ISHANOU
(Manipuri feature film, 35mm, 91 minutes, colour 1990)

The film bagged the Rajat Kamal for the Best Regional film in the 38th National Film Festival in 1991. The film was screened in the Indian Panorama section of the 22nd International film festival of India 1991. The film bagged the special mention for the main actress (Anoubam Kiranmala). The film was the official selection in uncertain Regard at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1991. The film participated the International Film Festivals at London, Settle, Singapore, Toronto, Vancouver, Fribourge, Hawwaii and Nantes. The film also bagged the Best feature film and Best Director Award in the second Manipur State Film Festival in 1984.

Direction & Music : Aribam Shyam Sharma
Production : Doordarshan, Guwahati.
Story, Screenplay : M.K Bibodini Devi
Camera : Girish Padhiar
Editing : Ujjal Nandy
Sound : A. Shantimo, Durga Das Mitra
Lead Players : Kiranmala, Tomba, Manbi, Dhiren, Baby Molly, Baby Premita.

A small happy family somewhere in the Manipur valley. A husband, wife and their little offspring live under the caring protective authority of the market woman head of the family. Tampha the young wife is possessed by the divinity of the mysterious Maibi phenomenon, experiencing a series of violent fits of version and trance and run away from home in a frantic nocturnal quest of her Maibi Guru for initiation into the sect of the chosen, the family breaks away.

Magic and mystical break upon the mundane world of buying and selling and common rituals like that of a young girl's ears being pierced, the buying of a secondhand scooter and a promotion in office bringing into the play of the world of the Maibis, with their exquisite ritual singing and dancing and workshop and mythmaking. Behind the colourful spectacle of the traditional Manipuri life, into which Tampha almost loses herself to the mysterious, there lurks the pain of a mother who can no longer nurture her child growing into stranger. The film closes on that image of estrangement that almost stifles the sheer grandure and glory of the ritual festival.