Father Joseph Pulinthanath, sdb
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The authors …
… of Indpaedia’s articles on Kokborok cinema are:
Osservatore Romano <> Indigenous Herald <> Tripura Chronicle <> The Telegraph Wednesday, May 14, 2003 <> North-East cinemas: Interesting times/ By Utpal Borpujari, Deep-Focus, December 30, 2012 Utpal Borpujari <>Deep-Focus <>Ignore, and be ignorant. Cinema from the Northeast has verve. By Utpal Borpujari Outlook <>Teresa Rehman Tehelka/ Mishingrenaissance September 17, 2008<>Namrata Joshi Outlook
A priest and a filmmaker
What's most notable is that Fr. Pulinthanath although he makes films in Kokborok, he is a Malayali priest who hails from Kottayam. Father Pulinthanath (born c. 1966) has been living in the Northeast since 1980, and in Tripura since 1994. He chose to work with the Don Bosco Society in the Northeast more for the "challenges" and a "fascination of the unknown". The unknown has now become the familiar and hence the empathy—the film doesn't exoticise them, nor does it exploit or wallow in their poverty.
A priest dallying with the camera is an intriguing prospect. The Catechism of the Catholic Church in article 2493 categorically affirms that “cultural promotion” is one of the objectives of communications media.
"I don't believe in conventional church work. I wanted to enter deeper into the lives of people, connect with them, understand their problems and struggles, and cinema is a powerful medium for that," the Father explains.
Outside Tripura, Pulinthanath's films have been confined to the festival circuit. The commercial possibilities are limited. "There is no possibility of returns, but that doesn't bother me. I made these films because I wanted to contribute to the culture and language of the region," he says. Bengalis, especially migrants from Bangladesh, form 70 per cent of Tripura's population now. The original tribal inhabitants and the indigenous Kokborok language have been reduced to a minority. "A cultural corpus is needed to help revive the language," says Pulinthanath.
The second reason for film-making according to the makers of Mathia and Yarwng is cultural promotion. The Tripura tribal communities have been hit hard by large-scale influx from across the international border. To date Kokborok is not taught to its native speakers as curriculum.
“We wanted the films to be a significant contribution to the cultural corpus of Kokborok language and culture and thus to enhance the identity and self-image of a community that has been robbed of status and dignity in their own native soil,” explains the director.
Countering Accusations
When it comes to the often-heard accusation that the Church is destroying culture and language of peoples in Northeast India, Tripura Church spokesman Pulinthanath casts aside his usual reticence and finds eloquence.
Stoutly refuting the accusation he says, “It is not true! People who say this presume that Church sees no merit in local cultures. Perhaps they are basing themselves on some archaic and dated perceptions of isolated instances. Over the last 50 years (since Vatican ii) Church has been the outspoken champion of the promotion of indigenous culture”.
Evangelization through culture promotion
Not only in Tripura, but in several Northeast India tribal communities, the Church plays a vital role in infusing the indigenous people with a sense of pride, dignity, confidence, hope and identity.
“See, cinema is a lot about images and no image is neutral. The very process of engaging oneself dynamically against these images can be enriching individually and collectively. They challenge, criticize, uplift. Our effort has not been to make a film that people will necessarily like but to make a film that will hopefully ‘excite’”, clarifies Pulinthanath.
Besides, these two films have helped to remove much of the mistaken notion that the Church is not rooted in the local culture.
The role played by the films in the evangelization of Tripura is most significant in a State whose Christian population is less than two percent of the total State population.
According to the film-makers, “all the incidents and emotional turmoil we see in the film were etched in the subconscious psyche of the people. All we did was to get close to them and feel their stories as they recalled them with looks, sighs, tears and also words”, recalls Pulinthanath.
The numerous works of evangelization, development and social service that the Church in Tripura and the whole of North East India carries out, at times to heroic degrees, will be most effectively enhanced by the present project as it focuses on culture and its crisis in a changing society.
See also
Father Joseph Pulinthanath, sdb
