God on the Balcony

The film is set in a faraway Assamese village. Khagen, a farmer, lives with his wife Numali and their daughter Kuwali. Numali is fatally crushed by wild elephants and dies at the hospital where Khagen takes her.

With no ambulance available, Khagen sets out to carry her body home on his bicycle. The story follows this slow, painful journey, during which he and his young daughter meet two reporters and become entangled in a different conflict.

The film is set in the Majuli district, where infrastructure is poor. Bora has said it grew out of a newspaper report about a similar incident in Odisha, which stayed with him for a long time because it disturbed him, and he compared Odisha to the rural Assam where he grew up. Harish Khanna plays Khagen with restraint, and the film is notable for its long silences and sparse dialogue. Lighting contrasts the dim, lamp-lit interior of Khagen's home with the garish colour of the Ras Mela, where folk theatre, music and dance are in full swing. The film has no songs, and its minimalist score returns to a single theme that gives the father's and daughter's journey a tone of loss.

Produced by Maina Productions.

Reviewers admired the performances, the editing between settings and moods, and the restrained score, though some noted a confused edit early in the story and the strain of a tight budget.

The film is an example of Assamese cinema turning a single news item into a broader comment on rural healthcare and dignity.