Joymati
Joymati (Assamese: জয়মতী, Joimoti), released on 10 March 1935, was the first-ever Assamese film. Based on Lakshminath Bezbaruah's play on the 17th-century story of Sati Joymati, the film was produced and directed by the noted Assam poet Jyotiprasad Agarwala, and starred Aideu Handique and acclaimed stage actor and playwright Phani Sarma. The film was shot between 1933 and 1935,[1] and released by Chitralekha Movietone in 1935, which marked the beginning of Assamese cinema. Joymati is the first Assamese film to be screened in the U.S. Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMC) of Northwestern University in Evanston, Los Angeles, has invited Joymati for its 50th international conference to be held 17–21 March 2011.[2] Although never a commercial success, the film was noted for its political views and the use of a female protagonist, which in Indian cinema at the time was almost unheard of. Partly lost today, it is the third talkie[3] and the first "realism" and political film in Indian cinema.[4] The film has been restored in part by Altaf Mazid.