Jorhat, Sept. 25: In Search of God, a film on Majuli made by California-based Rupam Sarmah, has bagged the Best Documentary award at the Third International Indian Film Festival in Houston in the US.
The award was given to Sarmah, hailing from Jorhat, during a function on the concluding day of the festival on Saturday night and was attended by celebrities like Shabana Azmi, Gulshan Grover, Ellen Goldberg and director P. Nair. The film festival was held from September 21 to 24.
The 70-minute English documentary-cum-feature film was among the 12 shortlisted out of 82 international entries. All the shortlisted films were screened this week in front of packed audiences and jury members to select the final winners.
More than 3,000 people attended the film festival. Some of the nominated films included I am Kalam, A Decent Arrangement, In Search of God, Fatakra Fire Crackers, Desperate Endeavours, Delhi In A Day, It’s Cricket, No?, The Eclipse of Targenia, Khara Karodpati.
“I would like to dedicate this award to the people of Assam. I have spent almost three years making this film and gone through many challenges ...Finally, my hard work paid off. I want to thank the people of Assam and Majuli for making this film a reality. I also want to thank my film crew in the US, Calcutta and Chennai, who have contributed towards making the film. I am thrilled to receive this award. This is a motivation for me,” Sarmah told The Telegraph in an e-mail today.
Sarmah, a computer engineer based in Sacramento, has also done the music and sound design for the film. He said he wanted to do something good for his country and had a lot more to learn and do in the future.
He said the film had created lot of controversies after its release on September 23. Some US critics had asked why would people leave a rich country and travel to a remote island like Majuli to find happiness and purpose in life. This must be propaganda and staged, they commented.
“Money cannot buy lasting happiness, it comes from purity of heart and mind. Once you reach that level, you will find God within yourself. I am not promoting Hinduism, Christianity or Buddhism here...It does not matter what religion you belong to. Human beings need to understand the difference between love and hatred,” Sarmah said.
He said New York Times’s well known critique Rachael Saltz commented, “Rupam is not afraid to ask life’s big questions — What’s the purpose of life? What happens after death? ...Lovely, artfully crafted photography...Sarmah nicely captures the performers.”
