The frames are out of this world. On the big screen, their surreality forces the mind to transcend the borders of time and space. The pictures of mountains, the loveliness of the undulating landscape, and the misty minimalism of the lives there are alluring.
The attraction of human minds to mountains has brought about magnificent feats and even films based on them, spearheading movements such as the International Alliance for Mountain Films, set up in 2000, under which about 19 festivals dedicated to mountain films are signed up.
In India, too, an increasing number of frames feature mountains as backdrop, and voices speak of lives associated with the landscape. But the stress here is not the saga of man’s battle against the odds; it is on the human lives whose existence is tied deeply to the mountains.
The International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) has been increasingly making room to showcase this aspect, and in its latest edition too, there are four films distributed across the Kaleidoscope and International Competition sections that portray the changing emotional landscape of people from the hills.
‘The Elysian Field’ or ‘Ha Lyngkha Bueng’ is a Khasi-language film set in the hills of Meghalaya and envisions a futuristic view of a village there. Set in 2047, the village has just six people left, with the rest having migrated for ‘better’ prospects.
The loss of family and of camaraderie — rooted in indigenous habits and tastes — is palpable, creating in the ‘leftouts’ an unfathomable sense of desolation and loneliness.
“Yet there are no major complaints except for the lurking fear of death. They wonder who would do their last rites with their kith and kin having migrated to the cities,” says Pradip Kurbah, the film’s director.
The Shillong-based filmmaker recounts the trend in the hills, where youngsters move on to ‘greener pastures’ in upmarket towns and cities, leaving behind their home and moorings. “I wouldn’t blame the government alone here. Even if facilities are there, the urge is to leave, much like the call of the American dream pulling youngsters to the West,” says the self-taught director, who has a line-up of Khasi films.
“You can go for education and for skill development, but what stops them from coming back and sustaining life here? What can even policies or politics do if life vacates itself from a space? I showed the culmination of this crisis in my movie, which is also a warning and a prayer that such a time shouldn’t befall my village and its environs.”
Vinod Kapri’s film ‘Pyre’, in Hindi with Kumaoni dialect, also speaks of a similar dilemma but from a different perspective. Set in an Uttarakhand village, the film is themed on the loneliness of the elderly that stares hard from the frames, bleakening the beauty of the mountainous landscape.
But the situation here is not futuristic. “It is the story of a couple I met in my village, whose next generation had migrated to the flashy plains where city life gave them the chances they didn’t have back in their village,” says Vinod, whose vision is to return to his village and narrate stories from there.
“Here, one cannot blame the youngsters for making the move. How can anyone survive in a place where there are no facilities for education and health or work? All the development that is hyped to be happening in the hills is tourism-centric, which doesn’t involve or affect the local population.
Pregnant women have died while being taken to hospitals in the plains because of lack of medical facilities. Schools do not have teachers who can teach. There aren’t good colleges, and the power and road facilities are abysmal, and there are no economic models devised to create jobs based on produces of the region.”
The migration of youth, however, has had a positive twist, with more skilled hands now being able to speak the story of their people. Two more films in the IFFK package are testimony to this: ‘Secret of the Mountain Serpent’, which straddles a mindscape between reality and mystery, and ‘Shape of Momo’, which is about the return of a native who finds the choice between conforming to tradition and claiming independence a pressing decision.
It is the natives — those who have grown beyond their regional boundaries to imbibe the skills and techniques of the modern world — who are now speaking up on the issues affecting their region, says Tribeny Ray, director of the Sikkimese film ‘Shape of Momo’.
Tribeny believes she is the first among the Sikkimese to study at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) in Kolkata. “Now, there are many from the northeast and other hilly terrains who are getting trained in places like FTII,” she says.
“They are the ones who are making films on mountains not just as some adventure stories and tales of crumbling ecology but about the lives of people there that have remained unseen in the hype of human feats and passions. This has also increased the access to technology or trained personnel.”
Earlier, she adds, filmmakers had a tough time sourcing equipment and skilled technicians to make movies in the hills. “Now, the scene is much better. Another positive is that film festivals are getting more accepting of regional voices,” she notes.
Tribeny still wouldn’t vote for any exclusive forums for mountain-themed films. “Events such as the Dharamshala International Film Festival have done their mite by exposing the local population of the hills to world cinema and have also helped in imparting skill-based training,” she says.
“However, what is actually needed is an intervention to provide a support system to filmmakers from the areas to better showcase the story of the mountains and the people there.”
The films and their tones together set in a positivity — youngsters who venture out but return to their roots would mean the hills retaining their mystic charm and dewy health.