At the 50th years of Manipuri Cinema celebration!

James Khangenbam *

Rashi and Child Artist Leikhendra, a scene from Imagi Ninghem

The year 2022 marked the 50th year of Manipuri Cinema.

A yearlong celebration with screening of films, hosting an international film festival, launching of Cine Archive, Cinematography Lab, Edit Lab, discussions, Imphal Documenter and felicitation of various artists were conducted by Manipur State Film Development Society in collaboration with film societies and Directorate of Film Festival, Government of India.

The footfall of the celebration were a record breaking as many cine lovers turn up despite screenings being held almost every day throughout months except for a few months halt due to Covid outbreak.

The audiences were stirred up to a participatory mode when the moderator and the audience put questions to the film directors in the post screening discussion. And that is when artistic sensibilities of various filmmakers including legendary filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma were made public.

For Pabung Aribam Syam Sharma, he does a lot of research with the characters of his film and chooses the actors accordingly.

He felt that a bachelorette cannot play the role of the main protagonists Ekashini in his film Imagi Ningthem as the love of a mother for her children has to come out in the film. Likewise the character Tampha in his film Ishanou has to be taken up by someone who is very close to the maibi cult.

For acclaimed filmmaker Rima Das from Assam ,she cannot think about working in a big crew. Her comfort is in a smaller crew. She is a self taught cinematographer and film director but wishes to learn cinematography formally in future.

Renowned film maker Pardip Kurbah from Meghalaya follows a unique way of filmmaking as he does a demo filmmaking with the characters of his film before making the actual film. And most of the film crews he works with are from the North East region.

More so, in the concluding event of the Golden Jubilee celebration of Manipuri Cinema, Cine Actors guild staged a well choreographed film song and dance performance.

Attired in the costume of 1972 A.D to the latest clothing trend, the actors gave an energetic performance to the tune of old film songs and latest film songs. The lyrics of the song, dialogue, body movement and hairstyle differ to a great deal. The recap actual helps in observing the changes the society had gone through in the last 50 years.

In fact, cinema is a powerful medium which records the culture and tradition of a society with the passing of time.