[Assam] A brave lady

Fri Jun 23 11:57:23 PDT 2006

a strange way to get started in a career!

  ****It all started when a village youth promised to show her a house that sails on water. It was a ship, she did not know any better then. "When I boarded the ship, it sailed down and after a day it anchored in a foreign place," said Aideu.

  Umesh

Pradip Kumar Datta <pradip200 at yahoo.com> wrote:
    This is not related to music, but an article about a brave lady who dared to act in the first assamese movie "Jaymati" directed by Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, the doyen of Assamese culture, at a time when the society looked with an evil eye to the ladies who acted in the movies. Now a days everyone in the movie industry is a celebrity, just read this article to see the life of one of the pioneers of Indian cinema.
  Cinderella in Reverse
The First Lady of
Assamese Cinema   by Sabita Goswami 

---------------------------------
    The villagers ostracised her because she addressed her hero as Bongohordeo or dear husband. They boycotted her family for several months until her family apologised to the panchayat for her misdeeds. No man had the courage to come forward and ask for her hand, so she remained a spinster all her life. All because in those days acting was taboo.   That was in 1935. Aideu Handique, now 82,* lives with memories. It all started when a village youth promised to show her a house that sails on water. It was a ship, she did not know any better then. "When I boarded the ship, it sailed down and after a day it anchored in a foreign place," said Aideu. "There I was almost compelled to act in a talkie."    Was she entrapped by the youth? Did her father know about it? She evaded these questions,but continued. She was selected for the lead role in Joymoti, the first Assamese film. The story was that of a brave woman who saves her husband from a tyrant king who is out to
 eliminate all eligible princes in various Ahom (ethnic tribe) clans.   She remembers the golden days, she remembers being dressed in typical Ahom princesss attire. She was hardly 16. Jyotiprasad Agarwalla, the pioneer of Assamese cinema, taught her what to do: how to walk, how to speak, how to look sad or happy.   She came back to her village, Panidihing, with tears and having known the unknown. That is when she faced the villagers ire. "Who would marry a girl who had stayed with men in a camp for a month?" said Aideu with a sigh. The world forgot about her after that. Joymoti was her only film, she did not get any other offers. She did not even get to see the film. Only in 1985, when the golden jubilee of Assamese cinema was celebrated, did the state government bring her a cassette of the remains of the film. She was also given a pension of Rs 1,000 a month.    Assamese cinema, of course, has won many laurels since then. Times have changed indeed. The village primary
 school has been named after Aideu, who is still illiterate. Once in a while she is taken there, perhaps to make her feel respected. The Eastern Indian Motion Pictures Association has announced that they will present her with a wheelchair since she is an invalid.   For the present Aideu has to be lifted out of her bed, placed on a cane chair and carried about. That is not a problem though. Aideu rarely wants to leave her bamboo, mud and thatch cottage except for an occasional stroll down memory lane.

  Aideu bids adieu 

Aideu Handiques life was almost like the story of Cinderella  in reverse. A story of a girl born into a poor family in a tiny village in Golaghat in Assam, leading a mundane existence like any other village damsel, when all of a sudden emerges Fairy Godmother, waving her magical wand and carrying her to a world of dreams. 

Today, this would indeed be magic for any young girl. After all who can deny the magnetic pull of the silver screen, its glamour and fame? But when Fairy Godmother came Aideu Handiques way, it was 1935  when acting, especially for women, was taboo. 

True, those were the best days for the states cultural scene as a renaissance was sweeping Assam. One of her most eminent sons, Jyotiprasad Agarwalla, was making the first Assamese movie Joymoti  the story of the Ahom princess who was tortured to death by soldiers of the cruel Lora Raja who wanted to know the whereabouts of her husband Gadapani. 

Jyotiprasad Agarwallas Chitramukh Cinema was looking for a face that could portray the character of Joymoti, but in vain. It was then that Dimbeswar Gohain, a distant relative of Aideu and a close associate of Jyotiprasad Agarwalla, took some photographs of Aideu to the filmmaker. Her fair complexion, sharp, beautiful features and nubile looks stunned the films crew and they realised that the film had found its heroine. 

I was not told anything about the film. Uncle Dimbo said he was taking me to show a metal house that floated on the river, said Aideu in an interview just before her demise. The metal house was a ship, though she did not know it then. So with her younger brother in tow, she followed Uncle Dimbo to the Dhansiri river and the amazing metal house which then set sail and took them to Tezpur, a foreign land. 

When asked if her parents knew about it, she remained quiet. But her niece who used to take care of her said, Yes, they knew. Dimeswar Gohain had told them about it. 

In Tezpur, a frightened and lonely Aideu cried and threw tantrums. She did not want to act. She was scared of her family and the villagers. And as life later revealed, her fears were not unfounded. 

Later, as Aideus niece said, her father was called and it was he who spoke to her and calmed her fears. Encouraged by her fathers words, Aideu, then hardly 15, acted in her first and only film of any worth. 

I knew nothing about acting. Jyotida taught me how to act, walk, emote. He taught me everything, she remembered mistily. 

The film complete, the heroine returned to her village and to ostracisation. She was jeered at by villagers whenever she stepped out of her home. Even her family was boycotted till they sought forgiveness for their daughters misdeeds. It was a terrible time. People shunned me. They would not fetch water from the same pond I went to. Their taunts hurt me. I used to lock myself in my room and cry. For three years I did not even step out of the house, Aideu said. 

Thus while Joymoti went on to create cinematic history, the first lady of the Assamese silver screen sunk into the depths of oblivion. No applause, no fame, not even money or recognition came her way. 

I had made history but in reality I was pushed to the brink of obscurity and solitude, she said. 

It was only in 1985, when the golden jubilee of Assamese cinema was celebrated, that the Assam government and the people associated with Assamese film industry remembered her. They took the cassette of the film Joymoti to her and the heroine saw herself on screen 50 years after she had acted in it. 

Born in 1920 to Nilambar and Malakhi Handique, Aideu lived all her life in the same house where she was born with memories of those days. Years later, her wrinkled face still revealed the bewitching beauty that had catapulted her to fame. She never acted again except for a minuscule role in the film Ganga Siloni and a guest appearance in a film made on her life. 

As for marriage, she said sadly, Who would have married me? I had already addressed my co-star as Bongohordeo (dear husband). 

Towards the end she was content that people realised that she did not do any wrong and gave her the respect and love she had always desired. People from all walks of life visited her. Even Bhupen Hazarika, she said. But only if all this love had come a little earlier. 

---------------------------------
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Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740

 1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/

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