In 2024, when Payal Kapadia became the first Indian woman to win the Grand Prix for her illuminating film All We Imagine As Light, Zico Maitra, one of its co-producers had gushed, “The future is female.”
Today, as Lakshmipriya Devi does us proud with her emphatic and most well-deserved BAFTA win for her Manipuri film Boong, it’s clear Zico was not exaggerating. If back in time the presence of four Indian women, Payal and her cast of sterling actors like Kani Kasruti, on the most coveted stage of Cannes Film Festival turned into a picture to cherish forever, the one of Lakshmipriya flanked by three male producers, including Farhan Akhtar, makes for an equally iconic one.
In 2025, when Songs of Forgotten Trees, backed by Anurag Kashyap and directed by Anuparna Roy, won the Best Director award in the Orizzonti section at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, Anuparna spoke about the need for women to tell women’s stories and how the ‘second sex’ should be vocal about their experiences.
Right now, as Lakshmipriya walks into the hall of cinematic history, she does not stand out merely for her gender. Boong is not exactly a woman-centric film. Sure enough, we see many shades of patriarchy surfacing in the film, especially the manner in which Boong’s mother, played by lovely Bala Hijam, is treated by society. But the story, also written by Lakshmipriya, touches more than one issue.
Indeed, she made the film much before the state was engulfed in violence and its two communities, Meitei and Kuki, became drawn in protracted clashes. In that sense, the film is both a testament of what the state was and elegy for better times. Perhaps, when Lakshmipriya cast a Kuki boy Gugun Kipgen for the lead part of Meiti speaking Boong, she had no idea it would become a statement in itself.
The film, however, is political too, hinting at insurgency, without meaning to be one. Unlike many award winning films, Boong is an easy watch, made all the more engaging, thanks to its humour and child actors. For their incredulous performances alone, Boong deserved to be in the BAFTA ‘Children’s and Family’ category. While Gugun as the titular character shines, his close Marwari friend Raju Agarwal, played by Angom Sanamatum, is no less endearing, especially in the scene where he boasts of his Marwari business sense and cuts a deal with an inn owner. His Marwari antecedents are not a coincidence but serve a purpose. When his father Sudhir Agarwal (Vikram Kochhar) talks about how his forefathers came to the state 100 years ago and it’s not fair to deem him an outsider, the writer-director in Lakshmipriya not only makes us pause but also ponder over similar biases many of us nurse with regard to people of her state and North-East in general.
In this love letter to her homeland, Lakshmipriya makes us privy to Boong’s journey and something far deeper, nuanced and sublime. With remarkable felicity and restraint, she flips so many things upside down, not just unwarranted insider-outsider dichotomy but also the way she weaves in the futility of ban culture.
Indeed, there is an unofficial ban on Hindi films in Manipur, yet in private we see the village head watching it with gusto. Of course, Manipur has its own distinct culture as well as cultural influences. Madonna and her songs in particular are a running thread, which manifest strongly yet un-intrusively, nowhere hampering the storytelling flow.
To a North-Indian eye, Boong is as much a revelation as a shameful realisation that we know so little about our own country. We learn that Boong had a limited successful run in cinema-halls. Hope the BAFTA win can bring it back to theatres or knowing our blockbuster-loving audiences, even better would be streaming platforms.
And when it does stream, do watch the film, not merely to know how it clinched the honour at BAFTA, how it outranked big ones like Zootopia 2 and Disney film Lilo & Stitch but to understand the state and its people. The beautiful film brings us face-to-face with its incredible people whose heart beats for same emotional reasons as the rest of India. Perhaps, then you too will be compelled to join Lakshmipriya in praying for peace in the state. All we imagine as human and humane applies to Manipur; most unequivocally.