lush and ever forgiving without asking for anything in return.
Rang by Ajit Giri
Introducing Ajit Giri and his short film Rong (Colors) as the second film of the five part series. Living in the grittiness of the Guwahati metro region, Ajit often speaks about the starkness of urban life which is increasingly becoming a grey and polluted metaphorical landscape. His films are ripe with commentary that come from unexpected corners and experimental sources Rong is his attempt at storytelling where he mixes up cinema completely to create his own unique language of cinema. Noir and blanc elements mix up his canvas and create works of art that is nowhere to be seen in the filmmaking of the Assam valley.
Chatak by Shrishti Shreyam
Introducing Srishti Shreyam and her short film Chaatak as the third film of the five part series. Growing up in an increasingly changing socio-political landscape, Srishti has incorporated gender into the equation in her studies. Complexities sore as the variables become one too many and the stage opens up for a full discourse of a women’s needs and wants. Chaatak is her attempt at storytelling where she incorporates all these elements and we are thrust into the world of a modern young women in a society that is moving at lightspeed and her own search for she wants rightfully and her supposed attempt to go from incompleteness to fulfillment.
Modar by Amrita Goswami
Introducing Amrita Goswami and her short film Modar (The exiled) as the fourth film of the five part series. Growing up in Dhubri in Assam, she has a deep grasp of acceptance, tolerance and the humane aspects of demographics that is way more than what her young shoulders can carry. The world in full of movement today. What was home yesterday is a flooded plain today. What was once thought of as an identity proof has become a null and void document today. Where does identity start and end? Topography? Fingerprints? Or just plain political scheming? Modar is her attempt at stortytelling about two families at the crossroads of love, longing and belonging. After all when the very ground under our feet becomes a moving target, what do we hold on to?
Red Plus Yellow by Snehankar
Introducing Snehankar and his short film Red + Yellow = as the fifth and final film of the five part series. Assam is at the crossroads today. The euphoria of newly found patriotism, the claustrophobia of meaningless ritualistic observations, the hype surrounding every little news item. All much ado about nothing. Our long-term vision has been sacrificed to ape, repeat, loop and be in sync with bourgeoisie mediocrity. Red + Yellow = is Snehankar’s attempt at surrealism. Inspired by Samadura Kajal Saikia’s poem ‘Desh’, Shehankar is attempting to open up a dialogue about the hydra-headed monster that we all have chosen to become as a state. My singular use of the word monster (versus plural) is by pure intent.