Victor to play Gandhian in film on Majuli, cameo for Zubin

New Delhi, July 04: The rich culture and lifestyle of Majuli`s famous Vaishnavite centres will be the theme of a new Bollywood movie which is believed to have been inspired by ULFA`s abduction and killing of social activist Sanjay Ghose.

It will see veteran actor Victor Banerjee in the role of a Gandhian. The film with two separate versions - "As the River Flows" (Hindi) and "Ekhon Nedekha Nodir Xipaare" (Assamese) - has cast Sanjay Suri (in the lead role), Raj Zutshi, Nakul Vaid, Naved Aslam and Priti Jhangiani. Veteran Assamese actor Indra Bania will also act in the film which is in the post-production stage and is likely to be completed by October. The music is by Zubin Garg of `Ya Ali` fame who will play a cameo. Director Bidyut Kotoky, the Mumbai-based Assamese filmmaker who is making his feature film debut with "As The River Flows," says it is the story of a journalist Abhijit Shandilya (Suri) who is caught in a multi-layered world of intriguing happenings in the world`s largest inhabited river island Majuli. The National Film Development Corporation of India- produced movie is a socio-political thriller and talks of social conflicts and individual commitments in an age where the society has become so self-centred. "The script consciously avoids taking ideological sides. It is not an effort to promote either the government`s or the extremist`s point of view. It is a film about common people stuck in uncommon circumstances," Kotoky told reporters. "There are indirect references to the Sanjay Ghose killing in the story, though it has nothing to do directly with that incident," he says. Ghose, secretary of NGO AVARD-NE, arrived in Assam in 1996 and was working for development of Majuli. He was abducted by ULFA cadres on July 4, 1997 and his body was recovered from the Brahmaputra river. "About 95 per cent of the film has been shot in Assam and the rest in Mumbai," says Kotoky, who is making his feature film debut with this film. He had earlier won a Special Jury Mention at the 53rd National Film Awards for his documentary "Bhraimoman Theatre Where Othello Sails with Titanic." He has also made a documentary on Majuli earlier. The film captures the rich culture of Majuli`s xatras (Vaishnavite monasteries) in their truest form besides the lifestyle of missing tribal society. As the state`s film industry is in bad shape, the film movie is expected to bring a ray of hope by exhibiting the beautiful locales in Assam, to entice filmmakers from outside to shoot in the state. The film`s script, written by Kotoky, was selected for last year`s Film Bazaar at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa where it was mentored by UK`s famous Bingar Film Lab, and was also later invited to the Rotterdam Film Festival for mentoring at its Rotterdam Film Fund programme. Bureau Report