Papori

1986 144’ col Assamese d/sc Jahnu Barua pc Patkai Films st Heu-En Barua c Binod Pradhan m Satya Barua, P.P. Vaidyanathan lp Biju Phukan, Gopi Desai, Sushil Goswami, Dulal Roy, Runjun, Amulya Kakoti

Grim melodrama set in the context of the All- Assam Students’ Union agitations during the 1983 elections, a familiar setting for mainstream Assamese cinema of the period (cf. Hem Bora’s Sankalpa, 1986). Papori’s (Desai) husband Binod (Goswami) is falsely arrested for murder. Her daughter is in hospital, where she eventually dies. Papori’s only support, a police inspector (Phukan), finds the true murderer but cannot arrest him because the killer enjoys political protection. Papori is raped by a smuggler, her husband is convicted of murder and only an arbitrarily added epilogue, claiming that the husband is eventually freed and the good inspector promoted, brings a glimmer of relief. In his later Halodiya Choraye Baodhan Khaye (1987), Barua again weaves contemporary political events into a melodramatic plot.

Film