Nat’l award for docu on life & works of Manipuri filmmaker

Kolkata: A documentary film on the life and works of 85-year-old Aribam Shyam Sharma, who debuted in the first Manipuri film, directed the only film from the Northeast to be officially selected for Cannes and also returned his Padma Shri as part of the anti-CAA protest, has been adjudged the Best Biographical Film at the National Awards this year.
Its director, Haobam Paban Kumar, an alumnus of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), told TOI that making this film during the pandemic was tough.During the lockdown, when he couldn’t move out of his Imphal home, his SRFTI batchmate in Kolkata had to edit the film in his absence without understanding a word of Manipuri.
Two documentaries by Gurumayum Nirmal Sharma and Th. Brajabidhu have already been made on Sharma before Paban started making ‘Pabung Syam’. Paban, however, did not feel burdened with such statistics. He had faced a similar situation while directing a film titled ‘Mr India’ about Kh Pradip Kumar who became a body builder after knowing his HIV status and won the Mr India title. “One documentary on him was made by Aribamji and another by a friend. I didn’t bother about the other films since I knew that each film will be different. It was a similar story with ‘Pabung Syam’,” Paban said.
Paban admits that making a biographical film on someone who wears the hat of a philosopher, singer, actor and theatre director is tough. Sharma gave him permission to “feel free” to structure and develop his own narrative style since he “can’t put everything in a film”. In one scene, Sharma tells Paban: “Filmmaking or cinematography as a career depends on the particular person. I won’t force my next generations to take up filmmaking as a career. For example, a Satyajit Ray’s son can’t be another Satyajit Ray’.”
The last line didn’t get chopped at Sankha’s editing table. There is reference to his Santiniketan connect, a brief mention of his association with author MK Binodini Devi and detailed reference to his use of Manipur’s trance dance, called Maibi, in ‘Ishanou’.
On being asked why no other film from the Northeast has been officially selected at Cannes since Sharma’s ‘Ishanou’ made it to Un Certain Regard in 1991, Paban said, “Nowadays, we treat a blend of fiction and non-fiction as a new form of storytelling. But he did that a long time ago with ‘Ishanou’. His films have not followed conventional making.”
Surprisingly, this five-time National Award winner’s film doesn’t mention Sharma returning his Padma Shri in 2019. According to Paban, it was a creative call and not one made to avoid controversies. “I’m an independent filmmaker who has made film like ‘AFSPA 1958’. The question of avoiding controversy does not arise. It just didn’t fit with the film’s treatment,” he said.