‘Village Rockstars 2’: Busan Review

Dir/scr: Rima Das. India/Singapore. 2024. 107mins

In her 2017 docu-drama Village Rockstars, Rima Das explored life in a small Indian village through the experiences of her 10-year-old protagonist Dhunu (played by Das’s niece Bhanita Das) — then, a free-spirited tomboy with a dream of owning her own guitar and playing in a band. Seven years later, Das returns to follow Dhunu as she navigates an increasingly rocky path to adulthood in this loose and languid film.

Observational, authentic

Village Rockstars enjoyed a successful festival run and was released theatrically in India before being selected as the country’s official Oscars entry. Since then, Das has made Bulbul Can Sing and Tora’s Husband, both of which have played at international festivals, and Village Rockstars 2, which premieres in Busan before heading to Mumbai, should enjoy a similar journey. While it may struggle to make an impact outside of the festival circuit, there is undoubtedly an audience for Das’s observational, authentic style of filmmaking. 

Dhunu is now 17 and, while hints of typically teenage pursuits make themselves felt — listening to love songs with her friends, discussing local boys — she is still fundamentally the same. She loves nothing better than climbing trees and romping through the fields in the small Assam village of Kalardiya, on the banks of the river Brahmaputra in northeast India. While her dreams of playing in a band may not have materialised — the others, she says, have grown up and forgotten about it — she is not resentful.

Indeed, unlike many films of this nature, writer/director Das does not imbue her protagonist with overwhelming yearnings for life beyond her village. The focus is very much on the here-and-now and, working as cinematographer (and producer, editor and production designer), Das captures the natural beauty of the landscape in which Dhunu feels so rooted, along with the simple comforts of the home she shares with her widowed mother (Basanti Das) and brother (Manabendra Das). That members of Das’s own extended family have been cast to play these roles gives their interactions a lived-in warmth; something that becomes increasingly important as events unfold.

While Dhunu finds much to enjoy about life, there is no escaping the hardships — particularly as she leaves childish pursuits behind. Rock stardom having not materialised, she is pulled into the backbreaking toil of working the land; something made even more difficult by frequent floods. With money and food scarce, Dhunu’s mother’s health begins to fail. Opportunistic brokers pray on people’s fears to buy up land at knock-down prices. Dhunu and her friends watch as trees are felled and fields dug up to make way for new buildings which have no connection to the local community. The stress causes cracks to appear in her own family unit.

As with the first film, Bhanita Das gives a low-key, naturalistic performance conveying Dhunu’s deep connection to this land and her family. This subtle approach extends to every element of Village Rockstars 2, giving it the feeling of a documentary. And it is, of sorts. Rima Das uses this fictionalised story as a way of amplifying the struggles of the people of Assam, an area which is feeling the full affects of climate change and the increasingly cut-throat battle for land and resources.

But there’s defiance here, too. Dhunu’s prospects may not extend much beyond the village but that shouldn’t mean they are limited. Treated with care and respect, this land that she loves can reward her in kind. While a tragic event makes Dhunu’s future even less certain, there is no suggestion of her giving up. Like everyone around her, she fights to keep hold of the only way of life she knows.