Through Ianche, a Garo poet, the film tries to understand what it feels to be a poet without a written language. Once this saddening truth is felt and understood in its entirety can you write again? The Garos have their own language but no script to write and hence they have been using the English alphabet for centuries now. Ianche, an accomplished poet finds himself tormented and unable and unwilling to write anymore. He can see his people completely abandoning their rich culture and he believes that the only way to save himself and them is to author a script.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
My grandfather was one of the oral storytellers in the village. The best part of growing up in the village was getting addicted to these great stories of our land. What could be more beautiful than listening to stories in a tree house (Borang) of the farm, in the middle of the forest, gazing up at the moon, surrounded by the sound of all the unimaginable creatures of the forest. These are the very reasons why I am a filmmaker today.
My short film Rong’kuchak (Echoes) was a tribute to all the storytellers of my village who are no more. The word Rong’kuchak is a combination of two words Ro’ong (stone or rock) and Kuchak (to respond). I remember when I was a kid we would shout out to the forest and it would call us back. I asked my father the reason for it, he told me that it was a voice of our forefathers that was responding to us.
A’chik language is very beautiful language, especially when used to tell stories. There is certain rhythm and flow in it – rhythm of nature or flow of streams or sound blowing wind. Listening to these great storytellers you realized that the beautiful thing about oral story telling is that the story themselves act like an living organism, they evolve, transform. Though the essence of the story will be intact but when you listened to it, it always sounds new and fresh depending on the imagination of the story tellers. They will add something new to the story that you didn’t hear previously. But unfortunately when I took Garo subject in class VII, I realized there is something wrong with the flow of language in written words. I found it difficult to read, most probably the reason was that I had been learning in English ever since I knew how to read and write. So when I was started readin Garo in Roman script, my brain played tricks. The beautiful oral story that I was awed by was not same anymore when I read them in the Garo books, something was lost in adapting the oral story into written words in Roman script and the loss was irretrievable. Maybe the script was good enough to capture the plot but not the essence of it. Body without soul. I imagined if we could really capture them in written language then the A’chik script had to be something that resembled musical notation.
If you watch the first sequence of the film, where the oral story teller chokes in the middle of his story telling and dies, it tells everything. May be he choked with words and stories. It’s a great loss, it pains me. The film is the portrayal of my pain for the lost, for my inability to write them in A’chik, So this film
CREDITS
A Poem By
Tony Xavier
Main Cast:
Jobyllyne D Shira, Lovita J Morang, Phillip Oske Sg,
Celestine Koksi Sangma, Jordan Chisim.
Produced by:
Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute.
Written and Directed By
Dominic Megam Sangma
Cinematography
Tojo Xavier
Editor
Renjith Kuzhur
Sound Designer
Imon Chakraborty
Production Design
Ranajit Gharai
Colorist
Jayadev Tiruveaipati
Voice Dubbed By
Julius Basaiwmoit
Music By
Riley Lee- Being Time
Extras:
Grace Shoshang.
Felicita Chisim.
Saroj Devi
Chongkam Momin
Wansuk Momin
Paul Danggo
Calis Momin
AbbaTenny Gabil
Jesse Kurbah
Sengobirth Chisim
Greatcilda Cheran
Alice lohe
Phrangkie Khonglah.
Tesang Cheran.
Dario Dawa
Waranlak Metkarujit.
Asha Raksam.
Tangme Chada.
Alvin Nengminza.
Dora D Shira
Sourav Rai
Sasha Singh
Tribeyny Rai
Shikha Gupta
Kim Jung Heum
Meyeinla Longchar
Suresh Burman
Milkha Sangma
Abhijit Burman
Tengnang .Dawa.
Jordan Chisim.
Genevie Chisim
Tesang Chisim
Steven Ao
Alexander Poe
Ashoke Poe.
Art Department
Jaytu Mondal
Sayantan Mondal
Production Controller
Pradeep Acharya
Subhash Jha
Costume Designer
Neeraj Agarwal
Wansuk G Momin
Make Up
Bonny Chakraborty
Prabir Kumar
Camera Asssistant
Tarun Kumar Rakeshiya
Naresh K Rana
G Venu Madhav
Sound Assistant
Partha Halder
Vineet Vashistha
Sumanto Dutta
Sudeepta Sadhukhan
Rachit Pasi
Ateesh Chattopadhay
Mikhail Chambugong
Arka Ghosh
Assistant Director
Tenang Dawa
Amey Mule
Ashok poe
Alexander Poe
Camera and Light
Tarak Das
Santosh Hansda
Purnendu Das
Himanshu Mondal
Dilip Chakravorty
Dakhina Ranjan
Robi Mullick
Pullack Hait
Swapan Baidya.
Art Setting
Raju Bose
Tarun Baidya
Bikas Dey
Location Courtesy
Reevu Wangdi
Ranajay Basu
Hem Dhillon
Kunal Banerjee
Supported In Garo Hills
Fr. Abong Marak
Sembertush
Milkior Chisim
Kimde Raksam
Supported In Shillong
Aaron Raksam
Leenora Raksam
Rev Teseng Gabil
Lucy Megam
Osim Chambugong
Sis Mary Megam
Sengrang Jongskye
Special Thanks
Nilotpal Mazumdar
Sanjaya Pattanayak
Tengrak Rongmuthu
Romel Dawa
John Sangma
Patrick Sangma
Twister Momin
Anil Kajamalla
Santosh Damdhere
DI Executive Producer
Mangesh K Bhalerao
DI Producer
Arvind Singh
Excutive Director
J.Naidu
Head Operation
R.Shanker
V.P Business Development
Rajiv Ghosh
Technologist
Mithun D’souza
DI Editorial Team
Venkat Naraharisetty
Soma Sundaram
Krishnan kumar Selvaraj.
Muthural Ranalingam
Milind Kamble
Chetan Gaikwad
Alagappan Balram
Modem Mehesh
Palyekar Sony Anthony
P.Mohan
Deepak Srivstav
Mohammed Ghose.
Director I don’t know who you are but I think I want to marry you because you are such an idol to me. And you are so cute! Proud of you.