Exquisite rapture

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Dominic Megam Sangma's Rapture (Rimdogittanga, in the Garo dialect), from Shillong, Meghalaya in the North East, easily establishes him among the finest young Indian filmmakers today, no question. His debut feature Ma'ama (Moan, in Garo, 2018) had already marked him out as an impressive artist to watch out for. That film was deeply personal, about and featuring his family members - his late father, siblings, and locals. With his second feature Rapture, Sangma's cinema vaults to another level. His concerns are wider, situated in his community but universal - how the politics of fear, as well as the role of religion and the state, can stoke suspicion and hatred, destroying communities - as seen through the eyes of 10-year-old Kasan. It mirrors - and even prophesies - the explosion of ethnic violence in Manipur and other parts of North East India today, and discreetly comments on how the state treats outsiders from beyond India's borders. Equally importantly, he poetically evokes mesmerising other worlds, while retaining solid control of his craftsmanship. The film is the second in a trilogy that draws from his family and village. Manipuri filmmaker Haobam Paban Kumar's films, too, have long cautioned against ethnic and state violence in Manipur and North East, including ‘AFSPA, 1958,' Loktak Lairembee and Nine Hills One Valley.

Rapture comes festooned in glory, acclaimed at the Locarno, Busan, Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festivals and Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles IFFLA, and winner of the Asia Pacific Screen Award, APSA Cultural Diversity Award, in Australia. Significantly, it is an Indo-China co-production, but more accurately an India-China-Qatar-Switzerland-Netherlands coproduction, led by Xu Jianshang (China) and Sangma (India). So, while it is not made under the Indo-China coproduction treaty, its funds and support come from worldwide, including Vision Sud East, Switzerland, Doha Film Institute, Qatar, Hubert Bals Fund, Rotterdam, Busan Asian Film School (Afis, Korea), Film Bazaar, Goa, La Fabrique Cinema at the Cannes Film Festival; Sangma was at the Berlinale Talents, while Xu was at the Tokyo Talents, among others. Not bad for a hyperlocal Garo film from the North East. Observe the arduous journeys artists' teams must undertake, in order to protect independent voices.

The film opens with a mesmerising night search for cicadas in a bamboo forest - a rare delicacy, with long takes, lit by torches and firelight mashaals. That night, a local goes missing. The missing man's family goes for guidance to a shaman, who is scorned by the pastor from the local church: prophesying 40 days and nights of darkness, he raises money for an apocalypse relief fund. Meanwhile, suspicions are stoked that outsiders are kidnapping locals for organ transplants, leading to a murder - and then several. Locals chase away a police officer - a representative of the state/mainland India - on duty. Sangma is not interested in easy binaries of outsider villains and insider victims: outsiders can be victims too, and villains can come from within the community. He makes subtle yet devastating comments on the role of organised religion and the state.

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The direction is absolutely stunning. It is an aching combination of politics, poetry and philosophy. His screenplay takes on a lot of issues, but it works because he is mysterious and elliptical, preferring symbols and hints at psychological depths, rather than spelling things out. In one of the film's most extraordinary scenes, Kasan is trapped in a coffin in an otherworldly cave. Kindly ghosts wearing masks and carrying beautiful bamboo lamps release him and guide him back home, in a scene poetically lit by fireflies. And who knew that a scene with a pastor gorging on a papaya in bed, could be as devastating as his evangelism? Sangma is fascinated by death, dreams and other worlds: Kasan's Uncle Sobel is a coffin maker; Kasan, who has a cleft lip and is often bullied, calmly pours hot water on a trapped cat, and sets fire to trapped birds. Sangma casts mainly local tribal and indigenous actors, including Torikhu A Sangma, Handam R Marak, Balsrame A Sangma and Celestine K Sangma, a local cleric, who bring authenticity. Tojo Xavier's cinematography is a highlight of the film, with many stunning night scenes and poetic evocation of other worlds. Mohan Kumar Valasala's editing weaves multiple strands to a foreboding climax. Vineet Vashistha's sound design is evocative, as is Anon Ch. Momin's spare music. Special mention must be made of colourist Mahak Gupta's atmospheric work. Xavier, Valasala and Vashistha are all Sangma's buddies from SRFTI, where he studied. The women crew include producers Xu Jianshang and Sun Li (China), Meghalaya-based producer Eva Gunme Marak, Anupama Rangachar, colourist Mahak Gupta, and costume designer Coretta A Sangma. Brava, ladies! Don't miss this film!

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com