Axone

I watched it today at the NE film festival in Pune. A movie with an underlying theme of discrimination, alienation and the longing for acceptance of one's cultural identity felt by North Easterners in the mainland - but in a very subtle way. Tho' a very sensitive issue, it's never ' in the face' but treated in very organic way. Axone itself is a metaphor for the principal characters'identity.The humour is so delightful . Go for the movie.

Axone (pronounced Akhuni), named after a traditional Naga dish, is a bittersweet film portraying the struggles faced by Northeastern Indians in the national capital of New Delhi. Directed by Nicholas Kharkongor, the story revolves around a group of North-easterners getting together to host a wedding party in an apartment and their attempt to cook a special dish for the occasion.

The racial slurs, the out-of-place feels, the sexist comments, the hampering of the right to cook and consume what one wants - all of these pains are packed into a neat 97-minute film that also raises a toast to the lives of these regular people. Each of the lead characters (Upasna, Chanbi, Minam) manage to leave an impression. The supporting cast is okay-to-good, with some getting remarkable scenes to themselves (like the drunk friend). The tone jumps frequently between happy to angry to upsetting but the performances manage to hold it together.

Even the 'comic relief' character gets a memorable scene where he gets called a "****ing Indian" and asks his Northeastern counterparts whether they don't consider themselves Indians. One of the characters' backstory is based on a horrific real-life racist bullying incident and to the director's credit, it fits incredibly well into the film's structure. The humour too is cent per cent situational and doesn't go overboard. While the film carries all the traits of a direct-to-OTT movie, Axone thankfully doesn't fall into the list of 'message movies' that bite off more than they can chew.

Food wins! Friendship wins! Sisterhood wins! Love wins!

No masaala, right to the point. Excellent acting by all cast. Some nice symbolic acting of shop watcher. Extra Kudos to Shiv character, awesome!!

When we talk about Floyd at his time of year, racism, discrimination, is everywhere in many different form (religion, caste, race, profession, place of birth, your eye shape, skin color, rich, poor, etc.) but in between all this unfortunate circumstances, there is pure warmth of friends, families, and many nice people. Peace !!

I was lucky enough to see this at the BFI London Film Festival. A great movie which highlights a little seen community in India. Funny and moving at times, but captivating throughout the duration. Here's to hoping this opens the gateway to more movies featuring Northeastern stars and culture.

Lived in Munirka, Delhi during my 3 university years. I totally feel it in my bones what the movie tried to bring across. Loved the Diversity Ethnic colors, differences & the battle with mainland Indian. I also lived in south India where I felt non of the above differences highlighted in the movie. Love the movie makers attempt to educate those who are not aware of how diverse & rich India is with ethnicity. And also how much more we have to be tolerant with our rich God gifted indigenous ethnicity rather than duel in our box. For the movie to become global, we desperately needs more.