Restored Manipuri film to be screened in Cannes Classic section

“It is fantastic that Ishanou is returning to Cannes in all its glory… The beautiful restoration will remind the world of the work of a true artist like Aribam Syam Sharma, and give a new life to an almost forgotten gem of India’s film heritage from Manipur,” says Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, director, Film Heritage Foundation (FHF).

The year-long restoration project was undertaken by FHF conservators, who worked on repairing the original camera negative on 16 mm that was preserved at the National Film Archive of India. After the negative was repaired, it was scanned at L’Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna, using a wet-gate scanner.

For Syam Sharma, a Padma Shri recipient, witnessing his film being restored “so beautifully and respectfully” has been an exhilarating journey. Talking about the making of Ishanou, the filmmaker says it was developed “organically”.

The story revolves around protagonist Tampha (Anoubam Kiranmala), a young woman with a loving husband and a small daughter. She lives in the Manipur valley, occupied with mundane details of everyday life. Later, she begins to behave in a strange manner, talking to flowers, becoming afflicted with dizzy spells and wandering out of the house in the dark of the night. The family eventually realises that she is responding to the inexorable call of the deity. As if in a dream, Tampha abandons her family to join the Maibi sect of priestesses.

The second half of the film captures the mysticism of the Maibis with their exquisite costumes, graceful dances and ritual singing. Syam Sharma says: “Behind the colourful spectacle of the traditional Manipuri Lai-Haraoba, into which Tampha almost loses herself in enraptured absorption, there lurks the pain of a mother who can no longer nurture a child who now grows into a stranger.” Towards the end, the film shows a brief encounter at a festival between Tampha, her estranged husband and grown-up daughter who fails to recognise her.

Syam Sharma, who is credited with putting Manipuri cinema on the world map, is known for his simple, poetic narratives about ordinary people of Manipur. “I believe that as filmmakers, we need to return to our roots again and again to make films, which stand as works of art,” says the 1936-born filmmaker, who made his directorial debut with Lamja Parshuram (1974). He made several successful movies such as Saaphabee,(1976), Olangthagee Wangmadasoo (1979) and Imagi Ningthem (1981).

Recalling his experience of watching Ishanou for the first time, Dungarpur says during the screening of a 35 mm print of the film in Imphal in 2021, he could see “the print was not in the best condition with scratches and flicker and uneven colours that disturbed the eye”.

“Yet the beauty of the film and the simple yet powerful narrative rooted in the unique culture of Manipur, transcended the distortions that marred the artistry of the imagery playing out on the big screen. I was determined that Ishanou must be restored to its former glory and that the world should be reminded of a filmmaker who had put Manipuri cinema on the world map,” he says.