Guwahati, Sep 15: Rajni Basumatary, a filmmaker and actor is proud of her latest work – Gorai Phakhri or Wild Swan, a Bodo language film. The film deals with patriarchy that is prevalent in society. Now, she gets a boost as Wild Swan has been selected to be premiered at the 42nd edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).
“Patriarchy is so deeply rooted in the culture that women themselves toe the line. This film is my humble effort to take forward the dialogue on the subject,” Rajni told The Assam Tribune in an interview.
The 95-minute film will be premiered at the VIFF on September 29 and it will have a repeat screening on the next day. The film is produced by Jani Viswanath, and co-produced by Rajni Basumatary under the banner of Manna Films.
This year, ‘Wild Swan’ is the only Indian feature film at the VIFF.
“I couldn’t have had a better festival than this to have our world premiere. VIFF is showcasing exceptional cinema in one of the world’s most beautiful cities. I feel excited and honoured just to have ‘Wild Swans’ (Gorai Phakhri) lined up along side films by some great directors whose films I have personally admired, including Oscar-winning Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car fame), veteran filmmaker Marco Bellocchio, Deepa Mehta and Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters fame),” Rajni who hails from Rangapara in Assam’s Sonitpur district added.
‘Wild Swans' explores interwoven stories about village women standing up against patriarchy in the armed conflict milieu of India's Northeast region.
“I myself belong to this region and like many other societies, we too are still struggling to come out of life living in patriarchal conditions. Our region has seen a great deal of conflicts between the state and separatist groups of even between different communities for the last few decades. Women suffer the most in conflict zones. This truth was reminded to us by what we saw happening with the women in Manipur recently. Women’s bodies are often used as pawns and battlefields,” Rajni who has played several key roles including Mary Kom’s mother in the boxer’s biopic, said.
The film features Helina Daimary, Sangeena Brahma, Mithinga Narzary and Anjali Daimari among others in the key roles. Interestingly, while there are no male characters physically present in the film, male voices have been cleverly employed to represent and portray certain characters.
She is also grateful to Jani Viswanath for agreeing to work with her on this project. The music was done by Avinash Baghel and Chida Bora is the cinematographer while the film was edited by Tinni Mitra.
“I would also like to thank Anjali Daimari and Shirish Jain for their enormous support,” she added.
Renowned sound designer Amrit Pritam and senior DI/colourist Sujit Borah, Hemanti Sarkar, Hemant Gaba and distinguished anthropologist Dolly Kikon helped Rajni with her script.
Rajni debuted as a director in 2014 with ‘Raag, The Rhythm of Love’, and followed it with ‘Jwlwi – The Seed’ in 2019. She has acted in a few highly successful films, including ‘Mary Kom’, ‘Shaukeens’, ‘III Smoking Barrels’, ‘Jwlwi – The Seed’ and Netflix series ‘Rana Naidu’.
