Award-winning filmmaker Jahnu Barua on his latest release, Ajeyo

The 117-minute film looks at the story of an idealistic youth Gojen Keot (Rupam Chetia), who is excited by the prospects of an independent India. He sees the divisive forces of communalism and other social evils coming into play and wages a war against them. As years pass and India gets freedom, he grows pessimistic. The movie fast forwards into present-day Assam, when his granddaughter, a police officer, challenges the discrimination towards women in the system and stands up for her rights. “What I liked in the book is the perspective of a high school drop-out and his dream about independence. But he soon realises that a lot of things are going against his dream,” says the 60-year-old filmmaker, who has 12 feature films in Assamese and a few Hindi films to his credit.

For a 12-time National Award-winning filmmaker who hails from Bokota Chand Bessa, a tiny district in Assam, the obscurity of his work on a mass scale cannot go unnoticed. Ajeyo is his second Assamese film to have a major theatrical release. His first was Baandhon, last year, about the emotional trauma of two grandparents who lose their grandson during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. “People don’t watch films from other regions. For instance, if a Malayalam film is regarded as the best film in the country, a Gujarati will not want to see it,” says Barua, whose last Hindi film Maine Gandhi ko Nahin Mara (2005) was also set in pre-independence India and modelled around Gandhi’s philosophy. “As a filmmaker, I feel I have a social responsibility and keep getting provoked by themes which are socio-political in nature,” he says.

Currently, Barua is patiently awaiting the release of his Hindi film, Har Pal, starring Preity Zinta and Isha Koppikar, which has been stalled for years due to its lead actor Shiney Ahuja fighting a court case.