We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Filming Folktales: The ‘Uncanny’ in Bhaskar Hazarika’s Kothanodi (“The River of Fables”).
- Authors
Hussain, Farddina
- Abstract
The affinity between Assamese literature and cinema has only grown over the years since its inception in 1935; in the history of Assamese cinema, film adaptation had begun with Jyoti Prasad Agarwala’s Joymoti and Padum Baruah’s Gonga Silonir Pakhi . It is no surprise that Bhaskar Hazarika too turned towards the well-known collection of folktales Burhi Air Sadhu by Lakshminath Bezbaroa for the subject of his debut feature film Kothanodi, The River of Fables in 2015. Bezbaroa in the book mentions his views on folktales as markers of cultural identity of Assamese community and wanted his anthology to strengthen the feelings of Assamese nationalism among the people of the land. The paper proposes to reflect on this take of Bezbaroa on identity and culture, and go ahead to analyse the gaze of Bhaskar Hazarika as an auteur. With two successful feature films to his credit, the filmmaker is known for his depiction of the ‘uncanny’ (Freud) and horror to delve deep into the dark recesses of the mind, and society simultaneously. Whereas Bezbaroa’s folktales have been regarded as bedtime stories for children, the paper would like to argue that the viewing of these tales in the film by young children evokes horror and dismay. The dialectical simulation of images created by the auteur resonates more with the adult minds as he offers the contours of his film-philosophy with an Amazonian cosmology.
- Subjects
ASSAMESE literature; TALE (Literary form); BEZBAROA, Lakshminath
- Publication
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 2022, Vol 14, Issue 2, p1
- ISSN
0975-2935
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.21659/rupkatha.v14n2.ne12