Matamgi Manipur

Matamgi Manipur is the first feature-length film in the Manipuri language. Released in 1972, it is a black-and-white film, which is surprising given that most films were made in color from the mid- 1960's onwards.

However, despite being a black-and-white film less than an hour in length, the story is interesting enough and also very well-directed. In less than an hour it presents many issues and themes in a very broad story, which is definitely not an easy task and which it accomplishes by being so simple and focused. A true achievement, which is why I rated it 10 stars.

I cannot tell you too much about the story without revealing it all, but I'll say as much as for you to get the general idea: it is about an Indian family that due to disintegration faces various issues.

I watched this film because being from India (the North and West regions), I've recently become interested in learning about Indian cultures different from my own by watching their movies; I watched a Bengali movie before this one and will watch a South Indian one next week. Matamgi Manipur was certainly very informative to me about Manipuri (and in general Northeast-Indian) culture; from what I saw it seems to be a very unique culture in a place blooming with nature and though it seemed foreign to me when I began watching it, as it progressed I noted some very interesting similarities to the Indian culture of the parts of India I'm from.