IMPHAL, May 24: A big round of applause echoed the office of Khonthaang Delhi in cheering filmmaker Oinam Doren as his timeless documentary film titled Songs of Mashangva bagged Rajat Kamal plaque under the Best Ethnographic category at the 58th National Film Awards 2011.
Khonthang, a Delhi-based Manipuri art and cultural promotion group organised a grand event on May 22 in New Delhi to facilitate the filmmaker. Attended by a horde of (Manipuri) people from different walks of life, the occasion was marked with euphoric celebrations, filled with fun and fiestas stated an emailed statement of the organization.
`I`™m really happy to get such amicable greetings from Khonthaang Delhi. Their appreciations of my work certainly motivate me to move ahead for another moment of triumph in near future,` said Doren while receiving a memento from the group. He added that humble supports from the social organisations like Khonthaang Delhi would help the Manipuri film industry promote outside the state. Along with Songs of Mashangva, two other non-feature films from Manipur, viz. The Zeliangrongs, directed by Ronel Haobam; Heart to Heart, produced by Rotary Club of Imphal and directed by Bachaspatimayum Sanju were selected for the prestigious National Film Awards, added the statement.
Produced and directed by Oinam Doren, Songs of Mashangva is a perfect portrayal of Tangkhul Naga folk music, which had been buried unnoticed by the mass for a long period of time, forgotten in vain in the reign of Christian proselytisation across the region, and its return today as a Naga folk blues. `My protagonist Ruben Mashangva is the hero in the real sense, who has eventually revived the lost lustre of ethnic embellishments in Tangkhul Naga folk song,` remarked Doren adding that the musician should be accredited for the revolutionary change.
Khonthaang Delhi invited Doren for the felicitation programme during the filmmaker`™s stay in New Delhi on his way home after attending Almati International Film Festival in Kazakshtan. Songs of Mashangva is considerably one of the finest ever Manipuri documentary films which received critical acclaim at the international arena. `We encourage everyone involving into the enhancement of the region`™s art and culture,` asserted Elangbam Abung of Khonthaang Delhi. He further mentioned that the group admits an eternal gratitude to Oinam Doren and others for their priceless achievements it stated.
