KOLKATA, Nov 16 ? The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), scheduled for later this month at Goa, will have an unusual first-time entry ? a full-length feature film in Kokborok, the indigenous language of Tripura, made by a Catholic priest. Mathia (The Bangle), which features in the ?Panorama? section of the IFFI, is scheduled for screening at ?Screen-I?, the largest of the IFFI venues, according to the film?s director, Fr Joseph Pulinthanath.
?Mathia is a story of trust, betrayal and redemption built around the social phenomenon of witch-hunting,? Fr Joseph, a priest of the Salesian order of Don Bosco, told PTI. ?This is for the first time that a film from Tripura features in a premier film event of the country,? he said.
Winner of the Best Feature Award at the International Film and Television Festival of Niepoklanow, Poland, last year, Mathia was shot mainly in Baramura, a tribal heartland in Tripura, with an entire village and its surrounding jungles as sets. ?The problem of militancy was in the back of our minds, but we did not let that daunt us. The villagers were very cooperative. No, there was no problem,? Fr Joseph said.
Asked about the absence of professional artistes in his film, Fr Joesph said both he and his producers saw this as an opportunity. ?We held a series of workshops both for the lead artistes as also for the extras, but even then, there were some problems and we had to shoot more footage than usual. But the end product was beautiful.? Fr Joseph, an alumnus of FTII, Pune, chooses not to term Mathia his own film and instead prefers to call it ?one made by all?. ?For those involved, this was an education in Social Cinema where the production team, the technical crew and the artistes formed a family which wonderfully merged into the bigger family of the villages where the shoot was done,? he said.
So what is a priest doing making films? ?I do not see this as a deviation from my priestly duties. It is the duty of the priest to serve people. My film was one way of serving the cause. Even if I can influence even one person against witch-hunting, I will consider myself successful,? Fr Joseph, an initiator of the film appreciation course in the North-east, said.
With Meena Debbarma and Jayanta Jamatia, both tribals, in the lead, the Mathia team has been felicitated by the Kokborok Sahitya Akademi and Tripura Government?s Tribal Research Institute. Made by Sampari Pictures, a Don Bosco production house registered with the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association (EIMPA), Mathia was screened last Saturday at the ongoing Kolkata Film Festival.