A still from Arup Manna?s Aideu

June 19: As a 15-year-old stepping into a domain no Assamese woman had trod before, Aideu Handique made history in 1934 and paid a heavy price for it.

Over seven decades later, veteran director Arup Manna is making a film on the pioneering Assamese actress ? a saga of a teenaged girl who dared to dream, was ostracised by society for doing so and died a lonely, disillusioned woman in 2002.

Aideu played the role of Joymoti in the Jyotiprasad Agarwalla film of the same name ? it is also the first film made in Assamese ? and was, by all accounts, a natural actress. But the repercussions of defying society and acting in a film tore her personal life asunder.

Aideu died a spinster because nobody had the spunk to marry an actress at the risk of angering the conservative Assamese society of the time. Manna saw in her loneliness and despair a truly tragic story, one that he hopes to bring alive on the big screen.

Titled Aideu, Manna?s venture is neither a feature film nor a documentary. ?It is an experimental film in the sense that we have mixed reality with a little bit of story-telling,? Manna said about the film, to be released shortly.

Aideu herself appears in the biographical saga, shooting for which began just before her death. A crop of budding performers is in the film, including Chandana Sarma in the lead role and Prasanta Kumar Das as Jyotiprasad. The only known face is actor Rabi Sarma, who makes an appearance in a ?guest role?.

Manna described Aideu as the ?real tragic heroine? of Assamese filmdom. ?We have left no stone unturned to show her life as it was...how she came in contact with Jyotiprasad and how her decision to work against the diktat of society made her an outcast,? the director said.

Joymoti will be screened at the second edition of a film festival, Bollywood and Beyond, in Stuttgart from July 12. The festival is organised by a non-profit organisation, Filmburo, to popularise Indian films in Germany.

Several of the reels of Joymoti were lost over the years, but Jyotiprasad?s brother Hridayananda managed to retrieve seven. Filmmaker Altaf Mazid has converted these seven reels into DVD format by re-arranging the sequences. Mazid?s film is among 25 other Indian films selected for the festival.

In a communiqu? to Mazid, Filmburo?s executive director Wiebke Anna Charlotte Reiss paid tribute to Joymoti. ?It is really important to screen this unique film,? she said.

The film festival?s official website describes Jyotiprasad?s opus as ?the first movie about Indian realism?.