Pranab J Deka, whose debut feature film Kooki was screened at Cannes, is hoping to give the Assamese film industry a fillip

Parbina Rashid

Pranab J Deka likes to keep the record straight. “Kooki is not an Assamese film, but a Hindi film made in Assam,” he told us just before his film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. As we wondered whether we should congratulate him for brining Assam on the global map, he volunteered, “Mehnat ka phal mila hai, but…paisa aana chahiye.”

I was so involved with Kooki that every time my actress cried in front of the camera, I cried too... but I had to shoot it in a restrained manner.

And that sentence set the tone for the conversation. A proud Assamese, who made his debut feature film Kooki, with all cast and crew from Assam, is desperately hoping for a push for the Assamese film industry. So, what’s ailing it? We expected the oft-repeated phrase ‘government apathy’, but, no, Deka has no such grievance. “In fact, the government has been pretty helpful. We have the infrastructure and high-tech equipment. But most of the people involved with the industry are working on a part-time basis. They need a primary source of income to sustain,” he rues.

Acing challenges

An FTII graduate, Deka is aware of the struggle one has to go through in the industry, and he has had his own share in plenty. Right from working with Gajendra Singh Chauhan in Radio Mirchi Award Show to doing TV shows like Crime Patrol to assisting in a movie like 18.11, which he now dismisses as ghatiya (trash), he has done it all. “When you come from a film institute, it is difficult to settle down for the small screen, but one has to do what one has to do,” he said. And that’s what goaded him to make a TV series, Ultimate Date.

For a cause

The title bring us back to his ‘date’ with the movers and shakers at Cannes. Happy that his producer Junmoni Devi Khaund and the lead actress Ritisha Khaund could promote the film at Cannes, he felt Kooki should be watched by people across nations.

The origin of the film that narrates the journey of a rape survivor and the multiple stages of mental trauma she has to endure, goes back to the 2012 Nirbhaya case. “I was so shaken by the Nirbhaya case that believe you me, I had prayed that she died. After she did, I felt ‘now she can live’. A rape survivor’s fate is worst. The law considers rape and murder as a heinous crime and hence punishable with death or life sentence, but rape too merits similar punishment for the scar a rape survivor carries for the rest of her life. Through this film, we are trying to advocate that.”

The message that he gives out through his film makes him more of an activist but he has no problem with this tag. “I was so involved with my subject that every time my actress cried in front of the camera, I cried too.” Deka was aware that rape was not a good subject for a debut movie. “The biopic treatment of such a story does not allow a director to realise his full potential. I had to shoot it in a restrained manner. There was no drama except for the pain the rape survivor felt.”

But he made sure that within the minimalistic parameters the theme allowed him, he didn’t turn it into a boring commentary on a subject that has been much explored. “You won’t get bored watching Kooki. You will leave the theatre with a positive feeling.”

It’s the same feeling he experienced after people from several nations, including France and Morocco, showed interest in screening Kooki in their countries. He remains grateful, for opportunities coming his way, and people helping him to translate those opportunities into something tangible. That includes the nameless shopkeeper of a CD shop in the Maligoan area of Guwahati, who introduced him to Satyajit Ray, Francis Ford Coppola and world cinema!  

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