NEW DELHI, Feb 14 � Legendary singer-composer Bhupen Hazarika has given voice to a new Bollywood movie which will see veteran actor Victor Banerjee in the role of a Gandhian.
The Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner, who had not recorded any song in the last four years due to his health before resuming singing recently, has sung the title poem of the bilingual film �As the River Flows� (Hindi) and �Ekhon Nedekha Nadir Xipaare� (Assamese).
The rich culture and lifestyle of the famous Vaishnavite centres in the world�s biggest inhabited riverine island Majuli will be the theme of the movie which is believed to have been inspired by ULFA�s abduction and killing of social activist Sanjay Ghose.
The film boasts of a cast like Sanjay Suri (in the lead role), Raj Zutshi, Nakul Vaid, Naved Aslam and Priti Jhangiani. Veteran Assamese actor Indra Bania will also act in the film which is in the post-production stage. The music is by Zubin Garg, who will play a cameo.
What is special about the poem, written by the film�s director Bidyut Kotoky, is that it speaks the voice of the river, and its disillusionment with what is happening along its banks over the years. The poem was recorded in Mumbai on February 10. �Bhupenda was simply great in this title poem which will have background music,� Kotoky told PTI.
According to him, this is also the first time that Hazarika and Zubin have come together in a film. Hazarika is regarded as perhaps the only living balladeer in the country, composing his own lyrics and music. He has been a poet, journalist, singer, lyricist, musician, filmmaker, writer and politician.
Hazarika�s long-time associate Kamal Kataki, who was present during the recording, says this is almost after 20 years that the balladeer has recited a poem for a film. �Bhupenda featured in the �Phir mile sur� commercial and now he has come up with this recital,� says Kataki.
The film�s story is of a journalist named Abhijit Shandilya (Suri) who is caught in a multi-layered world of intriguing happenings in Majuli.
The National Film Development Corporation of India-produced movie is a socio-political thriller and talks of social conflicts and individual commitments in an age where the society has become so self-centred.
�The script consciously avoids taking ideological sides. It is not an effort to promote either the government�s or the extremist�s point of view. It is a film about common people stuck in uncommon circumstances,� Kotoky says.
�There are indirect references to the Sanjay Ghose killing in the story, though it has nothing to do directly with that incident,� he says.
Ghose, secretary of NGO AVARD-NE, arrived in Assam in 1996 and was working for development of Majuli. He was abducted by ULFA cadres on July 4, 1997 and his body was recovered from the Brahmaputra river.
The film, set in the current socio-political scenario of Assam and having the treatment of a political thriller, has been shot in Majuli and other locations in the State.
�Ninety five per cent of the film has been shot in Assam and the rest in Mumbai,� Kotoky, who is making his feature film debut with this film, says.
He had earlier won a Special Jury Mention at the 53rd National Film Awards for his documentary �Bhraimoman Theatre Where Othello Sails with Titanic�. He has also made a documentary on Majuli earlier. � PTI
