Sonia Lulla (MID-DAY; March 23, 2018)

Set in 1983, Victor Banerjee’s award-winning Assamese film, Rainbow Fields, depicts the trauma of children growing up during the Nellie massacre that took place in Assam.

One might assume that exposing the child actors in the drama to sensitive topics like guns, killings and death, may have been difficult. But Banerjee suggests otherwise. “When you belong to places like Assam, Nagaland or Mizoram, death has an entirely different significance, or insignificance, if you may. With this film, we’ve put out a story that’s natural for the people of that area. Since I grew up in the northeast, I have a great deal of sympathy for the way they feel, and the causes that they have been dying for,” Banerjee, who plays a grandfather to kids affected by the turmoil, tells mid- day.

Given that the veteran actor has been witness to the trauma that children growing up in the midst of violence endure, his casting in the project is fitting. He says that the Bidyut Kotoky-directed venture is special due to the manner in which the subject has been underplayed. “You won’t see much blood in the film, but there is a persistent undercurrent of violence that is bothersome.”

It is the lack of dramatization in films of this nature that make them better suited for European countries, says Banerjee. He adds that, in stark contrast, Bollywood lacks such sensitivity. “I deeply despise Bollywood for what it has done to the Indian culture. I think a lot of the ‘moral values’ that we have, and the way we perceive women, has to do with Bollywood films. When my friends from international countries come here and watch a Bollywood film, they call our songs soft porn. Our tracks see our female actors in the skimpiest of clothes because that’s what the public wants,” says the actor, further criticizing the industry for stereotyping characters. “The South Indians are showcased as one kind of clowns, the Goans are portrayed as another kind of clowns, and so are the Christians. That’s a disgrace.”

Bollywood, he says, can learn the art of appropriately showcasing culture on the big screen from other film industries. “[The Marathi film industry] writes stories from their literature. Their concepts replicate the feelings and attitude of their kind. So, people belonging to the culture identify with it immediately. Their films have soul.”

Rainbow Fields, also starring Dipannita Sharma, is scheduled to his screens later this month.