Aajoor: First Bajjikka film gets rave reviews

TOWARDS the north of Bihar, Hindi undergoes a very natural, rustic transformation.

- APARNA NAIR @T'Puram

It teams up with Maithili, another regional variant, and forms Bajjikka, with a clear earthy twist and loads of warm homeliness.

Aajoor, with three shows in IFFK this year, claims to be the first movie in that language. Set in areas around Bihar's Sitamarhi district, it reflects the aspirations of the locals to grow and learn. The entire story is weaved around Saloni, a motherless girl who battles societal scorn to go to school traversing long, patchy, albeit picturesque rural terrain, something her father, who sings for 'launda naach' performers (where the male dancer dresses up as a woman), insists she does without fail.

The girl's role is juxtaposed to that of a bunch of privileged boys who aimlessly attend school and seem more interested in dabbling in social media, making reels and videos and personal accounts on the internet. The two aspirations find portrayal in the film inspired from real-life scenes in the remote regions which director Aaryan Chandra Prakash encountered as he returned from Delhi University after graduating in Humanities.