Jnanada Kakati, sitting, with film director Bobbeeta Sharma to her right and scriptwriter Jimoni Choudhury behind her. Photo: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
A new documentary has traced the “unplanned” cinematic journey of Assam’s first announcer for All India Radio in 1948.
Jnanada Kakati stepped accidentally into the world of cinema at a time when working in films was taboo for women in Assam. Her first film in 1949 was Parghat.
Her film Puberun directed by Prabhat Mukherjee was selected for screening at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1960 where she was invited as a special guest.
“When I received the letter of invitation to the Berlin Film Festival, I was so excited that I ran wearing my Hawaii chappals to my husband’s office to give him the news. I was almost out of breath and my husband had to give me a glass of water to calm me down,” Ms Kakati, 90, recalls in the biographical film titled Jnanada: Reflections of Light and Shade directed by Bobbeeta Sharma.
The distance she covered from her residence in Shillong’s Oakland to her husband’s office in the Assam Secretariat was about 1 km. Shillong was then the capital of undivided Assam.
Her role in Puberun garnered appreciation in Assam and abroad and former Chief Secretary, Dharmananda Das, and Finance Minister Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed – he became India’s President later – ensured her trip to Berlin.
Ms. Kakati was the first Assamese actress to receive the President’s silver medal from President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan in 1960 for her work in Puberun.
Apart from becoming the first announcer at AIR’s Shillong and Guwahati stations, she was an accredited singer for the national radio and sang many popular songs.
“I interviewed Jnanada Kakati for my book, The Moving Image and Assamese Culture in 2012 but it was not in video format. With Assamese cinema close to turning 90 (now in its 88 th year), I felt the rich experience of veterans like the nonagenarian needed to be documented for posterity,” Ms. Sharma said.
The documentary also features Atanoo Baruwa and Ruma Sarma. The former was Ms. Kakati’s reel son in Puberun and the latter, popular as Baby Ruma, had acted with her in two more films besides Puberun – ‘Saknoiya’ and ‘sorapat’.
Among the other co-actors featured in the documentary are former matinee idol Pranjal Saikia. He shared screen space with Ms. Kakati in Priyajon and Raag Biraag.
Veteran actress Aroti Barua inaugurated the film for a special screening on March 19. Ms. Sharma is also the executive producer of the film along with Chinmoy Sharma. The film has been edited by Ravindra Badgaiyan, scripted by Jimoni Choudhury, packaged by Bhabesh Baishya and shot by Sharad Kumar Verma.