Oie Jamuna (2002)

Descending from Tibet and crossing the whole Asam valley, the Brahmaputra river, after entering into Bangladesh, has taken the name- the Jamuna. An off-shoot of the mighty Brahmaputra, the present Jamuna, created by an earthquake in the eighteenth century, now itself is a major river of the world. The Jamuna, a braided river rather than a meandering one, becomes full of shoals during dry season and looks more like a lake than a river. Only in monsoon the whole of the Jamuna becomes one river. The film-maker, along with his crew, followed the course of the Jamuna on a boat towards downstream to reach where the Padma, another major river of the Indian sub-continent, has converged with the Jamuna. The film deals with the different aspects of the Jamuna river- its vastness, its erosion, its shoals, its fishes, and the most interesting aspect, the people living on its banks. The film contains a series of interviews with fishermen, farmers, weavers, boat-makers, folk-singers who all tell the impact of the Jamuna on their lives and their feelings about this mighty river. The interviewees include a veteran fisherman, a housewife, a folk-singer, a school-teacher and a small boy who sells egg in the ferries, all different people whose homesteads have been eroded by the Jamuna river. A journey-film and shot with an open-mind, the film-unit recorded what they experienced on their journey in one of the world's widest and most fascinating river-the Jamuna.