Aamis

Sumon is a doctoral student who studies the meat-eating habits of Northeast India and likes to cook for his friends. Nirmali is a doctor, unhappy in her marriage and busy covering for a friend's affair. They meet when Nirmali treats a friend of Sumon's for indigestion, and a bond forms around their shared love of food: he cooks for her and takes her to eat at small restaurants around the city.

Sumon's feelings grow into an obsession that hurts his research, while Nirmali's marriage deteriorates and she spends more time with him, without returning his feelings. Hoping to draw her closer, he asks a veterinarian friend to remove a piece of his flesh, cooks it and serves it to her. She enjoys it more than anything she has eaten. When he tells her what it was, she is first repelled, then hungry for more.

The two begin to feed each other in turn, and Nirmali's craving grows beyond what they can supply. To help her, Sumon kills a rickshaw driver, is caught, and the police trace Nirmali through their messages. They are led before the media with their faces covered, holding hands.

The film followed Hazarika's debut Kothanodi (2015). Knowing that the theme would be hard to pitch, he approached it with care to stay within censorship rules, later remarking that the Censor Board can cut scenes but not ideas. The spark came from a video of people eating a meat meal, and he has described the finished film as a sad love story rather than a dark one, a kind of Romeo and Juliet about repression and addiction.

The story's setting meant extensive research into Assamese cuisine, which carries much of the narrative. With a small budget Hazarika cast unknown actors, and Lima Das, a doctor and dancer in real life, made her acting debut as Nirmali beside Arghadeep Baruah as Sumon. The film was produced by Signum Productions and Metanormal Motion Pictures, with Shyam Bora and Poonam Deol as producers.

Aamis premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it was in competition in the International Narrative section. Writing in The Hollywood Reporter, Deborah Young reviewed it from the festival. Its commercial release in India followed on 22 November 2019.

Aamis helped establish Hazarika as a distinctive voice who draws on folklore and genre while remaining rooted in the food, landscape and social texture of Assam.