CiNEmatters by Firstpost: Episode 2 — 'Maj Rati Keteki'

CiNEmatters

Host: Arshia Dhar

Theme Music and Editing: Sourjyo Sinha

Artwork: Adrija Ghosh

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Episode 2: Maj Rati Keteki (2017)

Language/Region: Assamese/Assam

Streaming on: Netflix

Director: Santwana Bardoloi

Cast: Adil Hussain, Shakil Imtiaz, Sulakshana Baruah, Mahendra Rabha, Bibhuti Bhushan Hazarika, Gayatri Sarma, Rahul Gautam Sarma, Kasvi Sonkorison, Pranami Bora
In our second episode, we are joined by our guest Sebanti Chatterjee, sound anthropologist and professor of sociology, to talk about Santwana Bardoloi's National Award-winning Assamese film, Maj Rati Keteki, starring Adil Hussain in the lead. The film, largely told through Hussain's character Priyendu Hazarika — a celebrated English novelist from Assam — is a meditation on the complex issue of identity that steers the culture and politics of Assam.

Maj Rati Keteki functions meta-narratively, as the story often mirrors the events in Priyendu's fictional book, for which he wins an award in the film. The story travels back in time through flashbacks that take the audience to a simpler, rustic North Guwahati of the 1970s where Priyendu grew up, and juxtaposes those years against present-day Assam, which has been completely refashioned, albeit, on the surface.

The dual tracks in the film reveal to us characters who react to their surroundings and circumstances in manners that reflect their social situatedness, with caste, religion and gender steering the narratives most prominently. It also makes evident the futility of cosmetic changes that fail to dismantle age-old feudal structures, which continue to govern social norms, hierarchies and conversations.

In this episode, we investigate the film's poignant commentary on how, more often than not, one is barely ever able to outrun the identities assigned to them at birth, for the better or worse.

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