Village Rockstars (2017) User Reviews

The typical Indie film

[santypete · 7/10 · 18 December 2017]

Indie and offbeat art movies are not everyone's cup of tea. Village Rockstar doesn't fall under the art film category but as Utpal Borpujari said "You can't go more Indie than Village Rockstar". A movie made by one woman crew, investing her own money, working with untrained actors, and dedicating 5 years of her life harvesting in a film is a feat people should respect if not laud. To understand VR one needs to understand the geography where its filmed. An amateur review posted in the platform writes that despite all the hindrance the film sorts out everything just like magic. The hindrance mentioned were: flood, and puberty (which was mysterious)... Now, lets get the facts right: 1) When puberty hits a female its always sudden, there's no warning sign 'I'm coming..." and puberty is not a hindrance at all, so I guess that's the reason we see the lead , Dhunu being normal after the ceremony. 2) Flood after it subsides thing gets back to normal. Since, its a feature length film the maker didn't really have time to show how the lead overcame each and every hindrance... May be if it was a TV series like say "OFFICE" then the maker could have focused on each and every details liked 'flood & puberty' which were just subplots of the movie.

All in all the movie is a great lesson for aspiring filmmakers. It dragged a bit,a nd the end was a little abrupt, but kudos to the makers for the effort and the heart to bring out this gem out of nowhere.

Silences speak....!! :) Das ka dum

[Tejas_Vinda_AITS · 7/10 · 28 September 2018]

Absolutely natural. The VILLAGE ROCKSTARS is a miracle.

Too hard to believe it's done by a fresh Director . The editing work she has done is pure magic. Her camera (CANON 5D) speaks more than the dialogues.

Awesome work by RIMA DAS. Her four years of work for the movie shows well on the screen .. covering almost all seasons.THIS MOVIE WOULD SURE ROCK AT THE OSCARS ..!!!

From a Film Student.

[vikramjitbarua · 8/10 · 29 September 2018]

It's all over the news. This simple film of a skinny rural girl, Dhunu, from an unknown village, wanting a guitar. By the end of the film, I was never happier seeing anyone, fictional or non-fictional, get a guitar, in my life.

A blunt recipe from the Pastures of Rural Assam smeared unto our faces by it's filmmaker, Rima Das... us pretentious...privileged...politically correct pricks of an over-populated profession gone plastic! Us filmmakers, film fanatics, film critics and 'fake'tors, all alike!

It's a balm to the wolves climbing the hill. It's a burn to the wolves on top.

Bollywood, Let the Bhoot-Jolokia sink in.

Simple, Beautiful and Raw

[kirankcj · 7 October 2020]

VILLAGE ROCKSTARS, a film by RIMAS DAS is not merely a film, it's an epitome of the life of people in rural areas of Assam.Rima Das single handedly guides us through the lives of the people of Assam suffering from frequent floods which the government have not given proper attention till now. She imparts a soul which makes the film real and raw. The wide shots in the movie are breathtaking.Even without a film school, she created magic out of each frame. All the actors in the film are non-professionals. Even with non-professional actors, she managed to guide and draw great performances out of them, for which the lead Bhanita Das won the National Film Award for Best Child Artist. Village Rockstars was selected as India's official entry to the 2018 Oscars, which it totally deserved. It was also premiered in acclaimed international film festivals TIFF, Cannes, DIFF etc...

THE MOVIE AND ESPECIALLY ITS CLIMAX GAVE ME PURE BLISS✨

[Saanwithhisstupidthoughts · 7/10 · 11 May 2021]

Wriiten directed and produced(also by jaya das) by Rima das...a self taught filmmaker....

VILLAGE ROCKSTARS is a very pure,grounded and peaceful coming of age movie that gave me sheer happiness.

Moments spun and caught in camera and stitched into a complete movie that is very raw and fresh.

Its completely shot in a village background with all the greenery,cattles,goats,farm,huts.

With the addition of the sound of nature as it's bgm in a way

And so well recorded....so the sound recorder deserves an applause too.

It shows the culture of Assam And the rituals that are done when girls attain puberty.

It shows the arrival of flood and it's effects on farmers that has sadly become a normal part of their life.

It shows a girl who disbands societal norms by climbing trees and roaming with boys all the time The girl is also with a dream of owning a guitar and starting a band and the movie further shows her efforts to make it a reality.

There is also the projection of friendship in it.

The repeated shots of crop farms trees greenery lakes and river never really bores you coz it was visually so good to watch(strictly personal opinion)

All in all its an out and out indie movie that has been Shot Written Directed And acted out brilliantly

A must watch in my personal opinion.

Rocking away

[sudipta2311 · 9/10 · 10 October 2018]

Set in rural and picturesque frames, the movie takes us on a journey with Dhunu and her friends. These are your regular kids who play make-believe games, pull each other's legs, climb trees, listen to tales, make big plans and have bigger dreams. But as the story moves forward, we discover they are far from 'regular' in terms of their trials and tribulations. Extreme poverty and floods are almost like ways of their life. Dhunu and her widowed mother also have the additional burden of gender stereotypes. Here we realise how important the role of a parent is in their child's liberation. Against all odds, her mother always stood behind Dhunu. The fact that she went to a far off market and enquired about the price of the guitar which her daughter wanted was more than enough for me. And when she actually got it for her, I was in tears! For me, her mom was the true village rockstar :)

Not a must watch but you SHOULD WATCH.

[mayankmalviya · 7/10 · 24 March 2020]

It has everything as the great Pathar Panchali. The bond shown between a mother and daughter is something I really loved . This film is about so many things that you may or may not be able to see, but giving it a chance won't be a problem. Cinematography is amazing, so is the art and the way filmmaker uses the natural sounds in the film makes it really come into life. This film is 1h36m long, but it definitely felt much longer than that, but I guess that's the way film is suppose to be watched, and I don't regret it.

Unique and beautiful

[avik-kumar-si · 10/10 · 4 October 2018]

Village Rockstars is a unique film. It's unique in the sense that at no point does the action or the acting seem staged. It's almost like a fly-on-the-wall (or should I say fly-in-the-grass!) perspective. As we watch a mother and her two children, a girl and her friends, a group of villagers dealing with flood, we feel we might have been sitting next to them - lying there on the grass, sharing their meal, rowing with them across an overflowing river, looking up at children perched on a tree.

Right from the first shot, Village Rockstars is reminiscent of the Satyajit Ray masterpiece Pather Panchali, as if shifted a few decades in time. Art and literature are often bound by the confines created by the hand of the modern market, so it is a matter of joy that cinema like this has made it through the filters, and is being seen and heard way outside where such action and such sentiments still hold sway. For this alone, the film deserves to be celebrated. It's useless talking about the plot, not because there isn't one, but because it would be beside the point. It's also futile to talk about the technique, the acting, the music. Because here's a work that renders all such details meaningless in its glorious magnanimity, its guileless honesty. All the viewer needs to do is leave inhibitions at the door and float along. And if you can let the gentle waves of simplicity and innocence - that this short and beautiful work is - wash over you, the experience is sure to leave you richer in ways that our worldly possessions can't dare to dream of doing.

Masterpiece

[sahifurrahman · 9/10 · 12 March 2020]

A masterwork is usually the result of strict adherence to artistic and functional rules. Village Rockstars respects none: it dons a raw, innocent cloak and exudes a degree of purity that deliberate craft can never bestow on a film... The film stands for something that is always under threat: the courage to ignore the reality that life is exceedingly difficult for cinema that is made on the margins of a giant production machinery and recognise that there always are ways out for those who revel in battling the odds, no matter how daunting, and overcoming them.

Just Love The Frames.

[tushar_daftuar · 9/10 · 6 January 2019]

Analysis from cinematography point of view as am the student of cinematography.

So, Village Rockstar remind me the work of Subrata Mitra mainly the framing, the use of Bamboos as frame. The add on I liked in the film was the static shots which was not really static and that's what make the scene alive. The use of colour to separate or merge the subject to any specific things in a scene. One of my favourite scene in the term of using colour to convey a message was " when Dhunu was going back to the home from school all the the girls were wearing the pink skirt and all the boys wearing wearing the blue half pant and Dhunu were wearing a blue skirt which make Dhunu little offbeat and the colour of her skirt convey the message that she more like her male friends in comparison to her female friends. From the very beginning of the film her character were more masculine doing tough work climbing the tree, ridding the boat etc in comparison to a regular girl. So coming back to cinematography there are many scenes in the film were Rima Das made frame so compact that she want that audience do not get distract somewhere just keep sticking to the subject and it's activities seems that Rima Das hevly inspired by Pather Panchali movie by Satyajit Ray. Some of the compact frame I liked a lot are :-

1.When women's of the village, taunt Dhunu for climbing the tree in the next scene her mother went in to women's area and give a lecture to them very angryly.

2. When Dhunu is counting her money.

3. When Dhunu got her first menstrual cycle.

4 When her mother went to the shopkeeper for guitar.

One of the clever technique which I like to conclude. When little goat Munu got vanish suddenly, while searching the goat at the night everything is little to become gradually little more out of focus by doing this Rima Das actually magnified the subject in the frame & the subject become little larger also kind of bokh effect which is pleasurable to watch and the children also appears little magnified but little bulred. If the same scenes were done with the Sharpe focus the flame would appear like a point and children's were not appeal anything due to lack of details because of dark and wide shot, so it's better to make out of focus and let the subject got little magnified and rest leave on the gesture of the actors to convey the message. And this magnification happen due to out of focus.

No Music. ♦ Grade F

[nairtejas · 2/10 · 14 October 2017]

The amateur cast who originally hails from the same village in Assam where this coming-of-age film is set in is the highlight of the otherwise dull story about following one's dreams. If I say that it is the only highlight of the film other than the beautiful nature- kissed shots, most of which I hear were done in natural light, it'd be like me chasing the ideal dream about this review. I can try and relate to all there is about not conforming to the rules of society, but when a story is filled with bits and pieces, which are average per se and not as a whole, I find that the message gets lost. That is exactly what happens in Rima Das's Village Rockstars where a group of school kids, led by a sometimes taciturn, sometimes high-powered Dhunu - the only female member - decide and try to start a rock band. Driven by imagination and a one-time experience at a musical soiree, Dhunu and her mates encounter a series of limitations which form the crux of the rest of the movie. It's all dull from A to Z. TN.

(As part of the Young Film Critics Lab 2017 at the 19th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.)

natural n real...

[ridib_b · 9/10 · 28 September 2018]

Offbeat art movie, it also shows assamese culture, village life style, flood, childhood etc etc... story is best... feel the nature... being an assamese i am amazed and thrilled... sound is good. best of luck for OSCAR... Big thank to Rima Das...

Best Movie ever context in a village in a rural dream

[architnath · 10/10 · 1 June 2018]

This movie gives a hope to every lonely soul those who lived in Indian villages who thinks that one day she /he will be the most desirable person on his/her dream of ambitions, though resources are short , though they have the limited world of their back hand, but never short of their dreams of success and hopes.When you tell a story through cinema,it doesn't mean that it should have those elements which so called film critics, so called cheap ingredients they want .. sometimes world gives us a dimension where we find a dream as a true innocent dream but doesn't need a medium to express it . I think this movie goes beyond its essence through its truthfulness towards life and you find a rare glimpse of those in your mirror as this movie always conveys.

As a film lover it was too fantastic

[gogoirahul-53359 · 10/10 · 3 October 2018]

Village Rockstars really rocks! I love the way of the presentation of the film. Rima Das shows the strength of the will power... Not emotionally but logically I'm saying that Village Rockstars must be nominated for Oscar. That's what it deserves. Oscar award is dependent completely upon the Oscar's Jury members... I immensely hope so.

Tasted like Satyajit Roy's movie

[imBirbrata · 10/10 · 11 October 2018]

Great movie, awesome camera work and beautiful sound work :) its feel like watched new generation Satyajit Roy's movie

Worst worst.....

[drunbhardwaz · 1/10 · 7 October 2018]

Actually i would have given 0 rating but there is no option. This movie tests your patience. The duration of the film was about 115 mins but it felt like 250 mins. Please save your valuable money and time by not watching it.....

You Must See Before You Die

[hemanthcl · 10/10 · 5 October 2018]

Pick up a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it as director. Now you're a director. Everything after that you're just negotiating your budget and your fee.

• James Cameron

Village Rockstars : A film by Rima Das

Rima Das , You're Incredible.. Cant express how much i feel after watching this film. Loved it. Everything i saw i felt real.. Movie tells about many things and many of them personally touched me... #Dreams , Death , Childhood , Friendship , Culture , Poverty , Flood , Survival...

Editing , Cinematography , Written , Produced & Directed by Rima Das

65th National Awards - Best Film , Best Child Artist : Bhanita Das , Best Location Sound Recordist : Mallika Das

"Selected for India's official entry to 91st Academy Awards".

Like what Sanal Kumar Sasidharan said "Rima Das, the one woman army in the Indie film field in India! She writes, she shoots, she edits and she goes to Oscars!! "

"You Must See Before You Die"

Great, jus great

[nikree · 10/10 · 3 April 2020]

One of best Indian movies I've seen in recent years. Yes, including all of South Indian and main-stream bollywood.

Pure raw direction, acting and everything that's involved in a movie.

I'll call it best of contemporary 'art' movies.

One of the best ! Please read the description.

[nilamkalita · 10/10 · 30 December 2018]

Since you had clicked to read this review, please read till end.... . From a boy coming from a place like the film is based on and being grown up in that environment I can say that Rima Das has made me live my childhood once again. That landscapes, innocence, dreams, dialogues are just so real that in no words I can explain then to other. Problems that people face living on that kind of environment, struggle that you have to make being poor & a single parent, problems that caused by our society are just shown as it is. I think for many people it will be difficult to understand some of the shots, dialogues and even the situations, not because of the language, but because they haven't experienced that in life. The movie goes through my heart just because it felt like someone like me is in the film, this portrays my childhood, lot like me; not because it won National Award or gone for Academy Awards. From my point of view this film doesn't want to tell a story of someone's life, but wants you have the emotions, feelings that the characters are having. Like Nolan din with Dunkirk, "Less violence, less blood less war scenes unlike other Oscar winning WW2 dramas, e.g. Saving Private Ryan, but what Nolan through this film wanted us to have that same experience of tension, fear had by those 400000 people on that beach." Rima does the same thing in this film, this is not about telling a linear, start to end story, but to live in that small part these characters life.

Excellent! You have a long way to go..

[cleo1994 · 9/10 · 9 October 2018]

Story, scenes, humour- Excellent. Just go and watch it without giving a second thought. This could not have been any better. Purely natural.

Munu is gone for guitar

[sundarprasad · 10/10 · 23 March 2020]

Well, this is not a traditional film. Director just recorded a village with hidden camera for a time period. And I wish director Rima Das gee to contribute masterpiece like this in a number so we can re live us, whenever we want in time.

This like film I watched was of Satyajit Ray

Masterpiece to understand the life in a new way.

[ridibbb · 10/10 · 28 September 2018]

Just go for it. If u want to feel childhood in a remote village... Nature... The fighting for survival... Poverty... Flood... Etc. Most importantly ur dream, hobby to make ur life meaningful in this beautiful world... Where someone may lost his personal life/dream in this crowded modern machinery life... Feel fresh, n just motivate urself for a meaningful simple natural life... This is that kind of movie... Where ur will cry deep inside... Big thanks to Rima ba... Ur r the survivor of Assamese movie after Legend Jahnu barua sir... What a classic example of Assamese childhood in a remote poor village... Sound... Cinematography... Story is best... Jai aai axom.

Awesome film, cinematography

[rohitreviews · 9/10 · 16 January 2019]

Story is well crafted and cinematography too is superb. After long time seeing something worth Indian cinema. Have hints of influence of Iranian style film making. Could have brought mother's role even more. But overall must watch film.

This regional classic by Rima Das puts Bollywood at shame by showing what they are missing in Realistic Cinema.

[SAMTHEBESTEST · 8/10 · 5 December 2020]

Village Rockstars (2017) : Brief Review -

This regional classic by Rima Das puts Bollywood at shame by showing what they are missing in Realistic Cinema. Village Rockstars is not like those rich feature films made in Bollywood and in some other industries in India with several retakes, artificial editing and fictional presentation under the name of Realistic cinema. In Bollywood, many films literally made an adult cinema with exploitation of sex and abusing language and gave them a name of realistic cinema. God only knows what the hell was that and how some dumb people who call themselves intellectual even gave away lot of praise. Here, Rima Das shows them how to make a Realistic Cinema with Rich Content and not with Rich Production. Village Rockstars is an Assamese coming of age drama or we can call it children oriented film too if we want. It is about a girl who wants to form a band group with her friends but got no money. Rather, she got lot of other problems to deal with such as natural disasters, family's financial condition, her own sexual recognisation and last but not the least her dreams. The film is written, edited, cinematographed and directed by one Woman and that's why the full conviction became possible. No artificial retakes or sound effects, just the originality and realism till the core as if we're watching a film shot by ourselves, that's how a self-taught genius filmmaker Rima Das put Village Rockstars on screen. From acting to dialogues to presentation you will find not single thing which will look cinematic, fictional or fake. This highly realistic and artistic tale comes with the runtime of 87 minutes which means it doesn't have a place for any useless cinematic Element here. Overall, A Classic Film Festival material which cannot be missed by art lovers.

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest

Real feeling....

[manashtubu · 9/10 · 30 September 2018]

Just real.... the pure feeling. You will feel like roaming in the village not siting in cinema hall. Great acting by all of childrens. So touching story. And yes, cinematography is simply great. All the best for Oscars.