VILLAGE ROCKSTARS paints the portrait of gaiety yet surfacing around the Stereotypes in a subtle rhythm

Still from Village Rockstars

The glimpses of our memories evoke a surrealistic rhythm of nostalgia that is beautiful yet grounded in reality. Village Rockstars showcases the utmost humanity that lies in the heart of the young minds, that flows through the wind in its simplistic tone. Poverty pulls forth the gleam of abyss, but they never stop dreaming, they find shelter of hope and rhythm of happiness in small fragmented pieces, and thus they create their own world with utmost sanity dwelled to it. It beautifully layers the earthly emotions of human life evoking light of hope for existence. It surprisingly pulls our hand and takes us onto the road of dilapidated morality.

Director Rima Das has pictured her own childhood in the earthly and naturalistic grounded tone. It’s the different elements that makes the tale an flavorful journey of its own. She has surfaced the story on ones dream yet pulling off the chords on various norms and stereotypical ideologies, pinching the nerves of those who are persisting through pain and anguish. She paints her ideal Assam keeping the mood of the cinema ecstatic and evoking various questions of conflict preciously to showcase the dark abyss in the light of reality. The surrounding is raw, its simple yet shivers us up and pulls us to wake up to reality.

Village Rockstar cherishes the childlike innocence of Dhunu (Bhanita Das) who dreams thorough her crestfallen reality of forming a rock band with the local boys but it throws the utmost layer of insanity that pulls her away from her dream, but she is a child and she will dream big. It’s a small world with enormous ecstatic colours flying around in the vagabond of gleeful reality. Its Dhunu’s natural presentation that embarks the flavour of childhood nostalgia. She has her own mystical world with glimpse surrounded with the local boys, munu (her goat) and her Mother (Basanti Das), whom she relies on the most as her primary support. The relation is yet strong as she raising her voice against her daughter’s injustice to working to fulfil her daughters wish of owing the instrument to create a soulful rhythm breaking the shackles of patriarchy in showcased in a much subtle tone. Rima Das cleverly build’s the natural and soothing rhythm that adds a cinematic brilliance to her work.

The naturally endearing yet charismatic element calls for sanity, the scene where Dhunu ecstatically dreams of forming her own rock band, starts of small by creating guitar out of thermocol and lives the particular moments it was strange yet beautiful and grounded in its way of presentation , its pulls off the ropes of realism yet staying awake to its subject. Its Dhunu ( and the locals boys) who will put smile on your face, bathing in rain water, fishing in lakes, picking mangoes from tree are some of the naturally executed moments that pulls glee and makes us realize our own childhood, those kids are us and the surrounding our home, its grounded up to its core, elevating layers of emotions, perpetuating nostalgia through the varied chapters of human life.

The colourful portrait of human life is nevertheless dawned upon by the walls of abyss reality. They are standing on that never-ending que of dilapidated morality questioning the situation around them but does anyone have any answer? It pulls forth the world around the girl (Dhunu) in a dark and hollow surface entity. The struggle of the villagers to make their end meets, women battling norms, prejudice and their daily monotonous life questions us to see the deep-rooted reality that is widening to its edges through the passage of time. It centres around a line where the women says-“Work is all we have, work is the only religion for us to survive”, this undoubtedly throws light on the ground reality of women in Assam or North east as a whole.

Village Rockstar subtly throws light on the stereotypes surfaced around the society yet putting a ecstatic magic onto the screen with its natural and real presentation of the grounded environment is a treat for the eyes. Its artistic rhythm creates a subtle charisma. Dive into the soulful experience and witness a girl living her million dollar dream.