State-wise Chronicles, Part I: Assam & Manipur

Chapter sections

2.1 The Assamese Industry: Joymoti and the Pioneers

The history of Assamese cinema is a story of heroic, resource-starved improvisation. The industry’s foundation was laid by the poet, playwright and filmmaker Jyotiprasad Agarwala (1903–1951), who studied cinema briefly in Berlin at the UFA studios before returning to Assam to produce the first Assamese feature film, Joymoti (1935).

Operating in a region with absolutely no studio infrastructure, processing labs, or trained crew, Agarwala transformed his family’s tea estate at Bholaguri into a makeshift studio complex called the Chitraban.

Production Challenges: Agarwala had to construct his own reflector boards out of tin foil, design sound-dampening panels using banana leaves and cast local amateur actors who had never seen a motion picture camera.
The Lahore Audio Crisis: The film was shot silent and Agarwala transported the exposed celluloid and a crude audio reel to Lahore for sound recording and synchronization. In Lahore, he discovered that due to temperature variations and equipment mismatch, the recorded sound was missing for half the film. In a legendary feat of endurance, Agarwala rented a studio and dubbed the voices of all characters in a single marathon session.
Visual Grammar: Despite these limitations, Joymoti displayed a sophisticated understanding of visual storytelling. Agarwala employed expressionistic lighting and deep shadow work to dramatize the torture of Princess Joymoti, moving away from the static, stage-like compositions of early Indian mythological films.

Following Agarwala’s untimely death in 1951, the industry found its footing in the 1950s and 1960s with literature-driven films. The landmark film of this era was Piyoli Phukan (1955), directed by the legendary theatre veteran Phani Sarma (1910–1970). Falsely cataloged in earlier research as a color film directed by Nip Barua, Piyoli Phukan was actually a black-and-white masterpiece that won national acclaim, receiving the Certificate of Merit at the 3rd National Film Awards, for its dramatic framing, stark contrast cinematography and deep psychological portrayal of resistance against British colonial rule.

2.2 Manipuri Cinema: Poetic Realism and the AFSPA Era

Manipuri cinema represents one of the most culturally distinct and internationally acclaimed segments of Indian cinema. While the industry’s official beginning is marked by Matamgi Manipur (1972), directed by Debkumar Bose (a Bengali director), the first feature film directed by an indigenous Manipuri director was Brojendragee Luhongba (1972), directed by and starring Sapam Nodia Chand (S. N. Chand). S. N. Chand’s pioneering work established a foundation of self-representation, which soon blossomed into global artistic recognition through the works of Aribam Syam Sharma (b. 1936).

Sharma’s masterpiece, Imagi Ningthem (My Son, My Precious, 1981), won the Golden Montgolfiere at the Nantes International Festival of Three Continents in 1982, marking the first major international award for Northeast Indian cinema. His follow-up, Ishanou (The Chosen One, 1990), was selected for the prestigious Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival.

Directorial Style: Sharma’s films are defined by a quiet, observational poetic realism. His camera rarely moves aggressively. Instead, it lingers, allowing the performances, classical Manipuri dance movements and natural light to breathe within the frame.
The AFSPA Era: Manipuri filmmakers have historically worked under the shadow of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), imposed in 1980. This political climate of surveillance, curfews and conflict directly shaped the themes and visual strategies of the cinema. Filmmakers like Haobam Paban Kumar adapted to these constraints by adopting a docu-fiction style, using small digital cameras to shoot discretely on location and focusing on the quiet, domestic anxieties of citizens rather than overt, sensationalized violence.
The 2000 Hindi Film Ban and Digital/VCD Transition: In September 2000, the insurgent group Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF) banned the screening and sale of Hindi films. This led to the immediate closure of all celluloid theaters in Manipur. Deprived of traditional exhibition channels and unable to afford 35mm celluloid film, local filmmakers pioneered a rapid digital transition. Shooting on low-cost formats (MiniDV, HDV) and distributing on VCDs, they created a hyper-local, high-volume Meiteilon digital cinema that released 80–100 films annually. This shift forced a new visual aesthetic characterized by flat video lighting, restricted domestic interior settings and rapid television-style editing rhythms, marking a sharp departure from the poetic realism of earlier celluloid cinema.

2.3 Cinema Learning Context: Realism versus Expressionism

The contrast between early Assamese cinema and Manipuri cinema provides film students with a perfect case study in the tension between expressionism and observational realism.

For the general reader, creating the torture scene in Joymoti required building a mud-walled set inside a tea warehouse, positioning kerosene lamps on the floor and directing actors to cast giant shadows on the wall. For the filmmaker, this is a masterclass in low-angle lighting: the light source placed below the actors’ faces distorts their features, projecting their cruelty onto the set itself.

In Ishanou, Syam Sharma places the camera at the eye-level of a guest sitting on the floor. This spatial blocking forces the actors to interact naturally within the domestic environment, using the long take to maintain emotional realism. The filmmaker must coordinate the blocking so that characters move between the foreground and background without requiring a cut, preserving the continuous flow of the scene.