During 1990s, YouTube or Dreamz Unlimited was unknown to
Nagaland, obviously. The state was still flooded with Chinese martial art and
Bollywood movies and the cable television was enjoyed only by the privileged
section of the society. Hence, it was hard for any aspiring Naga filmmaker
to be optimistic.
The lady for this story was
a government high school teacher who was a big fan of The Bold and The
Beautiful, 90s guys 90s, what do you expect. It was a backdoor
appointment as her father was the Superintendent of Police of a district, which
I should not mention. She had a Sony Handycam purchased from Guwahati,
she really did not know what to do with it. One day, her neighbour
cum friend who was a recovering drug addict, thanks to the youth camp, came up
to her with an offer she would not deny. They decided to make a good use
of the Sony Handycam by directing and producing a 45 minutes long Nagamese
movie with only two characters, it was a super low budget movie.
For two straight
days, she worked on the script. When it was done, she read it out loud.
He was not convinced with the story. He said, 'Can’t it get more cliche than
this?' Well, she wrote about a man meeting a woman,
falling in love but left unexpressed, after a leap of five years,
he meets her again only to find out that she is a ghost because she in person
has died. He gave her suggestions like, a revengeful man kidnaps his boss'
daughter, an angry boyfriend, an enraged husband. They had a big argument. She
had a problem with so much of hatred which he required in the story. She hated
violence, she told him that the story should be women friendly. Finally, when
she threatened to walk out of the classified project, he had to give up on his
demands and settle for what she had to offer.
For the male lead, they
decided to negotiate with her police dad's bodyguard. It was easy to
convince him as he had a beautiful history. In his early 20s, he
wanted to be a Bollywood actor, if not the hero, essaying the role of a villain
would have been happily embraced by him. However, when he reached the film city
in Mumbai after changing four trains from Dimapur railway station to his
destination. He knew having blessed with mongoloid morphology, he did not stand
a chance to be in Bollywood except being mocked as, ‘Chinky!' by the
pedestrians. He took the same train and returned to Nagaland. The newly
constituted filmmakers took advantage of it. They invited him for a dinner and
shared about their project. He immediately expected the proposal but there was
a condition, his six months pregnant wife should not get an ounce of hint about
the project till their baby was delivered. The pact was sealed.
Then the time came to hunt
for the female lead. It was the most difficult part. No woman from respectable
family would agree to be casted. They shortlisted four women who some how
agreed with the right kind of persuasion. First was, a nurse who worked at
maternity clinic. The male lead was not comfortable to work with her because of
her occupation. The second was, a pan-shop owner, the male lead informed them
about the rumours surrounding her moral character and how they suspected her of
having STD. Although the film did not have any intimate scene not even hand
holding, the male lead warned them that he did not want to take any chance. The
third was, a Sunday school teacher who was automatically rejected by the male
lead because he thought she was too fat to be his reel love. Those days, Nagas
were not sensitized on the issues of body shamming. Finally, they
settled for a beautician who was blessed with a good face and physique but most
importantly who was open to all the adventures which life could offer. In
good spirit, she said, “I am confident to show my face but I will do my
own makeup and hair.” The only condition she placed was, the movie should
be released after her wedding, which was scheduled to be held in the end
of that year. They did not have a problem with her condition as the final
engagements would take time. Hence, it was readily agreed. Thus,
everything was set.
The day of their first shot
was memorable in its own way. In the first scene, the female lead was supposed
to sing and play with her hair. Nothing was hilarious about the scene but
the male lead burst out laughing every time she sang. He laughed basically
because of two reasons, she had a pathetic voice and she acted too chirpy
which was not part of the script.
The shot was cancelled for
the day. They were having a cup of tea in a shabby roadside hotel when two
policemen approached them. They told that they have been informed about
some vulgar movie production by the pan-shop owner who failed in the selection
round. They told them the truth but to no avail. The older policeman's took the
script which was on the table and instructed them to meet him in the police station.
Hours later they found themselves anxiously waiting in the lobby of the
police station.
The inspector told them,
content wise he did not find the story objectionable rather it was juvenile and
the scriptwriter lacked imagination. Which made her feel insulted. He shared his
personal story too, he wanted to be a writer but ended up in a wrong
profession. At the end, he told the lady, "Your father won't be so
proud of your time-pass project, your school won't be proud too. This is not an
age to engage in childish activities. We better keep it to
ourselves."
She wondered how a 22 year
old Naga lady would behave in the year 2020, for in the Nagaland of 1990s they
were expected to behave really grown-up. Outside the gate of the police
station, the pregnant wife of the male lead and the fiance of the
female lead waited for them in utter frustration. No couple fight could be
witnessed, the silence said it all.
Everyone left without a
word, embarrassment was the reason. She walked all alone. She took
aimless strolls and when she reached a building which was under construction,
an insatiable curiosity filled her. She wanted to film the view of
the city from the top of the building. As she ascended the stairs, she started
to film random shots, it made her happy. Suddenly, two men hastily ran down the
stairs, roughly hitting her right shoulder with one of theirs, the Handycam
fell from her hand. She cursed those careless men. She admitted, she was
experiencing a bad day. The Handycam had captured the faces of the two men, she
thought she will delete the clip once she reached home. When she was on the
topmost floor, she saw an ambulance entering the opposite building.
“Someone must have had a
cardiac arrest,” she whispered.
Minutes later, she walked
out of the building, a huge crowd and police vehicles had gathered on the
street. When she enquired about it, she got to know that a high class real
estate contractor had been shot dead and primary investigation was going on.
After having a long day herself, she did not want to hear a crime story. The next day in the local newspapers, she read in
detail about the contractor’s assassination story. It elaborated, he was shot dead
because he refused to pay the extortion amount. The killers were unprofessional
shooters, they used a long range gun targeted from the under construction
building opposite to the late contractor's house. It further stated that anyone
who gave information about the assassination to the police would be handsomely
rewarded.
It rang a bell in her head.
She switched on her Handycam, she knew she had the footage of the killers. More
than happy to help the police, she was afraid of the consequences, the revenge
often continues. But she decided it was high time she did something of her
own which would make her family, friends, her neighbourhood, her society
and most importantly, herself proud.
Her friend showed up with
another project, she told him to accompany her. He was
confused, throughout their scooter ride he kept on asking where was she taking him. When they reached the
police station, he thought the second round of interrogation was ridiculous and
shouted, "I am not going there again!" Without listening to
him, she entered the station and handed over her Handycam to the Officer
in Charge. After thorough analysis of the footage, they were confident that the case has been
solved. After two months, she was called to the police station and was
treated like hero. By then she had resigned from her teaching job as it was not
attained through merit.
Year 2020, she is now a
social activist blessed with an amazing husband and two children and three
dogs. There is a word which is framed and kept on the entrance door of her
home. It says,
"TURNS!"
**This anonymous lady
is often credited as the first person to bring citizen journalism to the
state of Nagaland.**
-The End-
