Village Rockstars 2 review: Rima Das’s sequel is triumphant in everyway!

In this review, justonemovie aka Amrik, pens down his thoughts on Rima Das's second instalment of Village Rockstars! 

“What’s bigger than the sky?” “You mother!” Dhunu says. Our protagonist, Dhunu, constantly gazes at the sky as if she plans to reach beyond. She is almost looking at it with the eyes of a lover, and yet, in a scene where she has wrapped her mother around her arms, we see that her silent love and admiration for her mother is greater than that of the sky. You understand that, ultimately, it's her mother from whom she gets the strength to look up so high and never settle for less. Rima Das’s sequel to her brilliant debut, Village Rockstars, was surprising news to me. I started thinking about all the ways that the filmmaker could take the story forward. A part of me was also a bit worried, as this usually happens with great films getting sequels. 

Just like the last one, here we follow a grown-up Dhunu. Not only does she have a guitar now, but she also is a part of a proper band in her village. The playful banter between her mother, herself and her brother never fails to make you chuckle. We laugh at the moments when Dhunu’s brother accuses her of always wearing his shorts. The moments of playfulness and silliness retain their authenticity from the first film.

Moreover, it is how the silly moments of youth gradually merge into moments of beauty with utmost sincerity. She carries her mother on her back and runs through the fields. In a beautiful scene where her mother teaches Dhunu how to swim, she asks, “Didn’t you teach father swimming with so much love?” . Along with the beauty, the underlying grief is also retained, which rears its ugly head now and then. As she attends her school, we see topics like ‘Floods In Assam’ in her syllabus, which leads to a friend asking Dhunu, “Hey, didn’t your father die in the flood too?” she silently nods. After a tiring day of work in the fields, working women sit together and discuss their pain. Dhunu’s mother says “I have seen so much sorrow and pain in my life that I don’t even feel like crying. I cry alone sometimes but I can never cry in front of people.” 

Like everything else, love enters her life too. She likes Bhaskar but never expresses it, perhaps doesn’t have the vocabulary for the expression but the love shows. During a scene where Bhaskar is showing his room to her, she playfully touches his feet with hers; they spend time rowing in the lake with the beautiful sun setting behind them. Love and infatuation are also discussion topics among friends, as they are usually at this stage of life. It's fun to see one of Dhunu’s friends describing how songs and art come out of sadness and how she’s envious of a friend who just had her breakup because now she will be able to create art. “You should rise in love, not fall in love!” one of her peers says while having dinner. And just like the first movie, the sky never leaves. From pink to yellow to red - a fascinated Dhunu is seen chiefly standing against the backdrop of the ever-changing sky. 

Also Read: Anora review: Sean Baker's high wire and rambunctious fable invigorates a startlingly wise and tender tale of decadence

However, as all these visuals and moments warm your heart, you cannot help but feel the impending doom. Rima Das finds just the perfect moment for the film's tonal shift when an excited Dhunu spots a rainbow and tells it to her mother, to which her mother replies, “Seeing a rainbow must mean there will be rain” . As the rain arrives, the beauty is stripped. The sky loses its colour and remains scarily dark blue all the time. Even though the brother is a construction worker, we slowly see him dipping into severe alcoholism. Dhunu finds out that the government plans to buy all the land to build buildings there. “If I had money I would've bought all of this land and never sold it to anyone” she says. Due to lack of food and sleep, her mother starts to become ill and finds herself unable to work. This implies that, ultimately, she has to take responsibility for her family's livelihood along with the pressure of growing up to become a conventional woman. For instance, while putting makeup on her face before a band performance, the guy asks why she doesn’t shave her moustache. 

Das designs the film to make it feel like the life of the village is running on parallel tracks with Dhunu’s life, and it works. It also helps that she is the cinematographer herself as she weaponizes the same aesthetic, which was pleasing to our eyes, to tell us about something much more urgent and severe. She sets up a beautiful shot of this humongous tree, the rays of the sun peeks through its leaves, only for it to cut with a chainsaw in the same shot. I could hear the collective gasp in the audience as they saw this graceful tree being cut down in front of their eyes. It is in moments like this that one realizes how much can be achieved with this medium we call cinema! 

With all the gloom and despair, Village Rockstars 2 never lets go of hope, just like its protagonist. Rima Das doesn’t offer big solutions or conclusions. Instead, she decides to let moments linger towards the film's end. The yellow sky Dhunu loves slowly comes back. This time, her brother carries Dhunu on his back and runs through the field. Even after their crops get destroyed due to floods, she is optimistic that the harvest will be even better next year. It makes sense because in the Assamese language, ‘Dhunu’ stands for ‘glow’! 

Village Rockstars 2 had its Indian premiere at MAMI Mumbai Film Festival this year. 

For more reviews, follow us on @socialketchupbinge