"Scrotum penis, penis scrotum. Scrotum penis, penis scrotum," chant the girls around a campfire as the boys writhe in discomfort. The group is made of up students and two teachers who are on a trekking trip in a forest, deciphering an ancient coded message on a rock with phallic symbols. The boys, who are in the minority are embarrassed by the obscene chant but the girls seem to enjoy the subversion of this genderized unease. As far as the symbols go, the girls arent surprised by their presence. Why would they? The world is filled with similar messaging of masculine dominion; a constant reminder of who's ordinarily the 'boss' — just not here tonight in the forests of Sikkim.
This scene encapsulates, in part, the theme of Bhargav Saikia's debut feature, Bokshi. Premiering in the prestigious Harbour section of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), it is a feminist eco-horror movie set in the dense forests of North Sikkim. 'Bokshi', meaning 'witch' in the Nepali language, portrays the dark coming-of-age journey of its young troubled protagonist. At its core, however, it is a cautionary tale that sheds light on universal and socially relevant themes of feminine liberation and humanity’s fraught relationship with Mother Earth. Drawing from the 'Wild Woman' archetype, the film attempts to subvert the negative idea of the witch prevalent in society.
The greatest horrors in reality are horrors of mankind. Bokshi does an exemplary job in highlighting this through its protagonist, who finds herself constantly humiliated, shunned, and misunderstood; a fate similar to the witches that were burned and exiled in history. All the characters in the film fulfill the roles it needs to craft a perfect story. Holding our hand in a narrator-capacity though, is Shalini, the teacher with a commanding presence who plans this ominous trip. Over the course of the film, we learn that she knows more than we do; and even amidst all the horror, and her anti-hero tendencies, we trust her. Whether or not she is a 'witch' is a question that seems to become progressively irrelevant as you go on.
The premise of the film comes from one of Bhargav's annual excursions during his boarding school days in Assam. A trip to Dirang in Arunachal Pradesh planted the seed for an edgy genre narrative that takes place on a trekking trip in the forest. Later, while discussing the script with screen writer Harsh Vaibhav, Bhargav misrememberd the location of his childhood trip as Sikkim. This led them to the Eastern Himalayan state to explore its folklore, myths and legends. "North Sikkim, owing to its mystical atmosphere, naturally became the focal point of our research. The folkloric aspect of Bokshi was loosely adapted from the indigenous stories and tales we collected from this particular region. Had I correctly remembered the actual location as Dirang during the initial discussions with my writer, Bokshi possibly would have been a very different film with its setting in Arunachal Pradesh," he notes.
The result of this modern interpretation of a regional folklore is a one-of-a-kind macabre experience that redefines horror in the best way. There are no jumpscares here but the air of mystery and eeriness never leaves your side throughout the film, an intentional choice on the director's part. Being a cinephile, he always gravitated towards slow-burn films. Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread among others left an indelible impression on Bhargav and informed his treatment of Bokshi. "These are all films that gradually increase in their intensity and their payoffs are chilling and monumental. This was exactly my approach with Bokshi where a constant sense of increasing dread leads to a shocking finale", he explains. While meeting the audience’s expectations of thrills and scares, he was also clear about avoiding genre stereotypes and treating the film as a true slow-burn.
The immersion within the setting of the story also plays its role in captivating you. As a filmmaker, Bhargav particularly finds the process of world-building exciting and satisfying. In Bokshi, his attempt was to create a believable yet elevated supernatural world where witches, spirits, and humans coexist with each other. To immerse an audience into a completely new world such as this, the film demanded a relatively longer duration.
The construction that goes behind building the world of Bokshi also expands beyond the visual; its shots are filled with recurring motifs, prehistoric lores, symbols, and references that not only give it legs but also its own identity to be remembered by; a mythology that we've seen in shows like Dark and True Detective. Moreover, the film has dialogues in Hindi, English, Nepali and a fictional language called 'Boksirit', which was exclusively created for the story by renowned Dutch linguist Jan Van Steenbergen.
The intersection of ecological and feminist themes in the film instantly creates a larger-than-life experience. In many ways, it becomes a microcosm of the real world, with little easter eggs leading back to the reality of women's oppression and the exploitation of nature. It also touches upon the doctrines of queer ecology; drawing parallels between patriarchy and the unconscionable destruction of the planet's resources. Bokshi's horror remains unrelenting throughout but as a woman, the film does have a gradual cradling effect that satisfies a deep feminine need for poetic justice.
Bokshi sets the bar for what homegrown horror cinema can and should be. The filmmaker takes on the massive responsibility of juggling some heavy themes along with the intricate modalities of storytelling, where Northeastern folklore and spiritual practices are coupled with the nature of existence, and it delivers tremendously. The disbelief of its sheer singularity still hasn't left me a week after watching it.
Womanhood is its own kind of horror and films that tap into that universe have a special cult-like status in the community. Bokshi too, ventures into territories explored by movies such as Midsommar and more recently The Substance, but hits harder for me by virtue of its homegrown appeal.
One can definitely see it become an archetypal film that could go on to define an entire microgenre in Indian cinema. Beyond its auteurial achievements, Bokshi evokes the spirit of resistance against a capitalistic and misogynistic world that resides in most of us under the layers of indifference. It calls upon that ancient animalistic instinct that is often required to cause a revolution with its motif:
"The earth remembers, we remember."
You can follow Bhargav Saikia here.
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