Boong

Boong has an iconic opening shot (which some might still take an offense from) but which I feel set the tone for the film and the lead character Boong, the son of a woman is going to be proclaimed a widow by the village. His father has been working somewhere off the India-Myanmar border for a while without any communication, so to find out what's wrong with him, he hatches plans. It's an easy-going film, thanks to Boong and his schoolmate Raju, and their shenanigans but under the film's easy surface are hardhitting takes on gender politics, identity politics, and xenophobia that are hard to miss. It's delightful to watch the young actors play it out - in some cases the rehearsals very evident - but it was difficult for me to alternate between the funny and serious tones of the film. Boong may be a good political film but the blend didn't work out for me.

(Watched at its Asia premiere at the 2024 MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.)