The Assamese Films of Bhabendra Nath Saikia

Abstract

Assamese cinema, though not a very visible category in most of the works of film historians and critics, started with a note of nationalistic sentiment in the early half of the twentieth century. In subsequent times, amidst the commercially driven Assamese entertainment movies which were more numerous, a number of Assamese directors were successful in creating a ‘serious’ genre of Assamese cinema. Bhabendra Nath Saikia was one of the prolific directors of the latter category during the last three decades of the twentieth century. On the basis of their various characteristics, his films can be placed under the category which has been named by the critics as Indian ‘parallel cinema’ or ‘innovative cinema’. This article is an attempt at a descriptive analysis of the narrative contents and other cinematic features of Saikia’s films, with an aim to locate this regional filmmaker within the broader domain of Indian parallel cinema. It is argued here that while most of his films can be read as critical commentaries on the various issues which engulfed the post-Independence society in the specific socio-historical conditions of Assam, some of his films also bear much wider frames to hold timeless and space-less features of mankind.