In her heydays in a village in Assam, Dhunu enjoys the company of her friends all over the village. One day, she decides to form a musical group out of her group and buy a guitar. Meanwhile, the villagers become concerned about Dhunu being the only girl in the group.
Village Rockstars is an Assamese-language Indian film that knocked the doors on many international films festivals and won most of the awards. It was the official submission for the Oscars in 2017. The most impressive part of the film is the backstory of the film’s production. The film in its entirety has been shot without a crew and Canon 5D has been used. There is no official budget for this film and most of the production is done by the director herself, Rima Das.
The film is shot in Rima’s home village. It may look like some docudrama but basically is a coming-of-age film that shows a girl as young as ten being harassed by the senior villagers for playing with boys and suggesting to marry her somewhere.
Dhunu may be a subject of observation that a 10yo girl can dream big if she will. She saves every single penny to buy a guitar and waits for the good days. The mother-daughter chemistry is also picturized well where she tries to convince her daughter and put in her mind to dissuade from her wishes and do what the other girls have to for the future.
Village Rockstars is a 90-minute drama that spends most of the time in Dhunu playing and enjoying with friends. The village activities are directed with meticulous care. Maybe, the film would do way more than that if the crew was involved with a productional budget. I think the film deserves the credit for being a faithful story in such a raw production.
Ratings: 6.5/10
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Sami Naik | Film Critic 