Cinema
The Chosen One
Ishanou
Aribam Syam Sharma · 1990
Synopsis
In the Manipur valley, Tampha, a young married woman and mother of a little girl, leads a peaceful life. Suddenly she begins to talk to flowers, to faint, to leave the house in the middle of the night. Her family looks for a cure, then realises she is not ill: a deity has chosen her to join the maibi, priestesses of the Meitei, keepers of the ritual songs and dances. She leaves everything behind, without her quest easing her anguish as a mother separated from her child.
Context
The film was released in 1990, first on Indian television and then at the Usha Cinema in Imphal. The screenplay, dialogue and costumes are by M. K. Binodini Devi, with whom he had already made Imagi Ningthem, Golden Montgolfière at Nantes in 1982. The Film Heritage Foundation restored it from the original sixteen-millimetre negative, kept in the National Film Archive of India, and from two copies held by the director.
Who it is for
Ninety minutes in Manipuri. The film shows a culture without explaining it, to a score composed by the director.
Prizes and reception
Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 1991; the only Indian film at Cannes Classics in 2023, after restoration; cited among the hundred great Indian films.
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