Homage to a master: Children pray before Bhabendranath Saikia’s portrait at Aarohan on his last death anniversary. Picture by Eastern Projections

Aug. 9: Jahnu Barua, usually not one to give in to tears, cried when he watched Anirbaan. Especially the scene where the protagonist, having lost his family, uproots a tree he himself had planted in his garden.

“This proves the measure of the scene’s poignancy and the degree of the film’s sensitivity,” that is how Barua describes Anirbaan, the film directed by avant-garde filmmaker Bhabendranath Saikia.

The film bagged the prestigious Rajat Kamal at the National Film Awards in 1981.

Now, the screenplay of Anirbaan will be unveiled in a book form at Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra on Monday, on the fourth death anniversary of the filmmaker on August 13.

Film critic Utpal Dutta has edited the book.

Kalakshetra, in association with Aarohan, a children’s home and the brainchild of Saikia, has lined up a series of events, along with the book release, to commemorate the occasion.

“Anirbaan, with its strong storyline and visual excellence is a treat for any film buff. Screenplays were always the strength of Saikia Sir’s films. I have decided to edit the screenplay of the film with an attempt to establish the fact that screenplay also has literary value. I firmly believe that screenplay has its own structure and form and a distinct literary value,” said Dutta.

The critic is working on the screenplays of the other six Assamese films made by Saikia.

Saikia’s film oeuvre includes Sandhyarag (Rajat Kamal, 1978), Anirbaan (Rajat Kamal, 1981), Agnisnan, Kolahal, Sarothi, Abartan, Itihaas and one Hindi film, Kalsandhya.

City-based publishing house Students’ Store has published Anirbaan’s screenplay.

“We are happy that along with commemorating the day with the children of Aarohan, we will be unveiling the screenplay of one of the greatest milestones of Assamese cinema,” said an official of the Kalakshetra.

“A number of events, including recitation, painting and drawing competitions, have been arranged. We have also invited luminaries from the film and literary worlds to be part of the function,” the official added.

Saikia is also recognised as one of the top-ranking writers of Assam.

Many of his stories have been translated into English, Bengali, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi and Gujarati.

He had also written a large number of plays for All India Radio (AIR). His films, Kolahal, Durbiksha and Itihaas were also broadcast as plays on AIR. He has been associated with the stage as a playwright and director and has written many plays for Assamese mobile theatre and a number of one-act plays.

All his films have been screened at International Film Festivals in Chennai, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta, Karlovy Vary (Czechoslovakia), Nantes (France), Valladolid (Spain), Algiers (Algeria), Pyongyong (North Korea), Sydney, Munich, Montreal and Toronto. He has also directed one episode of a Doordarshan series on Rabindranath Tagore’s stories in Hindi.

Seven out of his eight films were selected for the Indian Panorama Section of the International Film Festival of India.