By: Rupak G. Duarah
Assamese Filmmaker Biswajeet Bora’s ‘God on the Balcony’ won the ‘First Best Asian Film 2020’ award in the ‘Asian Cinema Competition, 2020’ section whereas Aimee Baruah’s ‘Semkhor’ won the ‘First Best Indian Cinema 2020’ award in the ‘Chitrabharathi Indian Cinema Competition 2020’ section and Kripal Kalita’s ‘Bridge’ won the ‘Third Best Indian Cinema 2020’ in the ‘Chitrabharathi Indian Cinema Competition 2020’ section at the prestigious ‘13th Bengaluru International Film Festival 2022’ held from March 3 to 10, 2022 in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
In January this year, Harish Khanna who played the lead role in the film ‘God on the Balcony’ won the ‘Best Actor Award (Jury Mention)’ at the ‘10th DC South Asian Film Festival’ held in the United States of America. Besides it, in 2021 Biswajeet Bora won the ‘Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Best Director award for the film at the ‘26th Kolkata International Film Festival’.
‘God on the Balcony’ is based on the true story of a poor man of a remote village who could not save his wife who was seriously injured after the attack of wild elephants in his house. The film reflects some common problems of rural areas such as poor healthcare, lack of quality education, pitiable condition of roads, underprivileged livelihood, etc. in an artistic manner of picturization. It is a matter of pride for us that the film has been warmly welcomed by more than 20 national and international film festivals and has been appreciated with 9 awards to date.
The film is produced by Noorul Sultan under the banner of Maina Production. Harish Khanna plays the lead role as ‘Khagen’. Other characters are played by Pranami Bora, Porinandhi Jima Sultana, Arun Hazarika, Rajib Kro, Pabitra Baruah, Sunit Bora, Gauri Sankar Bhuyan, Binod Lal Das, Ajay Bharali, Jatin Khanikar, Jyotisman Kashyap, Ibha Mahanta and Alok Baruah. Moreover, senior advocate Bijon Mahajan, senior actor Dinesh Das, and journalist Rajdeep Bailung have also acted in the film. (The author can be reached at rintu.duarah@gmail.com)
