Guwahati: Two powerful stories of resilience, sacrifice and womanhood brought the northeast its only honours at the 72nd National Film Awards 2024, with Assam’s ‘Juiphool’ and Manipur’s ‘Sunita’ winning the Best Assamese and Best Manipuri Feature Film awards, respectively.While ‘Juiphool’ explores the unlikely friendship between two women across the conflict-ridden Assam-Nagaland border, ‘Sunita’ is a biopic on visually impaired achiever Moirangthem Sunita, who overcame immense odds to pursue higher education and rebuild her life.Directed by veteran actor-filmmaker Jadumoni Dutta, ‘Juiphool’ is set in a village along the troubled Assam-Nagaland border, where decades of conflict altered everyday life. The film follows Lakhimi, a pregnant Assamese widow, who develops a secret bond with Rengma, a Naga woman devastated by repeated miscarriages. As suspicion grows among villagers over their friendship, the narrative unfolds against the backdrop of violence and mistrust, weaving in the Assamese folk tale Tula Aru Teja to underscore themes of motherhood, loss and humanity.‘Sunita’, directed by Yumnam Ajit Singh, tells the real-life story of Moirangthem Sunita, a visually impaired woman from Manipur who refused to let disability define her future. Despite losing her eyesight and facing social stigma, illness and abandonment by her husband during pregnancy, she studied in regular schools and colleges before earning a master’s degree in English literature from Manipur University. While single-handedly raising her two children, she rebuilt her life through education, music and sports, emerging as a symbol of determination and dignity.Both films received the Rajat Kamal in their respective regional language categories, with a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh each for the producer and director.The awards were the northeast’s only wins this year, with no films from Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland or Tripura featuring among the winners in the feature, non-feature or writing-on-cinema categories.Nationally, ‘Article 370’ was adjudged Best Feature Film, while Mammootty (Bramayugam) and Kartik Aaryan (Chandu Champion) shared the Best Actor award. Yami Gautam won the Best Actress for her performance in ‘Article 370’.
