Assamese Cinema can beat Bollywood with its unique Contents: ‘The Horse From Heaven’ Director

Kuxhol is on his way to explore the city with Goti, the ‘Horse From Heaven’, and sharing his journey mixed with great adventures with everyone. He believes Goti is the fastest horse in the world. Everyone initially finds it bizarre as Goti is a donkey rather than a horse.

After winning the top prize in the Indian Competition Section of the Bengaluru International Short Film Festival 2022, the Assamese short film ‘Mur Ghurar Duronto Goti- The Horse from Heaven’ to compete for the Best Live Action Short Film Competition at the Academy Awards (Oscars). 

Calling the film as a dream project, Director Maharshi said, “being an Oscar is a great moment for us. It is dream come true. Actually, since 8th standard, I have been dreaming of winning an Oscar and it is a great opportunity. I'm really overwhelmed and excited about this”.

Guwahati-based filmmaker, Maharshi Tuhin Kashyap (27) is a final year student of Direction and Screenplay Writing at Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI) Kolkata. He did his schooling at Shrimanta Sankar Academy, Guwahati before pursuing engineering. 
 
How much time did you invest in this film?
 
We spent about a month writing the script. We started pre-production for about two weeks, then shot the film for four days, and then had the post-production phase, which was quite long due to the CAA protest, and we had to close down for a while since we were all scattered around.

Hence we had to complete the film by the end of 2021. The whole crew and the cast have given their enormous and valuable time to the project and that is the prime reason why we have succeeded to be an entry for the Oscars. The film actually belongs to the whole cast and crew.
 
Why did you choose Atul Pachoni as your lead character?
 
Actually, my mentor Manik Roy Sir, who is an eminent theatre artist and actor from Assam. I have been learning from him since I was a child. He suggested me to take Atul Pachani Sir as the lead character. 

Atul Sir is a well-known actor in Assam and it's a privilege to work with him. I was scared at first as I didn't know how he was going to react when a student who is still trying to learn cinema, calls him and ask him to act in his film but he was very welcoming and he was so ready and eager to work in the story once I told him the idea. 

It was very interesting because I really didn't have to direct him much as he is a very experienced actor and the dedication he had put into the pre-production is remarkable. He had read the scripts so many times that he knew exactly what he had to do in each scene. 
 
Is there any social message hidden in your film?
 
A social message is not something that I believe we can give through cinema. I feel that we can only reflect on what is happening around us and what is inside us and to us in the cinema. If that is something people can connect to, that could become a hidden message.

It is not really a message to convey or enlighten someone. We are talking about certain realities that we keep facing in a very different, humourous, and abstract way. Whatever I feel I want to reflect in my film because cinema is an extension of myself.
 
Why did you choose this absurd genre instead of others?
 
The story suggested a lot of things and absurdity is something like a lens through which I look into the world. Life is much more absurd than what we can ever attempt to show in cinema. So I feel absurdity actually came like that, starting with the idea where a man thinks he has the fastest horse in the world and he is taking his horse to win the races in the city. 

But in reality, what he has is not a horse but a donkey. This whole idea itself and the connotation, and the subtext of the scripts all these things eventually gave shape to the film through an absurd expression. 

Absurdity is an interesting genre where we generally feel off the world like it's not something that belongs to our world but absurdity will always keep on hinting that whatever is happening is actually a reflection of the living world.
 
Tell us about your Filmmaking journey.
 
My filmmaking journey actually starts in 8th standard when I used to do theatre a lot. One day I was thinking about what I wanted to do in my life and it was the day when Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscar it evokes something in me and I decided to make films. 

After a few years, some of our friends made a group called 'Deuka Films' where we wanted to make films independently and with zero budget. It was a nice memory of my life when we were making films with DSLR cameras with bands and editors, and cinematographers were together to make good films.

A big change came to my life when I got enrolled in Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI). That institution made me a person who keeps on questioning his own existence and that makes me a different person every single day. 

The upbringing in the film institute is something that made this film possible as it was my second-year project and it is produced by our institute. That's how the journey began and many more miles to go.
 
Are you currently working on other projects?
 
Yes, I'm working on quite a few projects and mainly on short documentary films. One of them is about ‘abandonment’ and the other is about ‘Silsako Beel’ which is located in Guwahati. And also I'm working as a cinematographer and writing new scripts too.
 
Do you believe the content of Assamese movies can beat Bollywood movies?
 
Of course. We have content that people have never ever dreamt of and enormous amounts of beautiful, new, and out-of-the-box concepts and ideas, and experiences that we have yet to share with the world. We have Assamese filmmakers who have made such beautiful films and right now the Assamese films are doing phenomenally good.
We have some new and fresh ideas that people are definitely going to wonder about how Assamese films are beating Bollywood films in it's content. It is the golden period of Assam as there are more films to come up and I'm really lucky to be part of this cinema community of the Northeast.