Drama high for conflict-scarred Manipur village

Ukhrul district’s Ringui awaits film centre sanctioned in 2019

The security forces had temporarily banned the screening of Ramcho Ramrin, a 180-minute movie on Naga revolutionaries, almost three decades ago. The title of the 1994 film means “empty land” in the Tangkhul language.

Directed by Wungchan Makang, Ramcho Ramrin was a departure from the romantic films that were churned out for almost two decades until the last of Ukhrul’s video halls shut down in 1998.

No armed forces personnel were around when Lemmi Makang staged his play, Philachon Malhotra on April 21 as part of the 75th anniversary of the Zingtun Tangkhul Katamnao Long, a youth organisation, at Talui near Ukhrul. But few missed the connection between this 55-minute drama on the dilemma of a single mother and the 1994 film.

Both the film and the play were based on a story by Vaorei Makang, who happens to be Mr. Lemmi’s father. Both alluded to the “Naga political issue” relating to decades of conflict for self-rule across the Naga-inhabited areas, primarily in Manipur and the adjoining Nagaland. And the crew members of both, including the actors, were mostly from Ringui.

Many of the approximately 3,000 people in Ringui, a hilltop village about 60 km from Manipur’s capital Imphal and 37 km from district headquarters Ukhrul, have been into one or more aspects of filmmaking or theatre since the 1980s.

The theatrical bent of mind of its residents did not guarantee Ringui immunity from counter-insurgency operations across the Tangkhul-dominated landscape. One of the reasons was probably its proximity to Somdal, the birthplace of Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary of the extremist NSCN (I-M) that has been on ceasefire mode since 1997.

Philachon Malhotra reflected the ordeal the villagers had to go through during those days.