The man from Manipur

Haobam Paban Kumar is in New York for the Indian Kaleidoscope Festival and leaving today for the Dubai Film Festival. He would have loved to come to Thiruvananthapuram for the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) where his newest film and his first fiction feature Lady of the Lake or Loktak Lairembee is being screened. For he has won quite a few recognitions from Kerala – the best film award for his documentary AFSPA, 1958 at Signs 2006, special jury mention for his work Mr India at the IDSFFK in 2010 and best documentary award at the same fest in 2015. “Whenever I come with a film to Kerala I have been awarded, that way Kerala is very lucky for me,” says the Manipur man on an email interview.

It is needless to specify that when his films include such names as AFSPA, 1958, the Armed Forces Special Power Act that Irom Sharmila had famously fought against with 16 years of her fast.

“Everyone has the right to choose their path and if she believes that she can make a difference by joining politics why not,” he says. All his film ideas come from daily happenings and his contemporary life in Manipur. They have all been documentaries – including his diploma film Ngaihak Lambida made for the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata and screened at the Indian Panorama section of IFFI, Goa. AFSPA, 1958 had won the best nonfiction film at the 56th national awards. Mr India had been about an HIV positive body builder. “I always wanted to do feature films. But may be because of being born in a place like Manipur I was drawn to documentary and kept on making documentaries,” he says.

After ten years of documentaries, Lady of the Lake became his first feature. “I have been planning this film for a long time. Money was a big constraint,” he says. The film features real life fishermen who are driven away from their homes by local authorities, claiming they cause pollution. One man among them is on the verge of suicide until a mysterious woman comes into his life. The fishermen actors had earlier appeared in Paban’s documentary Floating Life (Phum Shang). He says, “I made the documentary before the feature film to know the location and people better, and it helped me. The main characters are real couples.” Before ending the mail, he remembers another Kerala connection – the cinematographer of his film is Shehnad Jalal.