YARWNG (ROOTS)
India, 2007, 96 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Joseph Pulinthanath.
Yarwng is a significant films on many counts.
It was made with a mostly non-professional cast on location in tribal areas of North East India. It is the third film only to be made in the Kokborok language of the area – and one of the reasons for making the film was an attempt to preserve this language.
It was written and directed by a Salesian priest, Fr Joseph Pulinthanath, a native of Kerala who has worked in this area of India, Tripura state, for many years. In 2002, he released his first feature film, Mathia (The Bangle) filmed in the same area and under the same conditions. Mathia was received well and was screened at a number of Asian festivals, including the International Film Festival in Goa, 2004, the Kolkota Film Festival (2004) and the Dhaka International Film Festival in Bangladesh, January 2006. Beyond Asia, it won the Best Feature Film Award at the Niepokalanov International Film and Television Festival in Poland, 2003.
However, making a film is not easy when it comes to financing. Both Mathia and Yarwng received grants from a number of Catholic funding agencies. Substantial support came from Fr Joseph's congregation, the Salesians of Don Bosco. Amongst the other organisations which contributed to both films were SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication, The Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, Rome, and Mission, Aachen.
In going back into the tribal area for Yarwng, Fr Joseph wanted to tell a story about the upheaval that modern progress has caused for the life of the villagers. Projects like the building of a dam and the forced removal of the local people (seen in higher profile in films from China about the building of the Three Gorges Dam, Still Life and the Canadian documentary, Up the Yangtze) took place in India over the past thirty years. The locations for Yarwng are the area of such a dam and population displacement.
While so many films are worthy in their intentions, the questions for a film review must be asked 'how does this work as a film? How does it engage with its audience?'.
The answers for Yarwng are that it is an interesting and sadly entertaining film and that, by telling a story of real people, their lives, their relationships and their struggles, audiences are drawn into the issues via the story and the characters.
Yarwng opens with a tense situation in a household. A husband is complaining to his wife that he has heard gossip about her and he is upset. She patiently works and listens. She has been looking for an opportunity to talk to her husband about her past – and the film goes into flashback for her story. The next part of the film is a gentle love story even as it opens up the prospect of the dam nearing completion and the authorities trying to persuade a disbelieving people that they have to take their possessions (which are frugal) and leave for higher ground.
As with any film about a particular people, there is a great deal of local colour as we observe work in the fields, domestic situations, especially of ageing and illness, the celebration of a feast with food, song, dancing, the attempts of the local authority to make his presence felt but failing in the face of the police (and elephants brought in to crush homes) and their coercion in moving people on. Outsiders also try to swindle people out of their compensation money.
The move and the crisis in the intended groom's home concerning the health of the elderly means that the couple cannot say goodbye before they leave.
As the wife finishes her sad story for her husband, he goes to talk with the fiance and hears his story, so the audience sees the continuation of the story of the move and the waters rising.
The emotional response to these characters and their plight makes for a challenge to feelings and wondering how the difficulties could be resolved – or not.
Although the situation of local people having to migrate for a dam, for electricity and for benefits that the authorities speak about but which don't reach the people is a complex one, Yarwng is essentially a simple story about simple people and a simple way of life that serves as humane model for those whose lives get far more complicated.
This is a Catholic contribution to social awareness in a country that is principally Hindu, which has its Muslim minority and believers in local and traditional religions.
This was acknowledged by the cinema professionals of India when the film opened the Panorama section of the International Festival of India in Delhi 2008 and was awarded a jury prize. Screenings are anticipated in festivals during 2009, for instance, Brisbane. There will be a screening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in June.
1.The impact of this indigenous film? Awards?
2.The technical skill, the small budget, the location photography, the limited camerawork, the editing, the score?
3.The people of north-east India, tribal, their way of life, work, relationships? On the move? The consequences? The title and the breaking of roots? The song and the roots being snapped yet traces remaining?
4.The impact for Indian audiences, Asian, world audiences?
5.The introduction to Sukurai and Karmati? His complaint, her work and her patience? The situation, talking about the past, her telling her husband her story?
6.The scenes of work in the field, Karmati and her suggesting running away, Wakirhai and his not understanding? Her explaining the benefits? His looking for her in the fields, in the town? Her suggestion of a thrill – but joking?
7.The notice on the tree about the dam? The village people and life and their monotony, the cycle of planting and harvesting? Karmati and her talk about love? The lyrical scenes of the couple with the flowers?
8.The house, the household, Karmati’s parents, discussions about arranging the marriage, her hopes?
9.The pregnant woman, her husband doing the exercises? Their family?
10.The festival, the people on the move, drinking on the way, Wakirhai and Karmati and the gift of the earring?
11.The authoritarian father, the rules for the village? His son? Confronting the police?
12.The interruption of the celebration, the discussion about the dam, submerging the village, the need to move to the hills? The festival and the children, the trees, the people assembling, the preparation of the food, the music, the religious overtones, the girls and their dancing?
13.Ochai and the talk about burdens, bearing them, the burden of death?
14.The village people not believing the messenger about the dam and having to move? The optimistic reasons for the dam and the benefit for the people? The assembly in the village to hear the explanation? The discussions about current and electricity, water producing light, the people mystified? The times changing?
15.The people on the move? The family of the pregnant girl, discussions about going? The police arriving and pressurising people? Issues of compensation? The water rising and the girls in the water?
16.The marriage, the preparations, dress, jewels, food? The police knocking down the buildings? The water rising?
17.The separation of Karmati from Wakirhai? The reasons? Unable to say goodbye? The plaintive lyrics of the song?
18.The compensation fraud, the people, wanting the documents? The shop owner not giving them? His sadness in moving? The elephants smashing the houses?
19.The new settlement, Sukurai and Karmati, her sadness? The helping with the building?
20.Wakirhai and Sukurai talking, Sukurai not knowing that Wakirhai was the beloved of Karmati? Weeping? Looking at the water, the things floating in the water, the trees being submerged, Wakirhai rowing away? His journey? The sense of loss?
21.Karmati coming to see him, at the house, empty? The complete loss?
22.The comments on the poor, the dispossessed – and the need for self-giving? The tragic implication of this story?
