Joymoti, the first Assamese film was a path-breaking endeavour, a trend-setting episode in the history of Assamese film-making. It was Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Agarwalla’s dream come true. Working within an environment when the infrastructure of filmmaking in Assam had virtually no meaning and facing immense hardship, Rupkonwar completed and released Joymoti in Kolkata on March 10, 1935. Later on, it was released in different parts of Assam.
Unfortunately, the people of Assam did not respond to it whole-heartedly. Rupkonwar faced criticism, sometimes extremely harsh, from different quarters of the Assamese society.
In fact, Jyotiprasad faced an acute financial crisis after the failure of Joymoti to succeed commercially. He spent more than Rs 50,000 on Joymoti, which was a big amount in those days. He was desperately seeking to compensate the loss he incurred in the making of Joymoti. With only this goal in his mind, he produced and directed Indramalati, the second Assamese feature film within a budget of just Rs 15,000 (other sources claimed it as only Rs 12,000). His second venture was a relatively successful one and this, to a large extent, managed to compensate the earlier loss.
Indramalati was, however, not the true reflection of a man who has been considered the icon of Assamese art and culture. In Indramalati Jyotiprasad compromised on many aspects of filmmaking,
even avoiding some of the basic rules of filmmaking. This was done only to reduce the expenditure in making the film, and Rupkonwar himself wrote about this lacuna in Indramalati in some of his writings.
His earlier film Joymoti, was based on the drama of the same title written by Rasaraj Lakshminath Bezboruah, and it was based on historical sources. But Rupkonwar himself wrote the story of Indramalati, which was romantic in its theme. The name of the hero was Indrajit while Malati was the name of the heroine. And significantly, Jyotiprasad was the first filmmaker to introduce the style of movie-making by using the names of the lead pair.
Joymoti had already opened up new vistas for Assamese actors and actresses, and Jyotiprasad faced comparatively less trouble in finding them for Indramalati. The role of the hero was played by Manoviram Baruah while Raseswari Baruah (Hazarika) was cast as Malati. Natasurjya Phani Sarma played one of the significant roles, that of Indrajit’s friend. Even music maestro Dr Bhupen Hazarika acted in the film. Dr Hazarika also lent his voice for the film, singing Biswa Bijoyee Navajowan... He was only 13 years old then.
It was around 1937-38 when the great man began shooting for Indramalati. This time, however, he did not use his Chitraban Studio for the outdoor shoot. Instead, he chose the ‘Talbari’ of his family, at Harigaon, two kilometres from Tezpur Mission Chariali. It may be mentioned that here in the Talbari, Rupkonwar and several of his family members were cremated after their death. Within seven days, Jyotiprasad completed the outdoor shooting. Interestingly, during this schedule, the movie camera was really not moving. It was kept at a fixed point, and the sets and artistes kept changing the angles. Around 15,000 feet of film were used.
After this, the eight-member film unit left for Kolkata where they would shoot for the indoor locations. Sets were built in Arora Studio, Narkeldanga, where all the indoor shooting was done. An amazingly short three-day shooting schedule at Arora Studio was followed by the artistes, working hard round the clock.
No artistes of Indramalati, like Joymoti, took remuneration. They even participated in the shooting wearing their own clothes. In some scenes, the costumes even failed to maintain the continuity.
Indramalati was produced under the banner of ‘Chitralekha Movietone’ (Joymati too), and Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Agarwalla was the story writer, screenplay writer, director, lyricist, music director, art director, costume designer and editor, all rolled into one. Indramalati was released in the year 1939.
There were only nine major roles in Indramalati, and besides Manoviram Barua and Raseswari Baruah, the others were Phani Sarma, Thanuram Bora, Lalit Mohan Choudhury, Khargeswar Agarwalla, Kashi Saikia, Bedananda Sarma and Bhupen Hazarika. Other actors who were also in the film included the Rupkonwar himself, Jnanaviram Barua, Mani Lahiri, etc.
Rupkonwar had a plan for another film. During the year 1949, he had even initiated the process. But ill health prevented him from going ahead with the project.
Almost single-handedly, Jyotiprasad had established the fact that with sheer dedication and a strong will, nothing was impossible. And that is true even in these days. Nothing is impossible!
