Revisit The Shadows Of Our Past Though Latest Film ‘Shadow Assassins'

It's our story, yours & mine. Of those of us who have lived those times & those of you who would have never heard of them. But it happened in the times we lived in our shared nation, India. I still wonder why & how could a series of horrific, inhuman events such as these ever happen in a civilized society of the 20th century? Systematic cleansing of innocent relatives of rebels - ULFA. Who planned & executed such a pogrom? Everyone knows, yet none does.

"Shadow Assassins" by my good friend, extremely talented Nilaanjan R Datta is an essay on what we were not allowed to talk about even in the confines of our homes. These are probably the darkest secrets of the Assamese society of the late 90s and would have continued to be secrets till they slipped into oblivion - the secret killings. To have carried these stories deep down in some corner of his heart and to make a daring attempt to tell the world about them is a creditable achievement, to my mind. I congratulate Nilaanjan for making "Shadow Assassins", especially in an era when the pendulum of nationalism is tilted towards all glorification over any criticism.

Getting invited to the Mumbai premiere was a pleasant surprise. I did not know what to expect though I had known of Nilaanjan as a national award-winning film director. I was a little nervous too when the lights went off in the Cinepolis Audi and the screening started, anxious to see a story from our part of the land, which virtually everyone from Bollywood had gotten wrong. And then this is a young team who had dared to make a film for Hindi-speaking mainland India not on a subject of exuberant bravery but on closely guarded dark secrets.

It is an honest and sensitive narration of events true to the dogfight that took place in the late 90s between ULFA, and surrendered ULFA (SULFA) with the system being the bystander or more than that. Yet the film is anything but a lesson of moral science, rather bringing out multiple perspectives with their convictions through different voices. Nilaanjan's sincerity to keep the storytelling simple and real to the way of life of Assamese society makes it a fulfilling watch. Characters are real and familiar - the elder brother who tried his best to lie low, away from any attention, the mother who wants her younger son around and yet not, for his good. And the angry young man who tried his best to listen to the practical worldly advice. But finally, couldn't escape the whirlpool that engulfed him. A gripping tale of the fate of an innocent family well told. A family which had nothing to do with the rebellion or terrorism ULFA represented except for the fact one of the leaders were born in their family.

Nuanced storytelling without drama despite the subject makes the film flow like a river, by the side of which this pogrom happened - The Brahmaputra. Most actors looked their characters & some of them went beyond their own identities to deliver the "Assamese Accent" right. I'd especially like to mention - Hemant Kher in the role of the scared elder brother who keeps a low profile to avoid any unnecessary attention & the cop Rakesh Chaturvedi Om, who even got the gallis right - an "idiot" is not a "chutiya" for us but a "sutiya".

As the credits started rolling with an inevitable end to the story substantiating with paper clippings of those times, I breathed a sigh of relief -a film well-made is a service to humanity. In some way, the film acknowledges the injustice that innocent lives were meted out, obliterated from the history of Assam. The survivors of those families may find some solace. At least someone cared to tell their stories - the horrific events they lived uncared for by the system & society.

Nilaanjaan's craftmanship lies in the simplicity through which he dared to bring out the darkest trail the Assam Agitation left behind in these Shadow Assassins.

I'm looking for more stories from him, untold, unheard, unseen, and may be lying in some abyss of human existence and memory.
By Nandi Sen