User reviews

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.

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 ..!!!

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.....

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...

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.

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

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"

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

What worked:

• visually astonishing; authentic place plus great cinematography as well
• beautiful screenplay; simple but layered portrayal, and beautifully depicted through the girl's perspective
• real life scenes and actors added genuineness and conveyed convincing narratives

What did not work:

• some of the scenes and characters lacked the chemistry between the characters. The flip side is it is conveying authenticity because they were not trained actors but the real life people playing themselves

Final verdict: Recommended.

Village Rockstars rocks the mind with it's simplicity, its purity. It bellows through its silence and drowns you in its storyline just to visualise underneath the silence, underneath the poverty, lies the life, lies the dreams.