Jaanmoni : A Review

Language: Assamese
Title: Jaanmoni
Genre: Drama
Director: Rajesh Bhuyan
Cast: Jatin Bora, Shyamontika,Utpal Das

Rating: 

With Bihu, there comes a multitude of Bihu song albums each bringing out a distinctive video feature film of their own. This has been the trend for almost the last half decade. But this time, the norm has been broken by “Jaanmoni”. NK Productions have presented Jaanmoni as a full feature film and has released it all the state in the cinema halls. Directed by Rajesh Bhuyan, the star cast contains heavyweights such as Jatin Bora and Shymantika along with comparative industry newcomer Utpal Das who gives a good performance.

The story set in a typical village setting seems misplaced at times. The climax scene makes you wonder what the writer or the director had in mind. The whole movie is brought to an abrupt ending which dampens the pleasure we get from a few earlier scenes. The story revolves around a villager (Jatin Bora) who is absolutely enamored by Bihu and its charms. He falls in love with another rich beautiful village girl (Shyamantika) and marries her. His craze for Bihu is such that he leaves his young daughter at the mercy of a high fever and goes to participate in a competition. This act of his ultimately causes the death of his daughter and subsequently his wife leaves him.

The story shows an old Jatin Bora living in desperation and isolation. There are intermittent comic relief and a mild romance too. But the pivot of the story doesn’t shift. Meanwhile Shymantika returns to her paternal home, and then after some drama we see the two old lovers being reunited. Such is the story, which doesn’t seem to give us any reason for praise. It seems to be almost like the myriad of stories already portrayed in many Bihu album VCDs. However veteran actor, Jatin Bora deserves praise for his wonderful and powerful acting once again. This is just another  testament to his tremendous acting skills.

The main essence of any Bihu album is the music. And Jaanmoni failed us gorgeously. The music given by as many as three big names of the industry-Biman Barua, Mousum Gogoi and Diganta Bharali failed to create any magic. The lackluster singing and below average lyrics couldn’t compensate for some good picturisation. The glaring omission of a husori in a Bihu movie is blasphemous.  The background music score by the young talent, Anurag Saikia fails to impress us. The excessive use of vocals and loud music sometimes makes it difficult for the viewer to even focus on the scene.

The movie as a whole fails to impress us in any of the domain, be it story or music. Compared to the recent hit movie “Ramdhenu”, this movie seems like a façade. The fact that at times it still gives us a feeling of watching a VCD is no compensation and hampers the movie greatly. All in all, not worth a watch if you plan to enjoy some good story and good music

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