Dominic Sangma’s Rapture : A Tale of Individuals & Communities

A film that blew my mind at Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023 After a long time, I walked out of the theatre overwhelmed, kept revisiting the film over & over again making more & more sense of the story with myriad human emotions. To carry a film home from the theatre is a rare joy.

 Rapture  by Dominic Sangma, a story of a small village nestled in the Garo hills in Meghalaya, India that borders Bangladesh. It’s a tale of individuals & communities, organised religion & indigenous beliefs, love & betrayal, fear & superstition, power & exploitation, collective inaction, and instant justice, us vs them. All through the innocent eyes of a kid with night blindness. Where does such deep-seated fear come from that compels a community to sanction the killing of another human being from a different world? It also subtly highlights so commonly seen yet hardly noticed issues of mental health. What mesmerised me most was the glimpse of a mystical parallel world.

 Compliments to Dominic Sangma for this daring tale presented as beautifully as one could. Large frames staring at the small village & the life of the villagers were eerily beautiful. The wet fertile hilly terrain of Meghalaya along with the mystical practices of the locals made for a heartening watch. Performances were outstanding, especially the young boy through whose eyes we witness it all. To me, it was not only a story well told with detailed nuances but a visual delight with cinematic brilliance.

My happiest moment was seeing a full auditorium in Mumbai. Spotted amongst the audience were celebrated director Ramesh Sippy and his wife Kiran Juneja.

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