The song of defiance

Kongbrailatpam Rajeshwar Sharma *

Boong : A Manipuri film ; Director: Lakshmipriya Devi :: Pix - MSFDS / Suitable Pictures

On the 15th of February this year, one week before Boong was announced in London the winner of BAFTA award in children and family category, the film was shown in Singapore at the Indian Film Festival organized by the Singapore Film Society and Indian Embassy. My son, who works at an MNC in Singapore, called me that evening and said that he had just seen the Manipuri film Boong at Suntec City, Singapore.

It was said that the film Boong was nice and unique, and it was shown again in the city State on popular demand on the 8th of March, 2026. Since then I have been longing to see the film. Fortunately the film was released all over India this month and the people are given the opportunity to see the film.

Now it is being shown in Imphal too at Tanthapolis and Kumecs. And so did I see the film that not only won BAFTA award but also became the first Indian film which was screened in the discovery section of the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024.

Boong which is said to be a film “rooted in a place which is very troubled, very much ignored and very unrepresented in India” is not only a children’s film but it is also a social satire.

On the surface, the film is about a boy, Boong, whose father, L Joykumar Singh, has gone missing. He left home for Moreh to work but never came back. Joykumar is subsequently assumed to be dead. But his wife, Mandakini, and his son cannot accept the assumption.

Boong still believes that his father is alive and working at Moreh. So he leaves home with his best friend, Raju, in search of his father on the pretext of an educational tour to Ukhrul with their teacher.

Apart from her sadness, Mandakini, the young mother, faces the scorns and sneers of society and she struggles alone to bring her son up. Besides being a single parent, she sells clothes at market like other Manipuri women,.

The beauty of the film lies not only in the story but also in the portrayal of hypocrisy of Manipuri society. Underneath the surface of the story lies the hypocrisy of Manipuri society that the film tries to bring to light. Rather than helping Mandakini find her missing husband, her brother-in-law, his wife and other neighbors spy on her.

They want her to live an austere life like a widow. They even frown at her dancing at Yaoshang and sneer at her when she has a chat with Sudhir Agarwal, Raju’s father, who is considered to be an outsider though he was born and grew up in Manipur.

But the woman folk turn a blind eye to the misdeeds of her brother-in-law who always gets drunk. He even manages to get a death certificate of Joykumar from the corrupt Pradhan who runs a clandestine video parlor and booze joint. The women overlook the misdeeds and immoralities of these men while they try to moral-police Mandakini.

There is a streak of defiance in the film Boong. Mandakini is a young mother of a strong, fearless character whose intuition cannot accept that her husband has died. She hopes that her husband will come back home one day. So does her young son Boong. She even refuses to sell a beautiful half sari and saves it for herself perhaps to wear it when her husband comes back.

“Mom, wear the half sari when papa comes back” says Boong to his mother on their way back home from the market. In spite of her refusal to accept the death certificate of her husband who is assumed to be dead, Mandakini’s brother-in-law and his family perform the Shradha of Joykumar. At the height of the plot of the story, Mandakini goes to the place where the Shradha is being performed.

Wearing their best clothes which are meant to be worn at marriage ceremonies, Manda- kini along with her son walk hurriedly into the Mandop to defy everyone attending the Shradha ceremony and takes away her husband’s framed photograph. “You celebrate your own Shradha!” shouts Manda-kini angrily and leaves the place.

Like waves that keep coming towards the shore, the rhythm of the story moves on till Boong and Raju cross over to Tamu from Moreh where Boong’s father, Joykumar, is believed to be working. The search for his father at Moreh leads Boong and Raju to JJ’s stage performance where Joy, a transgender, sings a song of defiance while dancing gracefully.

It would not be an exaggeration to describe it as rebellion against restrictive rules imposed on the people particularly women in Manipuri society. The song in the film highlights how Manipuri young women, girls and trans-gender are treated and suppressed.

“I’m dancing /
Because I like to dance. /
I don’t care /
No matter what you say /
If you throw me into the river, /
I will come up with a fish. /
If you throw me into the fire, /
I will come out with a lit cigarette. /
I will sport my lips deep red, /
I don’t care /
No matter what you say”

Not only are these lines defiant but they also tell us that no restrictions or restrictive conditions, how harsh they may be, can suppress any Manipuri woman.

Besides the innocence of a boy and his longing to be with his missing father, the film also highlights the moral bankruptcy in Manipuri society. No man with deep sense of morality would ever leave his young wife and son, and live with another woman. L Joykumar Singh, Boong’s father, might be taken as a typical Manipuri father who can leave his young wife and son to live with another woman.

In her film Boong, Laxmipriya Devi, the director, exposes the lies, hypocrisy and cruelty that are swept under the carpet. The same theme of immoral father can be found in Imagi Ningthem, another Mani-puri film that also won international fame in the early eighties.

One can also find somewhat similar theme in Sunflower, an English movie of 1970, where a young bride finds her long-lost husband living with a wife and daughter. Similarly Boong finds his long-lost father living with a wife and daughter at Tamu a small border town in Myanmar.

See a full Photo Gallery of 'Boong' here