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. Yet the difference is that the growth envisaged is not in terms of material affluence but a natural evolution where the existence of humans as part of nature gets the focus.

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.