Guwahati: National award-winning Assamese film, Maj Rati Keteki, directed by Santwana Bordoloi, will release in Assam on Friday.

Lead actor Adil Hussain won the award for best actor in a regional film for 2016.

This is Bordoloi's second film, while her 1998 debut film Adajya, based on Indira Goswami's novel Dontal Haatir Uiye Khuwa Haoda, had also bagged the best regional film award in 1997.

The film will be released in 29 cinema halls in the state. "A creative mind discerns human anguish even in the midnight cries of keteki birds. In the film, lead character Priyendu Hazarika, who is an author, returns after a long absence to his hometown where he was once inspired to begin his writing career. The book at times imitates the author's life. Memories stir and he remembers people he loved and lost. He admits to lacking the courage to weave the painful, harsh truth in his stories. At the end of the day, however, he decides to face his own truth, alone and away from the appreciative audience," Bordoloi said.

"There is no concrete story in the film. I did not think about the storyline before writing the screenplay. The film depicts the psychology of a man with an artistic mind. Generally an artiste's mind is very sensitive. They see the world with a different perspective. Everything is different for them."

Responding to the question about why there has been a huge time gap between her two films, Bordoloi said, "Directing films is not a money-making business for me. After making the first one, in the past 20 years, I have watched many good films from various countries and also studied the subject. But in every moment a seed of my own film was always in my mind." A Guwahati-based paediatrician by profession, Bordoloi is also famous as a radio and theatre artiste in Assam.

Maj Rati Keteki is a 116-minute drama, starring Hussain, Pranami Bora, Kulada Kumar Bhattacharya and others. The only song in the film is sung by Rupam Bhuyan with Anurag Saikia's music.

"I have faced many problems from hall owners while releasing the film. Some of them don't want to screen Assamese films, saying it has no audience," the director told The Telegraph just 12 hours before the release of the film.

The production cost of the film is around Rs 50 lakh.