Syam Sharma's Ishanou selected for IFFI '12
Source: The Sangai Express / Manipur Info Centre

New Delhi, November 22 2012: It is a great honour to Manipuri cinema and a big salute to filmmakers, technicians and artistes involved in Manipuri film industry that the critically acclaimed Manipuri feature filmIshanou (1990), one of the masterpieces of Aribam Syam Sharma has been included among 27 Indian feature films to be screened at the Centenary Indian Cinema section of the 43rd International Film festival of India 2012 which is being held at Goa from November 20 to 30 .

Ishanou (Chosen One) was the official selection of the Government of India for screening at Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes International Film Festival 1991 and was the first ever film from the North East India showcased at the prestigious Cannes Festival.

The 91minute colour film tells an extraordinary story of a young wife (Anoubam Kiranmala) who suddenly begins to experience a series of fits and trances which the doctors cannot cure.

A small happy family, somewhere in the Manipur valley, a husband (Kangabam Tomba) and wife and their little girl (Baby Molly) under the caring and protective authority of a market woman (Manbi) broke up when Tampha, the young wife became possessed by the divinity of the mysterious Maibi phenomenon and went through a series of violent feats of vision and trance till she ran away from home in frantic nocturnal quest of her Maibi Guru for initiation into the sect of the chosen.

A scene from Ishanou

Magic and mystery broke upon the mundane world of buying and selling and common rituals like that of a young girl's ears being pierced and buying of a second hand scooter and a promotion in office bringing into play the world of the Maibis, with their exquisite ritual singing and dancing and worship and mythmaking.

But behind the colourful spectacle of traditional Lai Haraoba, into which Tampha almost lost herself in enraptured absorption, there lurked the pain of a mother who could no longer nurture a child who then grew into a stranger.

The film closed on those images of estrangement that almost stifles the sheer grandeur and glory of the ritual festival.

Eminent littérateur M.K.Binodini scripted with screenplay the story.

Girish Padhiar was the cameraman and Ujjwal Nandi was the editor.

The feature films selected for the package are Dhundiraj Govind Phalke's silent film-Raja Harischandra (1913), Franz Osten's Hindi Film-Achhut Kanya (1936), Vishnupam Govind Damle's HindiMarathi filmSant Tukaram (!936), Uday Shankar's Hindi filmKalpana (1948), S.S.Vasan's Tamil filmChandralekha(1948),Raj Kapoor's Hindi filmAwaara (1951), Satyajit Ray's Bengali filmPather Panchali (1955), Guru Dutt's Hindi FilmPyaasa (1956), K.Asif's Hindi-Urdu film-Mughal-E-Azam(1960), Ritwik Ghatak's Bengali filmMeghe Dhaka Tara (1960), Ramu Kariat's Malayalam filmChemmeen(1965), Mrinal Sen's Hindi filmBhuvan Shome (1969), Pattabhi Rama Reddy's Kannada filmSamskara (1970), Mani Kaul's Hindi filmDuvidha, Kamal Amrohi's Urdu filmPakeezah ((1971), M.S Sathyu's Hindi-Urdu filmGaram Hawa (1973), Ramesh Sippy's Hindi filmSholay(1975), Shyam Benegal's Hindi filmBhumika (1976), G.Aravindan's Malayalam filmThampu (1978), Adoor Gopalkrishnan's Elippathayam ( 1981), Dasari Narayana Rao's Telegu filmMegha Sandesam (1982), G.V.Iyer's Sanskrit filmAdi Shankaracharya (1983), Aribam Syam Sharma's Manipuri filmIshanou (1990), Ashutosh Gowariker's Hindi filmLagaan (2001), Mani Ratnam's Tamil filmKannathil Muthamittal (2001), Rajkumar Hirani's Hindi filmLage Raho Munnabhai and Anurag Basu's Hindi filmBarfi (2012) .