Interview with Indian director Haobam Paban Kumar by film critic Lalit Rao (FIPRESCI) dated 02.03.2024
Haobam Paban Kumar is a prominent voice emitting out of the restive north eastern state of Manipur, dabbling in both non-fiction and fiction storytelling. Immediately after graduating from SRFTI Kolkata in Direction and screenwriting, he burst onto the documentary scenario with his hard-hitting film, AFSPA 1958. It brought many accolades including the first Swarna Kamal for Manipur at the 56th National Film Awards 2009. After nearly a decade of making non-fiction, he made his critically acclaimed feature film Loktak Lairembee (Lady of the Lake) which featured at 67th Berlin Film Festival 2017. Joseph’s Son is his third narrative feature. Till date, Paban has been bestowed with 8 Indian National film awards, 7 Indian Panorama Selection and many international awards for his films.
On 2nd March 2024, after having watched Indian maestro Mrinal Sen’s critically acclaimed film ‘‘Kharij’’ [1982] on Screen 9 of PVR Cinema during 15th Bangalore International Film Festival 2024, Haobam Paban Kumar sat together with film critic Lalit Rao (FIPRESCI) to talk about the theme of disappearance in his latest film ‘Joseph’s Son’ [2023]
Lalit Rao : Ladies and gentlemen good morning today is 2nd March 2024. I'm Lalit Rao here at 15th International Film Festival of Bangalore, Bangalore International Film Festival 2024 and I'm talking to Haobam Paban Kumar. Good morning Paban. So Paban made a film called ‘‘Joseph’s Son’’ in 2023 which premiered at Shanghai International Film Festival and today Paban is going to talk to me about his film. So Paban your film talks about disappearance but normally the whole concept of disappearance, the subject of disappearance is given a very melodramatic treatment but you have not chosen this. So what is the reason behind this decision ?
Haobam Paban Kumar : Thank you. Yeah this film ‘‘Joseph Son’’ is basically about you know this guy whose son goes missing and he's looking around for his son and well this is something to do with Manipur. Actually it's also like the trauma and fear of living in a place like Manipur which is like torn by decades of insurgency and the ethnic divide. You know what is happening in Manipur right now ! So this whole ethnic divide is killing all of us in Manipur right now. So this was something which I kind of know, we people in Manipur were feeling this and you know if you look at all my work, I mostly talk about the contemporary issues that really affect me as a person. Maybe because basically I've been making documentaries for a long time. All my stories are also like my documentaries. They come from daily happenings in Manipur. So but regarding the treatment of the film as you said I think it has to do with the people there. I think it's also you know if you look at the name it's an English name. The film’s name is in English, that is true because I wanted you know, I wanted it to be neutral, in the sense that we have 35 communities in Manipur but I never wanted the name of that film to be from one particular community. This is the thing and it's also a multi lingual film. There are four languages and different characters in the film. The main character is a Tangul Naga who speaks in Tangul then there is Rongway Naga, Kukis are there and there is a Bihari guy who stays there. So basically I mean you know the film actually talks about living together. Okay you know that we can't be divided. I mean the society can't survive, you know a community can’t survive on its own. We have to be together. So the film talks about that but I think the sensibility, you know the treatment of the film comes from the personality of the characters as well. I think it also reflects me as a person in my film. So the less you talk, it is better. It's also like meditative. You know I want people to just feel it and I'm also not too much into melodrama. So I think it's also my partly my treatment and the characters you know especially the characters you know we have these Mongoloid features. They are I think our way of expression that is a bit different from the rest of the country. So I think that that may be what you are referring to and I'm so happy to have made this film. You know this is my third feature film. All my three films have played in Bangalore Film Festival. I'm really thankful to the festival authorities. That is really great.
Lalit Rao : One final question Paban. The title ‘‘Joseph’s Son’’, doesn't it allude to some kind of a Biblical reference ?
Haobam Paban Kumar : ‘Joseph’s Son’, yeah it's there because you know the film is an adaptation. It is inspired by a short story about the Kuki Naga clash which happened in Manipur. It was one of the biggest ethnic clashes that happened in the 1990s. It is about this clash and the writer ‘‘Sudhir Naoroibam’’ has written this about the Kuki Naga clash because both the tribes are Christians. So that was the reference but what I did was that I took the story and put it in the contemporary context. Yeah a little bit of that thing is there because Joseph’s son means God's son. He can be anybody’s son. It is very beautiful the way the writer has written it. You know he can be anybody's son. The son who is missing can be anyone's son. So yeah that is there, there is a reference but then I molded it a little bit, I molded it into contemporary context.
Lalit Rao : OK. That is great. So we wish you a lot of success and what about your forthcoming plans ?
Haobam Paban Kumar : I'm working on my next feature film because yeah now I'm more into fiction now.
Lalit Rao : I believe that even when you make fiction it'll be more like a documentary film. You will never separate yourself from documentary because that's where you started from. Okay great, I wish you all the best. Thank you.
Thank you Paban for talking.
Haobam Paban Kumar : Thank you Lalit.
