Following the rather significant impact of the initial film, both in festivals around the world and within India, self-taught filmmaker Rima Das decided to shoot “Village Rockstars 2“, presenting Dhuru’s situation 7 years after the events of the prequel. The film premiered in Busan where it won the Kim Jiseok Award.
Village Rockstars 2 is screening at Busan International Film Festival
Still in a small rural village in Assam, Dhunu lives with her ailing mother, trying to juggle work in the fields, taking care of her mother, and trying to pursue her dream of becoming a professional guitarist in her rock band, while her formed bandmates seem to have forgotten about their common goal. With her mother getting worse and worse, in her effort to take care of her children neglecting completely herself, and her brother frequently getting drunk and pestering her mother to sell their land in order for him to buy a motorcycle, things do not look particularly bright for anyone in the family. Even more so, since the floods in the area continue to destroy crops, and cause various disasters.
Rima Das creates a film that tries to balance Dhunu’s hopefulness through her music aspirations and her interactions with her girlfriends, with the misery and filled-with-issues life of a poor family in Assam. The music scenes, the ones where Dhunu is acting like a kid, climbing trees, playing music, reminiscing of the events of the first movie or swimming, and the aforementioned interactions are the main sources of the first element. Her mother’s situation, her brother’s erratic behavior, the issues Assamese face due to climate change, the land swindlers and their despicable tactics, the intense patriarchy, and the poorness represent the latter.
As it becomes evident, despite Das’s efforts to retain the balance, and Dhunu’s frequent smiles that bright the screen, the result definitely leans towards bleakness, with the situation being too dire for any kind of ‘tricks’ to mask it. At the same time, though, Das retains at least some sort of optimism through her main protagonist, thus preventing the movie from becoming too pessimistic.
This rather realistic approach is also mirrored in the visuals of the movie, with Das’s own cinematography implementing a documentary-like approach in the presentation of all the above, in a style that definitely suits the narrative. Cinematic artistry, however, does exist, with the depiction of the beauties of the area and the close ups to the protagonists definitely moving towards that direction, in a series of truly memorable scenes. Her editing results in a mid-tempo that also works well, although some cuts do tend to be a bit abrupt.
The acting follows the same paths. Bhanita Das as Dhunu is exceptional in a low key performance that essentially dictates the style of the narrative. Basanti Das as her mother is equally good, particularly in expressing her weakness.
A triumph of low-budget, minimalistic cinema, “Village Rockstars 2” is a great movie that manages to continue the story in the most rewarding fashion, particularly in the way Dhunu’s is implemented in order to show the situation in Assam, without stripping her story of interest in any way. Me, and I believe many others, will be waiting for the 3rd movie.
