Bobby Sarma Baruah’s New Film 'Mishing' is an Attempt at Preserving the Sherdukpen Dialect

Bobby Sarma Baruah’s New Film 'Mishing' is an Attempt at Preserving the Sherdukpen Dialect
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Guwahati: Noted Assamese filmmaker Bobby Sarma Baruah is known for her selection of out-of-the-box concepts for her movies and the latest film directed by the filmmaker also hints at the unveiling of something unique and interesting. This time as well, Baruah did not disappoint her audiences as the latest movie by her ‘Mishing’ portrays the Sherdukpen ethnic group of Arunachal Pradesh with a glimpse of their local dialects which will certainly be a completely new experience for the audiences.

As stated by the filmmaker herself, through her film she is making an attempt at preserving Arunachal Pradesh’s Sherdukpen dialect which is on the verge of extinction. Baruah, while speaking about the film at the 24th Kolkata International Film Festival states, “In India, we have so many dialects, different cultures, and tradition. Through this film, it is my intent to preserve the dialect.”

Bobby Sarma Baruah's film ‘Mishing’ is being screened in the competition section under Indian languages film category of the film festival. As stated by her, there are around 4,000 people who used to speak the Sherdukpen dialect once but today almost half of them have forgotten it. As a local dialect of an Arunachal Pradesh tribe, it is a must for the natives only to try to preserve their language which will be extinct from this earth one day, if being continued to be neglected. She also said how challenging a task it was for her to make the film in a language which is not her mother-tongue and nor is she accustomed to it. It took a long and tiring research for almost two years for her to be acquainted with the language and also to get familiar with the culture.

The base of the movie is Sahitya Akademi award-winning author Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi’s novel which also bears the same title as Mishing. Shot in the scenic locations of Arunachal Pradesh, the film shows how a Manipuri driver meets a Sherdukpen man. Other locally found things like a local belief about spirits of dead people appearing and trying to communicate with their loved ones are also portrayed in the film.

Rajiv Kro, playing the role of the Manipuri driver in the film, says, “For me also it was difficult to learn the dialogues in the dialect. As a protagonist, this is my first film though I have done roles in almost 26 feature films.”

Kro also added that despite being a cardiac patient he took up the challenge and played the role of the protagonist in the film as the role given to him was pretty good, saying, “Accha character milne se sab bimaari bhi door ho jaata hai (illness disappears if a good role comes across).”

Baruah further adds about the film that, “There we make low budget films. It is not that we compromise with our equipment.. They are of good quality but the people are very helpful as they take very less remuneration.”

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