Foundation for the Arts. Made by award-winning director Merajur Rahman Baruah, the film is a fascinating account of the lives of the people involved in this form of mobile theatre that is peculiar to Assam.
“I named it The Nine Months, because that is the time taken by the mobile theatres to finish one cycle. The first two months are spent rehearsing and the next seven on travelling to almost 70 locations and performing almost 210 times!” says Baruah.
Up to 2,000 people can watch a performance at any given time and themes can range from political satires to Bollywood and Hollywood adaptations.
Nothing is off limits and the creativity and inventiveness of the dedicated cast and crew knows no bounds.
The Nine Months brilliantly explores the form, style and aesthetics of Assam’s unique mobile theatre, the kinds of plays staged, the issues that they deal with subtly or overtly and how the genre has transformed itself from staging folk stories to contemporary themes with social and political implications.
“The film industry in Assam has never been able to compete with the thriving theatre scene,” explains Merajur, who received the Commonwealth Vision Award 2006 for his film Beyond the Zero Line. “There are about 30 travelling theatre groups in Assam. They are linked to social organisations in the place where they are performing. Forty per cent of their earnings goes towards social causes like building schools, colleges or community projects. That is why they have such widespread support. People actually believe it is their social responsibility to buy a ticket,” he says.
Merajur took three years to make the film following the routes taken by different mobile theatre groups, winning their confidence and getting them to share intimate details of their lives with the audience.