Boong Movie Review — TIFF 2024 — Sucharita Tyagi

Nahi jaante hum Manipur ke baare mein zyada kuch. Abhi chal rahe civic unrest se pehle bhi nahi maaloom tha, ab toh aur bhi kaam jaankaari hai.

TIFF mein premiere hui yeh film dekh kar aur clear ho gayi apni shortcomings.

Boong hai ek exploration of childhood amidst social and political unrest, kabhi obvious kabhi thoda sinister. The film, produced by Excel Entertainment, is a delicate yet powerful tale of how manufactured strife unknwoingly permeates the lives of ordinary citizens, particularly children, and how they cope with love, friendship, and peace in such conditions. Starring Bala Hijam, Gugun Kipgen, Vikram Kochhar, Angom Sanamatum (forgive my pronounciations) Boong is as much about family as it is about the deeper cultural, political, and regional tensions that shape Manipur.

Boong is a young boy who lives in a small village with his single mother. They are both grappling with the absence of his father Joykumar, who goes out of town to work, but has been mysteriously, frustratingly incommunicado for a while. Is he dead? Has he disowned them? Has he been captured by border security? No one has answers, and his wife isn’t allowed the time and space to go looking for any. In Joykumar’s absence, his brother’s family is looking for ways to stake their claim on his property.

Yehi call to adventure hai Boong ka, ki shehar ka naam pata hai jahaan pitaaji gaye hain i.e Moreh, kisi tarah wahaan pohonche aur unhe dhoondh waapas le aayein toh Ma Khush ho.

Lakshmipriya Devi, who I spoke with about the film has put her whole heart, her whole life into this film. She has been an AD in Bollywood for many decades now, but for her debut as a filmmaker, she goes back to stories closest to her heart. Of Rajasthani migrants who arrived in Imphal over 100 years ago, but are still looked at as “outsiders”, mirroring exactly how “mainlanders” treat Indian citizens from the northeast in the rest of the country. She ponders in this film if the region’s unrest filtered down to even the smallest corners of perhaps her own childhood. To find answers she designs moments that lay clear many prejudices and divisions, giving you a not-so-subtle, clear insight into Manipur’s complex socio-political fabric. Exploring this through the eyes of a child, makes the story more compelling, and more honest. What does a child know about borders, skin color, and money? When do children wisen up to realize there are some things their parents just cannot fix? Slowly you see the children weighed down by adult concerns, their carefree days of youth exchanged for anxiety.

Lakshmipriya Devi weaves a very delicate tale raising questions almost constantly — are people who claim to be fighting for peace truly legitimate in their cause or are they a reflection of a deeper frustration? What good is banning Hindi cinema going to do? But is it okay that instead of a Manipuri actor Priyanka Chopra got to play Mary Kom?

Scenes between Mandakini, played by Bala Hijam, and her son Boong are heartbreakingly beautiful. They’re both balancing love and grief in overwhelming quantities, unsure of how to survive another day engulfed in despondence. Vikram Kochhar’s portrayal of the friendly Sudhir is so sweet, his kindness crossing over into naivety occasionally. You expect a man to show up and make things okay for Boong and Mandakini, but the climate is so complex, him and his son Raju might be in even more danger every day for simply existing. This tension is palpable, and it reverberates throughout the film.

Boong is an infuriating watch at times, because everyone seems to be caught in an invisible web there seems to be no way out of. Yet, it’s these complexities that make the film a must-see. Kab release hogi, is anyone’s guess, but make sure you keep Boong on your radar.

Aage TIFF se there might be reviews jinke videos hum nahi banaayenge, par likh kar I will publish them to my Medium page, uska link bhi neeche description mein daal rahi hoon, jaake dekho udhar also. Interviews wagerah aa rahe hain, subscribe kar lein channel ko. My name is Sucharita, thank you for stopping by!