ITIHAAS

A feature film produced by
RUPKAMAL PRODUCTIONS,
GUWAHATI, ASSAM.

Director :
Bhabendra Nath Saikia
THE CAST

The Artiste	The Role
Nikumoni Barua Mridula Barua Tapan Das Biju Phukan Nilu Chakraborty Jayanta Das Upakul Bardoloi Dilip Phukan Tapas Dutta Dr. Hemen Barman Jowan Dutta Punyada Bora Indubhushan Gogoi Subhash Goswami Prarthana Gayan Pratibha Choudhury Manjula Barua Jeena Barua Anurupa Banerjee	Lakhimi Manju Madhu Mukul Arabinda Prof. Kumar Kishorilal Bhola Alakesh Bhadralok(1) Robikumar Nepal Bhadralok(2) Sankar Rukmini Sarala Bijoya Ratna Parbati

CREDITS

Producer	: Rupkamal Productions, Bora’s Inn,Guwahati-781028
Executive Producers	: Late Rupam Bora, Khasgir Babul, Leena Bora, Pradip Hazarika
Producer	: Leena Bora
Story, Screenplay, Dialogue, Direction	: Bhabendra Nath Saikia
Cinematography	: Kamal Nayak
Audiography	: Anup Mukhopadhyay, Jyoti Bandopadhyay, Hirendra Prasad Bhattacharyya
Editor	: Nikunja Bhattacharjee
Music Director	: Indreswar Sarma
Art Director	: Nuruddin Ahmed
Make Up	: Pradip Bag
Asstt. Directors	: Jayanta Das, Parvez Ahmed, Indu Bhusan Gogoi, Punyada Bora
Costume Supervision	: Preeti Saikia
Commentary	: Sanjeev Hazarika
Management	: Satish Baishya, Punyada Bora, Babul Kakoti, Indubhushan Gogoi
Production Supervision	: Biswajit Bora
Technical Management	: Arun Guhathakurta
Processed at	: Prasad Film Laboratories, Madras
Edited at	: Jyoti Chitroban (Film Studio) Society, Guwahati

SYNOPSIS OF THE STORY

It was a small locality at the fringe of a town. Steeped in poverty, its people lived in their own characteristic worlds. The public well there was a common property for all of them- and for both their souls and social activities. About twice a year the municipality men lifted the mud from its bottom in order to clear the water. Whenever that operation was done, various things that had once belonged to some people of that locality -specially those that had dropped there from the children’s hands – came up to the outside. In those things and in the joys expressed on their recovery was reflected the simple and uncomplicated character of their lives.

At a certain stage the town started developing speedily towards that area. All around buildings came up. Most of the land of that locality was owned by Damodar – who was, however, poor and addicted to drinks. He sold out his land, plot after plot, to Kishorilal, a rich business – man of the town. Kishorilal planned to buy up all the land there and build up a “housing Complex”. And all the land did ultimately go to Kishorilal. And after that all the people who had been residents of the locality moved away to the other side of the river.

But Bhola – who belonged to a family that lived at an extreme end of that locality did not agree to selling his paternal plot of land there. As a result the whole plan of Kishorilal was about to receive a bad shape. However, he cajoled Nepal – the elder brother of Bhola – into agreeing to sell away his own share of the plot and ultimately started building the housing-complex. Gradually the huge complex, being built there, surrounded from all sides the solitary house of Bhola’s family. One day Kishorilal made a proposal : when the complex would be completed he would give Bhola a flat of three rooms in the very area they had their paternal house; he would make Bhola a supervisor in a Floor Mill at Laxmipur, and till the flat was completed would give them a house across the river to live in for that interim period.

Bhola had no alternative to accepting this proposal. One day he took his mother Sarala and the two grown- up sisters Lakhimi and Rukmini to a house across the river to settle them there and went away to work in a Flour Mill of Kishorilal at Laxmipur.

A great change came over Bhola as he happened to find himself in the midst of various people. His relations with his sisters became thin as he started enjoying his life in Laxmipur. The only well-wisher of that family, which had fallen into the clutch of utter poverty in that time, was Madhu who had been a lover of his sister Lakhimi for a long time. The house given to them had become rather a ramshackle one; but after the completion of the housing- complex Kishorilal started playing a hide and seek game when he had to give them a flat of three rooms. One day Madhu forcefully occupied that flat and thus made arrangements for Lakhimi and her family to live there. But as a result of that act he came to be in Kishorilal’s disfavour.

A new life for Lakhimi and her sister and mother began in a flat of a modern housing complex raised on the plot of land which belonged to them. There was no arrangements for electricity and water in that flat which Kishorilal had used as a godown. The daily life of the family of Lakhimi became again connected with that old well. After a period of this phase of life had elapsed, Rukmini – the sister of Lakhimi one day fled away with Robilal, who had been working on Kishorilal’s housing – complex as a work-assistant; and there was no telling where they had gone.

Compelled by the necessity of earning a livelihood while living with her mother, Lakhimi, at one stage, started doing household chores at the houses of several well-to-do families. Coming into close contact with the so-called good society she found a variety of characters being gradually revealed before her eyes. She became gradually helpless and silent while getting an experience of man’s tenderness, generosity, ugliness, fierceness and vileness. Through all this experience she gradually lost Madhu – the only support of her hopes and aspirations. One day, the supportless Lakhimi wanted to rebel against the evil forces that made her lose her everything; but as a consequence she found a shelter in the bottom of the well – the well which had been a companion of hers since her childhood.

In search of clues to her death, the mud of the well was raised to the outside ground for the last time. Mingled with that mud there came up materials of a history of the recent times.

The original story : “Barnana”
Time of writing : 1975
Writer : Bhabendra Nath Saikia