Joymoti (1935 film)

Joymoti or Joimoti Assamese , released onMarch 1935, was the first Assamese film made. Based on Lakshminath Bezbaroas play about the 17thcentury Ahom princess Soti Joymoti, the film was produced and directed by the noted Assamese poet, author, and filmmaker Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, and starred Aideu Handique and acclaimed stage actor and playwright Phani Sarma. The film, shot between 1933 and 1935, was released by Chitralekha Movietone in 1935 and marked the beginning of Assamese cinema.

The film was the first Indian talkie to have used Dubbing and Rerecording Technology, and the first to engage with realism and politics in Indian cinema. The original print containing entire length of the film was thought to be lost after Indias division in 1947. However, in 1995, popular Assamese storywriter, novelist, engineer, actor, screenwriter and documentary film director Arnab Jan Deka managed to recover entire footage of the lost film at a Studio in Bombay in intact condition, and reported back the matter to Assam Government apart from writing about this recovery in Assamese daily Dainik Asam and English daily The Assam Express. Afterwards, when other prominent English and Hindi dailies like The North East Times, The News Star and Purvanchal Prahari publicly acknowledged the selfless public service of Arnab Jan Deka, the original films director Jyotiprasads younger brother Hridayananda Agarwala and famous Assamese actor Satya Prasad Barua also confirmed and publicly acknowledged Arnab Jan Dekas great recovery of the first original fulllength print of this historic pioneer film through two separate writeups in Dainik Asam and highly circulated English daily The Assam Tribune respectively in 1996. This matter was also debated at Assam Legislative Assembly, and Secretary, Cultural Affairs Department of Assam Government, convened an official meet to discuss this matter together with other issues pertaining to development of Assamese films. Meanwhile, some reels of another remaining print of the film maintained by Hridayananda Agarwala has been restored in part by Altaf Mazid.Set in 17thcentury Assam, the film recounts the sacrifice of Joymoti, an Ahom princess tortured and killed by the Ahom king Borphukan for refusing to betray her husband Gadapani by disclosing his whereabouts. The event is interpreted in contemporary patriotic terms, and calls for a greater harmony between the people of the hills and those of the plains. The hills ar

Source: Wikipedia