Netflix is helping a lot of people in dealing with covid-blues. But, have you ever found yourself in a situation when you want to watch a movie on Netflix but can’t decide on which one to watch? And you didn’t even realise that you spent about an hour in merely rummaging through the list of options? If yes, then worry not. Here is a list of few movies from or based on Northeast India that are currently streaming on Netflix.
Penalty
Originally released in 2019, Penalty is a sports drama directed by Shubham Singh. The story revolves around a Manipuri guy, Lukram, who wants to become a great football player. To achieve his dream, he gets himself admitted in a college in Lucknow which has produced several International level football players. However, racial discrimination steeps in between Lukram and his dream.
The character of Lukram is played by Lukram Smil who is a Manipur based actor.
III Smoking Barrels
Directed by Sanjib Dey, the movie narrates three individual stories dealing with three issues pertaining to the Northeastern region- Terrorism, drugs and Immigrants. One of the striking features of this movie is that it’s multilingual. It also won the Silver Palm Award at 2018 Mexico International Film Festival for Best Narrative Feature.
Maj Rati Keteki
Written and directed by Santwana Bardoloi, ‘Maj Rati Keteki’ is an Assamese drama starring Adil Hussain in the lead. Hussain won the National Film Award – Special Mention (feature film) at 64th National Film Awards for his acting in this film. The movie features only one song sung by Rupam Bhuyan. The story surrounds a renowned writer who visits his native town after a decade where he begins to reminisicent his gone days. Originally released in 2017, the film is an interesting and gripping tale of nostalgia and memories which makes it worth a watch. It’s available with English subtitles in Netflix.
Village Rockstars
Rima Das’ Village Rockstar needs no introduction. The movie carved a niche for itself with its exceptional story and acting.
It was premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and was able to bag quite a number of awards including the Best Feature Film ‘Swarna Kamal’ award at the 65th National Film Awards along with three other categories: Best Child Artist, Best Location Sound Recordist and Best Editing. The movie is about a young girl in rural Assam who dreams of forming a rock band of her own. The movie was also selected as India’s official entry for the best foreign-language film category of the 2019 Academy (Oscar) Awards. However, it couldn’t make it to the list. So, if you haven’t watched this cinematic masterpiece yet, you are missing out on something incredible!
Bulbul Can Sing
Another masterpiece by Rima Das, Bulbul Can Sing, is available on Netflix. The movie bagged the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Assamese at India’s 66th National Film Awards. Screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, the story revolves around Bulbul who hails from a village in Assam and her two friends. The trio try to find what they want to be and realise that the society has contradictory expectations from them.
Axone
Axone is a much talked about movie in the recent times. Directed by Nicholas Kharkongar, the movie is about a group of friends Upasana (Sayani Gupta), Chanbi (Lin Laishram), and Zorem (Tenzin Dalha) from Northeast living in Delhi who want to cook a Naga Pork dish with Axone to surprise their friend on her special day. Axone is a commonly used fermented ingredient in Nagaland. It has a very strong smell. In simple words the movie serves the issue of racism in a satirical platter. The adventurous struggle that they had to go through just to cook a traditional dish, well aligns with the difficulties that people from the Northeast are facing outside the region on a daily basis.