IT News
Imphal, Feb 18:
Haobam Paban Kumar who clinched the Golden Gateway award for the best Indian film in the 18th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2016 for his debut feature- Loktak Lairembee (2016), again entered into the India Gold section of the forthcoming 22nd Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2022 with his second narrative- Nine Hills One Valley.
The 75-minute long bilingual film in Tangkhul and Manipuri- Nine Hills One Valley will vie for the title of Golden Gateway Award in the festival with other 13 films namely, A Night of Knowing Nothing (Hindi/Bengali) by Payal Kapadia, Adh Chanani Raat (Punjabi) by Gurvinder Singh, Bela (Bengali) by Prantik Basu, Dhuin ( Hindi/Maithili) by Achal Mishra, Dug Dug (Hindi) by Ritwik Pareek, Fire in the Mountains(Hindi/Kumaoni) by Ajitpal Singh, Invisible Demons(Hindi/English) by Rahul Jain, Ladies Only (Hindi/English/Marathi) by Rebana Liz John, Once Upon a Time in Calcutta (Bengali) by Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Pedro (Kannada) by Natesh Hegde, Shankar’s Fairies (Hindi) by Irfana Majumdar, The Cloud Messenger (English/Malayalam/Sanskrit) by Rahat Mahajan and Two Friends (Bengali) by Prasun Chatterjee. The festival will be held from March 11 to 15, 2022.
Nine Hills One Valley tells the story of Anam Ahum, a Tangkhul from the hills, who travels to Imphal city in the valley to meet his daughter before she leaves for New Delhi in search of job. During the course of the journey, he encounters different people and their stories, making us witness to the brutishness of ethnic conflicts. Yet, in the face of distressed memories, hope thrives.
Reacting on the selection, Paban says, “I am thrilled that Nine Hills One Valley is having its Indian premiere at the prestigious India Gold Section (Competition) of MAMI 2022. If everyone remembers, my first feature Loktak Lairembee won the India Gold Award in 2016.”
About the film, he states, “It is my personal journey about my intrinsic dilemma of being born in a place like Manipur which is absorbed with a tapestry of diversity of indigenous people. Here people aspire to reach out to the elusive harmony while stand-up each day for their forest, land and culture. The film was made during the distressing solitude of the Covid pandemic.”
The following prizes are awarded to the feature-length films screening at the MAMI festival. Golden Gateway Award: Films screening in the India Gold section are eligible for this award.
It includes a trophy plus a cash prize of INR 15,00,000. Silver Gateway Award: Films screening in the India Gold section are eligible for this award. It includes a trophy plus a cash prize of INR 8,00,000. Best Female Filmmaker: Films screening in the India Gold and Spotlight sections are eligible for this award. It includes a trophy plus a cash prize of INR 5,00,000.
In the Spotlight (feature, non-competitive) section of the festival; a Meiteilon feature- Eikhoygi Yum directed by Romi Meitei was also selected along with other 14 films namely, A Home For My Heart (Hridoy Bosot) in Bengali, Hindi, English by Sankhajit Biswas, a.k.a. (Urf) in Hindi by Geetika Narang Abbasi, Borderlands in Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Manipuri, Nepali by Samarth Mahajan, Desire (Abharkha) in Gujarati by Himadri Parmar, Goldfish in English, Hindi by Pushan Kripalani, Mirror (Ayena) in Hindi, Urdu by Siddhant Sarin and Debankon S. Solanky, Once Upon a Village (Ek Tha Gaon) in Garhwali, Hindi by Srishti Lakhera, River of Blood (Paka) in Malayalam by Nithin Lukose, Shoebox in Hindi, Bengali, English by Faraz Ali, The Chicken Curry (Koli Taal) in Kannada by Abhilash Shetty, The Small-Town Sea (Kasiminte Kadal) in Malayalam by Shyamaprasad, Three Legged Horse (Teen Paayancha Ghoda) in Marathi by Noopur Bora, Tortoise Under the Earth (Dharti Latar Re Horo) in Santhali by Shishir Jha and Two Sisters and a Husband in Hindi by Shlok Sharma.
