Village Rockstars Movie Review: The Purest Distillation of India’s Entry

duytk |Oct 02, 2018

Director: Rima Das
Cast: Bhanita Das, Basanti Das
Rating: 4/5

Village Rockstars is a well-known Indian film in Assamese language under the direction of Rima Das. The film caught loads of attention from both audiences and critics for its plot and how the director made it. So, do you know how Rima Das has created such a great film from having nothing? Actually, she so persists and determined that her film-making process began at the zero points. It is demonstrated through the way she persuaded the cast and convince the viewers to trust the tales that she would tell. Then, she hoped the same thing for her characters.

Village Rockstars Review: Story

Village Rockstars is a heartbreaking story of resilience and hope. The film background portrayed an isolated area in Assam. In the film, Dhunu is a young girl who fancy going fishing with other boys, climbing the tall trees, and showing off her thermocol guitar. However, Dhunu does not like doing the daily chores or helping her widowed mother at all. She is a girl who loves guitar so much that she wishes she could have her own real guitar in the near future. In spite of living in poverty, Dhunu’s a girl who has dreams, know to dreams, and try to accomplish it.

Watch the Village Rockstars trailer here:

Village Rockstars: Highlights

The role of Dhunu enlightens the film to make it more memorable. One of the highlights in Villages Rockstars is that the lead role, Dhunu has nothing to go with the rice, even no curry at all. And, she falls into this situation usually. The director also depicts the scene in which she doesn’t even have an umbrella to prevent herself from raining. Instead, she has to use a big leaf. If you pay more attention, you could see that she doesn’t have many clothes. All she has is less than a couple of clothes for daily changes. Despite her limited means, Dhunu has giant dreams.

In Village Rockstars, Dhunu also has some friends. Compared to others, she is the only person in the group to experience the adulthood of the antiquated type. That’s why she dissembles herself to be a member of one rock band. These children in this remote area have no means, inspiration, reinforcement, or anything that could make their dreams come true. However, they still have fun from creating their instruments by crafting. For example, they even use a small cardboard to cut into a guitar. Moreover, they also turn the wooden plank into the drum kit. Or, they humorously make a microphone from the chopped logs.

It seems that the stories of these children is quite similar to how the director, Rima Das made her film. Their lives all stick to the emptiness. Sadly, even a gaze of a child doesn’t have enough potential to conceal the lives’ bitter reality. Probably, both Rima Das and the children could realize that the daydream, in spite of being unnatural and impermanent, is still important to their loves.

Village Rockstars Review: Hidden Meanings & Messages

Dhunu and other friends witness each other grow from the childhood until their adulthood in this distant area of Assamese. This village is where there is no separation between the earth and the sky. Especially, Assamese village also sets fire to the amber color of the never-ending sunset. It’s also the land in which only eyes could see how far the ambition and the dream would go.

An outstanding scene found in the film involves a rare conversation between an elder in the village and Dhunu. The elderly inspires her to attend a class at school, then achieve a scholarship. Getting a scholarship is not a way to modify the current world. More than that, it is to trade vegetables as well as milk. Therefore, it will help her stay away from a life which is like the life of her mother. From this scene, we could infer a hidden message from that. It’s the ambition of improving the poor lives of the local people.

However, the future life of Dhunu seems obvious under her eyes. Almost all of the villagers were born and grew here. Then, many of them are supposed to die here. Nevertheless, the mother of Dhunu recognizes her past. Specifically, the past is the life of a child before the difficulties began.

But her life has changed. Now, she teaches her daughter, Dhunu everything she knows and what other people have. Hence, she tries to work hard in order to defend Dhunu from the rage of nature as well as the unavoidability of forced to grow up.

Village Rockstars Review: A Short Comparison

Unlike other films with a certain technical and narrative rule, Rima Das tends to go another way. It is quite apparent to distinguish that the film doesn’t have the first, the second, or the third acts like others. If it is necessary to cite an example, there is no better than Terrence Malick. There is a big resemblance between Village Rockstars and Terrence Malick. The film is set with a camera which is curiously stoic. Especially, there is a memorable scene in which there’s a hand floating over the tall grass.

Nonetheless, Village Rockstars is somewhat more than Malock in several aspects. We all could see that some of the similar cinematic cousins to Village Rockstars are Benh Zeitlin’s 2012 legend involving the climate change, a masterpiece of 2017 Sean Baker, and Beasts of the Southern Wild. Remarkably, Village Rockstars also adheres to its vaguely ecstatic conclusion.

Both Village Rockstars and these films share some similarities. It shows the perception of a child to the world as well as the surrounding people. And, they have hope in their hearts. However, there is a difference. While the previously-mentioned films have mysterious pragmatism, Village Rockstars melts the Sofia Coppola’s visuals with The Vittorio De Sica’s neo-realism.

Village Rockstars Review: Final Words

Besides directing and writing, Rima Das also takes responsibilities for producing, shooting, and editing the film. Also, she reveals her talent in designing the incredible sounds with the raindrops, the rumbling clouds, and the flowing streams. All these sounds are enough to soak you up in her own world.

There are few final words for Village Rockstars. The film is not only inviting but also challenging. It does not have a normal storytelling style. But, it still attracts audiences and critics thanks to its persistence. Additionally, the film’s final moments could reward itself to be one of the best films of the year.