as the River flows- Unsung Heroes

The assistant directors. They are the first line of attack and last line of defence for the director of any film. And they are also the one doing some of the most thankless jobs in a film unit. Their faults often get highlighted and their contribution mostly goes unrecognised.

We had five of them looking after different departments in the film. Md. Johaed was the youngest amongst them. With a good hand in sketching, he also worked as the storyboard artist. And unofficially, he also doubled up as cartoonist of the unit… Having spent his growing up years in Assam, he has set his heart on getting married to a girl from this region only. And generally he never lost any time, in looking for a match amongst the local girls present in the shooting location. However, going by his basic shy nature, I doubt whether any of those girls knew that they were screen tested for a role in the real life… Last heard, Johaed is still single…

Kamal Chetri. Until one gets to know him a little better, it is difficult to imagine how filmi this serious looking guy actually is in his real life. And had it not have copyright issues, I would have gladly adopted some of his real life escapade into film…Only problem is people would have found these episodes a little too far fetched…All said and done, it is also true that he is the lone asst dir who insisted on coming to the edit and dubbing of the film long after his official working period got over…

Rajiv Phukan. It is difficult to believe that it is possible to keep in touch with so many people on a personal level till one meets Rajiv. During the pre-production days, whenever we used to encounter a problem regarding finding of some contacts, Rajiv used to disappear to a corner of the office with his cell phone… Only to reappear after a while with some solutions! According to Johaed, after taking a walk with Rajiv through the roads of Guwahati, he is convinced that Rajiv’s popularity amongst one and all would have given a complex to many film stars…

Sakshi. The only girl amongst the asst directors. She and Aneel Rana were the two most important people of the direction team during the pre production of the film. And they were not only handling the film – they had taken the responsibility of handling me also quite seriously. People get exploited in this industry in different ways – especially if you are a new comer. Once we decided to work with new comer Bidita Bag as heroine of the film, we had decided to exploit her skill of making lovely lemon tea by employing her as our ‘afternoon tea maker’ during the initial days of pre-production… and as the pre-production team got bigger, Anil and Sakshi were quite worried about this trend and decided to take my wife Pallavi into confidence to tell me not to ask Bidita to prepare tea- in front of everybody…

Aneel Rana. If by looking at somebody’s face one could make out that he is more worried about the progress of the film than everybody else – including me – than it had to be Aneel. In fact, towards the end of our shooting schedule many unit members used to judge how the day is progressing by the look of Aneel’s face…And the trend continues till date…

As I mentioned earlier, asst directors are the first line of attack and last line of defence for the directors. Naturally, as one gets to know each other that closely, the chance of heart burn also increases considerably… and our team was no exception. I’m sure many of us would have a few issues in the personal level… but it is also a fact that the flow of the river was so much smoother because of you all! Thanks for being there…

X———X

The spot boys. They are the one to reach the set first and leave it last. And also to get the wrong end of the stick, time and again… after all, they are possibly the softest target in a film set…

They are the one who is on a film set purely for monetary reasons – after all, it is not practical to expect emotional attachments for a project from people who are working for daily wages… Still, there are few exceptions – those who go a little beyond their regular call of duty. And stayed in our mind.

Our film unit had people from across the country – literally from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Maharashtra to Assam. Damudar belongs to Maharashtra. Always the first to put the photograph of Ganapati on a chair in a corner of the location, he was also one of the most active one on the set. Even on the days when shoot got extended to close to 20 hours at a stretch, one can depend on Damudar to be ready with a glass of black tea at the end…and whenever we had a difficult day on the shoot, you can bet that the next day you will get to taste a little coconut. Of course, Damudar has offered the same to Lord Ganapati, before sharing with you!

Gautam belongs to Cooch Behar in West Bengal. A guy who believes in going about his work quietly. Well, unless it gets too much…as a unit member had discovered in the return journey. It so happened that after the end of the schedule as the unit was leaving to Guwahati to continue their onwards journey, that guy had decided to celebrate a little too much and had one drinks too many…And when on the journey he failed to hold himself to his regular self, Gautam decided to speak with his hand…But he was considerate enough to give him some money for buying medicine for his swollen face the next morning, after reaching Guwahati…

Govind – a guy who belongs to the hilly region of Garwal. And like a typical guy from the hill, a smile never leaves his face. Also looks for an excuse to break into a lilting song…After spending a few days with him around, it was easy for us to understand why our lead actor Sanjay Suri insists on having Govind as his personal spot for all these years…

Dinesh Payeng & Sanjib Payeng. Two local guys from Majuli which our production team had picked up as spots for our Assam schedule. Obviously they were new to the job of working as spot in a film unit – but in sincerity, they were second to none…So much so that by the end of the schedule, our line producer Sanket had offered to bring them to Mumbai, also promising them a card from the union to work as spots here. The offer must have been tempting for them, but they refused… their small plot of land was calling them – the cultivation season had started…Even if the river Brahmaputra is eroding their land every year, they cannot but remain loyal to their existing land…after all, they are the sons of the soil…

Bidyut Kotoky

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