Henry Van Dyke once said "Use the talents you possess - for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best. " In this unfathomable network of blogs, ideas and intellectuals, I might be just another tiny speck of dust. But while flexing my brains amidst the heavy books of engineering, science and technology, I do crave for my ideas to be articulated; my thoughts to be delineated. So here's the blogspot rendering me ANOTHER CHANCE............a chance to grow up, a chance to live a new life, a chance to learn and a chance to write.
Introducing myself, I am Avinash Upadhyaya a part-time writer, full-time dreamer and engineering graduate from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (India). I hail from Dhemaji a small remote town in Assam - the north-eastern part of India.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

The Spark


Living with 24x7 internet connection in the hostels of BITS leads to one advantage. One gets access to some of the best movies in the world very easily. Being engrossed in a world where Scorsese, Kubrick, Tarantino, Eastwood and Francis Ford Coppola are the talk of the day, it took me a long time to realize that it has been years I missed the awesome palatable food made at home. Had I not made an accidental trip to Delhi a few weeks back and had I not bumped into an Assamese film festival near JNU campus, I would have remained oblivious of the beauty that is Assamese cinema. The cinema of my native land that has garnered many national and international awards. The cinema that has given birth to legendary figures like Bhupen Hazarika !
One of the remarkable movies I got to watch in the movie festival was ‘Firingoti’ (which translates into English as ‘The Spark’). An award winning movie directed by Jahnu Baruah, the movie won lots of acclaims when it was released in 1992.

I grew up hearing about Moloya Goswami as a lecturer who taught my mom during the latter’s college days. Although Ms. Goswami is more popular in the north-east as someone who won the National Award for Best Actress for her charismatic performance in the Assamese movie ‘Firingoti’.

Moloya Goswami receiving the National Award
from President of India R Venkataraman for Firingoti
Set against the backdrop of the Sino-Indian war, Firingoti narrates the tale of a young widow who is sent as a school-teacher to one of the remotest parts of Assam. On reaching the remote village, she realizes that the village children had not had the privilege of attending a school since decades. The movie chronicles the struggle of this young lady as she sets up a school for the children of this village which had been deprived for so long with the blessings of education and knowledge.

If someone like me – from a generation that grew up on Hollywood and Bollywood flicks would sit to watch the movie, one would keep presuming how the turn of events might take place. A hero might enter the scene and start running around the trees with the protagonist. Some high-voltage drama might take place in the climax!! The new-generation spectator would keep making wild guesses as he sits watching the movie. And he would get it wrong every time. This is where the movie shines. No romance, no action, no high drama and still the viewer would end up watching the movie of a life-time. Firingoti lights up the spark within the viewer with a simple tale narrated in a simple manner. The audience is left enamored in the end, thanks to the brilliant direction of Jahnu Baruah.

PS: Watch Jahnu Baruah’s only Bollywood venture Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara (2005) to see his crafty style of direction. Maine Gandhi….. bagged the Special Jury award at the National Film Awards and also won many awards in various international film festivals.
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