Lucius Barre
I was drawn in from the first sequence, tracking a strange creature through the half light in the forest to witness something that was taking place at the top of the ridge - in another dimension, no doubt. That sequence set me up to read everything from then on in the film as a dreamscape. Especially when Kapil arrives at the upper floor cafe for Tapashi to serve him something and they later drift down river - their embrace smartly framed from behind - as she says she needs a way out and he responds: “Nice dream.”
I admired the spareness of the narrative. It proceeded at the pace of village life with just so few elements as were there to inform that life. That protocol set me up to feel a jolt when Tapashi visits her friend Ruma, the spoiled child with too many stuffed toys on the bed as she falls apart, and another jolt when she visits her aunt’s well-appointed home and the very comfortable home she shares with her husband. Excellent that we saw so very little of the husband. His absence fed into my concept of the film as a dream.
Lastly, the film took full advantage of the stunning beauty of Assam. I marveled at how the desaturated grey-day color palette of the film deepened my sense of presence.
VIDAL DCOSTA June 6, 2022
The protagonist of the feature length Assamese film “Jolsobi,” a young college grad named Tapashi (Darathie Bharadwaj), tries to hold a job; she even tries to salvage her relationship with a man who doesn’t feel the same way about her while attempting to make it big in a small village that restricts her and barely allows her freedom of choice… But none of it is ever enough.
Writer and Director Jaicheng Jai Dohutia utilises metaphorical imagery such as Tapashi trudging through a murky waterlogged field to convey a young, unmarried, and unemployed woman’s sense of unease. She must navigate troubled waters brought by feelings of burnout, dissatisfaction, frustration, and inability of securing her place in society. The opening shot of Tapashi fearfully hiding in the woods juxtaposed with her family members searching for a cow that refuses to be found also effectively captures these feelings; we feel the aura of discontent, as well as the listless nature of the protagonist.
A Commentary on Women, the Youth, and the Underprivileged
Tapashi as dwelled in the city for a long time and finds country life difficult; even familiar faces in the village seem like distant and vicious uncivilized monsters out to attack her. Furthermore, her deep-seated insecurities worsen as she feels trapped in a labyrinth in the very hometown she grew up in. The film also explores how the youth and lesser privileged individuals are forced to run from pillar to post; they must wait long intervals with no satisfactory results.
Lead actor Darathie Bharadwaj brings her character to life with apt body language and facial expressions…”
“Jolsobi” also touches upon Tapashi’s fellow female classmates encountering similar personal and professional problems and finding themselves trapped too, just like Tapashi. Another positive of “Jolsobi” it’s never derogatory towards the supporting characters who are as helpless as Tapashi herself. This includes her superstitious and religious parents; they constantly worry about her and offer prayers for their children’s future and well-being, as well as her brother. He is a drug addict and considered as the degenerate of the family. But like the others, the film never paints him negatively; they are merely victims of circumstance who are held back by a system that fails them. The interaction between Tapashi and her brother is another highlight of the film.
Great Performances All Abound
Lead actor Darathie Bharadwaj brings her character to life with apt body language and facial expressions; additionally, the supporting cast are also compelling in their respective roles. The cinematography can feel very limited to only wide angle shots at times and the pace feels sluggish in the first half; but apart from these minor flaws, “Jolsobi” proves to be a thought provoking feature. It comments on the trials and tribulations of the Indian youth, and deserves accolades for providing a thorough insight into the regressive attitudes towards women in certain conservative Indian households.
Akanshya Bhagabati, 22nd January 2023
Jaicheng Zxai Dohutiais Jolsobi deals with an extremely prevalent issue of existential crisis that a girl undergoes, particularly if one belongs to the financially weaker section and is unable to live or achieve upto her own expectations due to circumstancial constraints that gradually block her way. From being a free bird with dreams, she becomes a fish of a pond who is dependent and hence trapped.
What I found really fascinating about the film is the simplicity with which the film has been made. From the storyline, camera movements , dialogue to acting , everything is very subtle and suggestive. A few elements in the film are experimental , and I am filled with genuine admiration for the filmmaker to have the courage to try them out. Undoubtedly, they add a metaphorical layer to the film.
On a very personal note, Jolsobi is the story of my mother, my aunts and so many women I know and I fear one day it will be my story too ! For an independent filmmaker to talk about such a sensitive subject, that too from a female perspective,in a non-dramatic way, his efforts are truly notable. I hope this film reaches a wider audience. My hearty congratulations and best wishes to the team.
Ambar Chatterjee, 22nd January 2023
Jolsobi was a welcome change of pace and narrative style for me. The film-scape these days is overcrowded with breakneck storytelling or films that are so dense in their plots and narrative elements that it is hard to keep track of everything that is unfolding on the screen let alone enjoy and absorb the emotional ramifications or depth of the performances.
As I sat through 87 minutes of Jolsobi I could fully concentrate and soak in the performances and the emotional power that they brought to the screen. This was possible because the film maintained a moody pace throughout, kept its story linear and simple, kept its camera movements to a bare minimum, and gave the performances enough time to convey the emotions that are meant to reach the audiences through slow and purposeful editing.
The story of Jolsobi revolves around a free-spirited girl, played by Darathie Bhardwaj, who comes back home after completing her education in the city and is forced to cope with the restrictions and lack of opportunities that are a part of the village life.
While the girl tries her best to make something out of her life, she is constantly bogged down by the restrictions around her, her own failure at landing without any substantial opportunities to spread her wings, and finally a crashing break-up that breaks the last bit of spirit left in her.
The film ends with her accepting her destiny and learning to groove in the glory of the new creature that she had become but at the same time gasping for breath and grappling for support on the inside. This is depicted in a wonderfully envisioned and executed sequence at the end that takes the film’s ever-present symbolism to greater heights.
Jolsobi is a sum total of all the performances in it and it is the performances and the direction that make it a memorable watch. There isn’t much happening here in terms of the story but the actors are able to make the audience feel every emotion, conflict, joy, and heartbreak that their respective characters are going through. Leading from the front is Darathie Bhardwaj who grabbed my attention in Bornodi Bhotiai by Anupam Kaushik Borah.
In Jolsobi we see her as someone whose life is taken apart in a phased manner. She does exceptionally well in each one of these phases. In the beginning, we see her as someone full of hope even though she is a little sceptical. As the film progresses, we see her get frustrated by her circumstances in numerous extremely well-envisioned and better-still-acted sequences.
The death nail in the coffin of her dreams and aspirations comes from three distinctly ordinary but poignant moments — her father getting sick one night, her elder brother passing out when she needed his help to save her father, and finally, her boyfriend refusing to hold on to her in her most desperate moments.
She accepts her destiny with bitter expressions on her face and mannerisms but that changes into first a meek look of submission and then a trance-like dance in the last scene of the film when she finally resonates with the nothingness and acceptance of being a failure that her elder brother had mouthed to her in a scene before.
Darathie Bhardwaj is the heart and soul of the film and she proves herself equal to the task with a heartbreaking and impactful performance.
The supporting cast of the film including Numal Chandra Gogoi, Dulukanta Moran, and Durlabha Moran are equally great. They bring such simplicity and organic realism to their respective characters that it is hard to find fault with their performances.
Jaicheng Jai Dohutia
Jolsobi is a fantastically directed film. It is exactly what its director, Jaicheng Jai Dohutia wanted it to be. He not only directed but also co-produced, wrote, and edited the film. That just goes on to show the amount of creative involvement that he had in every aspect of the film and it shows in every frame.
Dohutia set out to make a film about a certain character and her story in a finite period in her life. He used elements from her life in order to build a story around it and infuse it with drama and emotions. He also left a lot of things ambiguous. You may question the character, her life’s choices, her actions, and her final surrender to her fate. You may even find the film one-dimensional and boring if you are not invested in the character and her predicament but you cannot fault Dohutia’s treatment of the subject, characters, and his directing of the actors. That is something that makes this film the best version of itself.
I noticed a lot of symbolism in the film. Many of them I couldn’t decipher in my first viewing. Some of them I could which immediately enhanced the appeal of a certain scene for me. Symbolism is something that a director interweaves in his narrative depending on his own version of the story and how he wants it to be viewed. It might not mean the same thing to all or might not even mean anything. Thus, it is always a fun element to have in a film and it immediately adds an additional layer to the story and how the characters integrate or react to the different elements of the story. The symbolism is very well done here and, in the cases, where I was able to decipher its meaning, I found that it complemented the story beautifully.
Jolsobi is unlike anything that we see these days. It reminded me of Yasujiro Ozu’s films. Jaicheng Jai Dohutia’s visual strategy is simple. He inserts poignant and vibrant elements from day-to-day life and tries to convey symbolically the current state of mind of a character or the weight of a situation in question. His camera barely moves and when it does it does so with purpose, planning, flow, and inspiration. He keeps the story as simple as possible so that the impact can be as profound as he desires. His characters envelop you in their mundane chores because they are thematically and emotionally rich. Dohutia is able to land a final knockout punch (not in an action film kind of a way) in the climax because of the emotions he was building throughout and the richness of the characters on display.
I feel that films like Jolsobi are essential in today’s atmosphere as they not only serve as the perfect palate cleansers but also make you sit back, take a deep breath and enjoy the finer aspects of details that we are fast losing out on due to our constant need for instant entertainment and gratification. For all this and more, Jaicheng Jai Dohutia’s film is a must-watch.
Dipankar Sarkar, 16 January 2023
Stories of women battling gender inequality and trying to carve out an identity in Indian society frequently come to a symbolic fork in their journey, where one path leads to struggle and the other leads to an uncertain future. The lead character, Tapashi (Darathie Bharadwaj), in Jaicheng Zxai Dohutia’s Assamese feature film, Jolsobi, must make this decision every day. She may not even understand the significance of her decisions or the reasons behind them. She is a troubled soul who struggles throughout the film to arrive at objectivity. The 87-minute-long film is a social drama that probes insight into such human behaviour and the consequences of choices.
Tapashi has completed her higher education and driven by circumstances, she is compelled to return home. She hopes to begin a new phase in her life and makes multiple efforts to adjust herself to the ways society in rural Assam functions. But as time goes on, she begins to realize the harsh reality of her native village, where getting a government job is not an easy proposition. Even to get a temporary job at a primary school, she has to travel miles. Her relationships with her family and boyfriends begin to deteriorate, and she is forced to conform to societal norms.
Throughout the film, Jaicheng observes Tapashi with care and sympathy, without passing judgement on whether she is an altruist or an insensitive person. He lets the narrative simply witness and record as honestly as possible the stakes that an intelligent, educated, and hard-working young woman confronts and the repercussions that her decisions entail. By following her with an unbiased approach, the filmmaker makes the viewer question their own convictions and the choices they would have made if they had been in her place. But despite this apparent proximity, her behaviour remains mysterious, just beyond our full comprehension or unreserved sympathy.
The rural society depicted in the film is plagued by unemployment, a breakdown in communication, a lack of metropolitan amenities, a reduction in independence, and individuals' varied behaviours. A key, fundamental dramatic question emerges as Tapashi plods with her stubborn, incisive spirit of a survivor who aspires to thrive. Will she be able to get through this without relapsing, and what will happen if she doesn't? Darathie Bharadwaj's subdued performance unmistakably communicates Tapashi's psychological concerns and helps us understand the turmoil she is going through.
Chida Bora and Jaicheng’s cinematography capture the rural environment with a desaturated colour palette, which accentuates the sombre tonal quality of the film. The night scene, where the entourage of the bride and groom's vehicle is blocked by friends and relatives, makes significant use of light to reflect the mood of the moment. Jaicheng, who has also edited the film, delicately interweaves each of the sequences with precision. Through their layered sound design, Oliver Achatz and Debajit Gayan alternate between silences and natural sounds, keeping the truth true to the reality of the location. The background score by Andreas Lucas creates a brooding sense that adds intricacies to the scene. The sequences are well-written and keep us interested in the story. But the supporting characters lack complexity, and in several scenes, the dialogue has clichéd, theatrical undertones.
Jolsobi unquestionably possesses form, emotion, and performance, and it's worth watching. But one misses the intricacies within the narrative that elevate an otherwise good film to greatness.