MovieSaints to stream first ever Rajbanshi film Mansai from 8 May

Asutosh Das’s Mansai (2022), the first film in the Rajbanshi language, will be streamed on MovieSaints from 8 May.

The film explores the culture and lifestyle of the Rajbanshi community of Bengal, with a story that revolves around the Mansai river.

Mansai stars Payel Mukherjee, Arjun Subrata, Krishna Dewan and Sushmita Barman. Newcomer director Abhijit Das, who has completed shooting for his debut Bengali film Bijoyar Pore (2022), is the creative director and editor of the film. The film will be released under the banner of Jupiter Creations Films and Advertising Production, jointly owned by Abhijit Das and Prosenjit Sikder.

Asutosh, a primary school teacher of Coochbehar district of North Bengal, shot some portions of the film with his own funds around 2020. Then he contacted Abhijit for assistance. “He sent me the footage of the film and I found the content quite interesting," the creative director said. "I felt this could be the first Rajbanshi film for an international platform. We then used the entire lockdown period to complete the film.”

According to him, MovieSaints CEO Priyadarshi Rishiraj, who hails from Siliguri in North Bengal, was quite excited about the film. “Rishiraj later told me the film has been selected for streaming for its original content and various other strong points. We are happy that after two or three years, the film is ready to be streamed before a global audience,” Abhijit added.

Like Bengali, the Rajbanshi language has many dialects and varies from region to region. “The language is primarily used by the Rajbanshi people from some areas in Bangladesh, Assam, Coochbehar and Jalpaiguri," Abhijit said. "However, this film has used the standardized Rajbanshi dialect, which is the most popular as well.”

The film has Bhawaiya songs, a folk music genre of North Bengal and Bangladesh. “Rajat Biswas has composed the music and prominent All India Radio artistes have sung the songs,” said Abhijit. The entire cast and crew is from North Bengal and many amateur artistes from the region have also acted in the film.

Mansai is the story of the survival of a girl named Mano, who lives with her family by the Mansai river. The film has been screened at the First-Time Filmmakers Session @Pinewood Studios and Lift-Off Global Network Session,2022. “We have a plan to release the film in theatres and arrange open-air screenings for Rajbanshi audiences as not all of them have access to online streaming platforms," Abhijit Das said.

Correction, 22:25 IST: An earlier version of the report cited the name of the protagonist in the film as Nano. The character's name is Mano.