A still from an Assamese film. Picture by S.H. Patgiri

The recent national film awards were very encouraging for Assam. Director Sanjib Sabha Pandit?s Juye Poora Soon bagged the award for the best film on environment conservation and preservation. Filmmaker Jahnu Barua is back in action with his Tora being adjudged the best children?s film. The award for the best regional feature film went to Aakashitorar Kothare, directed by Manju Borah, while the award for the best female playback singer went to Tarali Sarma.

Though this indicates a new dynamism and hope for Assamese cinema, all is not well going by the latest shape of things. There is a decline in viewership and the film industry, with its chequered existence (with just above 300 movies made in 69 years), is still at a critical juncture.

For the past three decades, the film scene in Assam has been to a great extent commercial in character. New producers, aiming at making quick bucks, started making films for viewers to whom cinema was defined by emotions and melodrama. The filmgoers, too, who had already developed a taste for Hindi masala movies, longed for similar recipes in Assamese movies to satiate their fantasies. While one or two run-of-the-mill Assamese movies did manage to hit the jackpot, most of the movies failed to recover the investment. Producers, dishing out the monotonous fare, faced the music when the audience started asking for more than the repetitive stock ingredients.

There was lack of variety in Assamese films, which were generally not based on stories that the viewers could easily identify with. Take, for example, the 16 films made in the language in 2003, including Arpan, Agnisakshi, Patni, Hit List, Ma, Priya Milan, Juman Suman, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Bandhan, Bidhata, Jona Bihin Jivan, Saru Bowari, Prem Bhora Sakulu, Ujanir Dujani Gabharu, Akashi Torar Kathare and Hepaah. Of these, at least 12 were mixtures of romance, comedy, emotions and melodrama, inspired by the candifloss romance of commercial Bollywood. The three movies that did relatively well last year were Bidhata, Saru Bowari and Ujanir Dujani Gabharu.

Assamese cinema has also become monotonous with the same handful of actors and actresses appearing in almost all films. The producers are stuck with the same artistes for want of fresh talent and their inability to experiment with newcomers.

The filmmakers dished out movies that the viewers from the rural and semi-urban communities could not identify with. This is another reason for the general anathema shown by the masses towards their ?own? films: observes a school of thought.

Despite initial promises, Assamese cinema has failed to evolve an image for itself as it incorporated into itself a trend that did not have anything to do with the cultural code of local society. This trend has been continuing for over three decades now. As an art, Assamese cinema had the potential to flourish beyond the urban hothouse. On the occasion of the golden jubilee celebration of Assamese cinema in 1986, the state government declared a policy to set up mini cinemas in the rural areas. But things have not moved an inch beyond that.

Among the other adversities the film industry has found too difficult to negotiate with is the viewer?s new-found fixation with the CDs of Hindi films.

The trend has increased with the mushrooming of video parlours in every nook and corner of the state. Pirated CDs of the latest productions are easily available in the market and the frequent exposure of the viewers to Bollywood fares at negligible prices have led to distortion of the taste of the audiences at all levels.

The deterioration of law and order all over the state, particularly in the Brahmaputra valley, has played spoilsport to the film enthusiasts. The latest developments in this sphere have compounded the despondency of Assamese film producers. Several halls in the state have downed their shutters to escape the wrath of rebels.

Militants tried to rip apart the veneer of peace in Assam by striking at three cinema halls in Simaluguri, Tinsukia and Nagaon over the past three months. Such incidents triggered a fear psychosis among the viewers, which has led to a phenomenal decline in viewership.

Adding to these woes is the state government?s lack of sincere will to implement policies to improve the status of the film industry. The government, for instance, has a standing policy of returning the amount collected as entertainment tax from an Assamese movie in the first year of its release, but there are allegations of irregularity in these cases, too. Jyoti Chitraban, the only film studio in the Northeast constituted with financial grants from the government, is also grappling with various adversities.

Investment for production of an Assamese film amounts to about Rs 40 lakh and most producers fear to tread this path for uncertainty in the recovery of the production cost. This is evident in the fact that only a handful of films is currently on the sets.

A section of producers blame Guwahati Doordarshan for its reversal of policy on the telecast of Assamese movies. Earlier, they could bank on the kendra to screen their films and partially recover their losses. There are only 124 cinemas in the state as against the 2,335 in a state like Andhra Pradesh. In the towns of Barak valley, Hindi and Bengali films are mostly screened.

The state government passed an order making it mandatory for all halls to screen at least 150 shows of regional films in a year, though it is alleged that many of the hall owners flout the norm.

In technology, however, Assamese cinema has made quantum leaps.

Filmmaker Hemen Das suggests that to cope with the spiralling production cost, the government should come up with a policy of 50 per cent reduction in entertainment tax on tickets for films produced in the state. ?Such a step will increase the demand for the regional movies in the state and encourage production of movies,? he said. The number of films produced in the state has increased over the past 30 years.

However, a new genre of cinema has evolved parallel to commercial films over the past three decades. A handful of filmmakers started making films to enrich the quality of life. It was through Padum Baruah?s Ganga Silanir Pakhi in 1976 that Assamese cinema began to script a new chapter.

Barua?s film, a revolt against cinema defined only by emotions and melodrama, of course could not pull the audiences, but it was a landmark in Assamese cinema. The luminaries, who later took the path carved out by Baruah, were Bhabendranath Saikia, Jahnu Baruah, Gautam Bora, Sanjeeb Hazarika, Santwana Bordoloi, Manju Bora and Bidyut Chakravarty. With their contributions Assam witnessed a renaissance in the making of reality films.

Late Bhabendranath Saikia once said. ?Good films are part of our heritage and bring in glory for the country. The government knows that these films do not get enough response from all sections of society, but should we let them die just because of that??