SHILLONG: National award winning film Ri: Homeland of uncertainty was screened at Shillong Raj Bhavan on Wednesday. The 110-minute film directed by Pradip Kurbah and co-produced by Kurbah with Ribiang Tlang, Sajeki Passah and Heithmu Phawa is a gripping account of militancy/ terrorism and its variegated perspectives and also the diminishing returns of militancy.
Filmed partly in Bangladesh where all the arms deals happen, Ri is a true to life account of militancy in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya.
The film has an unmistakable allusion to the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) and its operatives and their modus operandi. The dialogues in the film have a familiar ring. The cadres speak of arms as instruments of coercion and fear. Their take is – get arms, terrorise, kill a few people who don’t respond to the extortion notices and get compliance from hundreds of other victims.
That was the scene in the Shillong of the late 1990?s when the first victim, a motor spare parts dealer in Laitumkhrah, Rajesh Saigal was gunned down in broad daylight. That one act instilled so much fear and paranoia in citizens that the city literally shut down at dusk.
Extortion notes were distributed by the HNLC right, left and centre and when the then Home Minister, was approached by business people to seek his Department’s intervention, they were told to negotiate with the outfit.
Ri begins with a preamble that the film is set against a background where authority has lost respect, corruption is rampant and the law has become only a metaphor. Tightly edited, the only longish dialogues in the film are between Manbha (Merlvin Mukhim) the militant who was shot by the police in an encounter and the lady (Elgiva Shullai) in whose house he takes shelter for several hours.
Four Khasi militants led by Manbha travel by boat all the way from Bangladesh with a cache of arms, land somewhere in Dawki en-route to Shillong to create terror on Independence Day. The militants were unaware that they had a police informer in their midst. Although the militants changed the number plate of the vehicle provided to them by a sympathiser, the police caught up with them on a lonely road.
Asked to surrender the militants decided it was better to attack. While two died on the spot after killing two policemen, Manbha, escapes into the thicket, then slowly winds his way into a home where he takes shelter. What happens when the lady of the house opens her door and finds him in her house is the crux of the film.
Like every suspense drama the film makes a racy beginning but slows down as melodrama sets in. Portrayed in the film is the pathetic condition of the militant’s family members and his weeping mother who begs with the police to give her son a chance, saying she does not know if he is dead or alive. All that they know is their son/brother has joined an outfit that will liberate them from the shackles of poverty, corruption and inequity.
It takes a while before the cadres realize that their leaders are safely ensconced beyond the borders of their ‘Ri’ (imagined homeland of utopia) and break bread with politicians of all shades, while the cadres are hounded like dogs.
Albert Mawri as Police Superintendent, Kyndiah does justice to his role as a trigger- happy cop who does not think twice about faking an encounter and gunning down militants whenever he gets a chance. The film is an accurate portrayal of how policemen during the height of militancy in Khasi-Jaintia Hills were pressurized to deliver; how they take orders from the Home Minister and their Department higher ups and are coerced to show results.
There are certain weak links in the film, though. How did Manbha, the militant get the bullet out of his thigh? The bleeding would have been enough to knock him off. The first scene where a militant is gunned down by his own cadres for wanting to surrender does not tie in too well with the rest of the plot.
But credit must be given for the excellent photography, appropriate sound tracks and dialogue. Pradip Kurbah deserves the National Award for the intelligent script and for bringing out the best in his actors.
Kurbah says the film was shot in 18 days flat and completed on a budget of Rs 30 lakh. His characters are not professional actors. They are professionals in their own fields and took time off for the duration of the shoot. Ri is a film that shows what a small group of people with passion and commitment can produce.
Director Information and Public Relations, HM Shangpliang said the film would also be screened at the Soso Tham auditorium, soon.
(We reproduce the entire story on ‘Ri – Homeland of uncertainty’ which was missed out in yesterday’s version. The ST regrets this oversight)