The demand for the ban of Aimee Baruah’s National Award winning Semkhor has grown more intense days after the Dimasa Mothers’ Association (DMA) first condemned it for misrepresentation of the Dimasa culture.
The issue turned even uglier after it was revealed that the 84 days old baby who was cast in the film had died days after the shooting.
In a memorandum dated 29 September 2022 to the President of India, Draupadi Murmu, the Dimasa Civil Societies stated that the baby died “due to exposure to cold and rough weather conditions” at the time of shooting. Further, the memorandum mentioned that “Aimee Baruah did not take permission from District Magistrate before casting an infant baby in the film, which she was supposed to, as per the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act (CALPRA), 1986”.
Since then, various organisations and individuals have slammed the film, demanding its ban and an apology from its makers.
Aimee Baruah, Assamese actress wife of Pijush Hazarika, minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Water resource, Information & Public Relations, Printing & Stationery, Social Justice & Empowerment, and spokesperson of Government of Assam, in an interview with India Today NE released on 23 September 2022, said that these protests were results of “miscommunication”.
She said in the interview that the story of Semkhor was purely fictional, and her sole intention was to promote the beautiful place and attires of the Dimasa.
To Baruah’s disadvantage, her justifications seem to be doing more harm than good.
In the last few days, the Dimasa community have learned much about cultural appropriation.
Though Semkhor, released in 2021, is a film about them in their language and shot in their own backyard, the Dimasa people did not have much to say about it because apart from a handful of people, nobody had seen the film. They were unaware of how the film portrayed the community to the world for which the makers have been receiving numerous commendations.
The movie is finally in cinemas and the community is boycotting it and demanding its immediate ban.
On Thursday, a protest was organised at Haflong, Dima Hasao, Assam by the United Dimasa Youths demanding a ban of the National Award-winning movie. Hundreds of people from all walks of life had joined the protest holding placards and shouting slogans in unison.
Daniel Langthasa, a member of Autonomous Council Dima Hasao district, has been very vocal about his disapproval of Semkhor, the film, calling out people, even high-profile politicians, who have chosen to remain quiet on the issue.
In an hour-long video on YouTube, Langthasa along with his wife Roohi Haflongbar address cultural appropriation, why the Dimasa community are protesting and why Aimee Baruah must apologise.
Langthasa and his wife show evidence that the village Semkhor is not as primitive as Aimee Baruah had portrayed in her film as well as in her interviews. She had claimed on camera that people of Semkhor didn’t allow anything foreign to enter the village, that nobody had ever been to school and that they didn’t believe in medicines.
All these claims made by Baruah on camera are now under scrutiny and it doesn’t look like the clarifications she attempts now can pull her out of the controversy.
