Thread by @vsirnate

So I finally watched #Axone on Netflix. Some quick thoughts from an “inbetweener”. @kaustubhdeka @AruniKashyap

PS: I may not get all of the points right. Happy to engage.

the film is supposed to be humorous but I felt as if the comedy tried to override the overwhelming burden of assimilation placed on the characters. It presents assimilation as a solution to racial discrimination. Unfortunately, there is a trade off between

being true to oneself and assimilating which can often result in a loss of identity. In my mind, no one should have that burden to be “more same than different” from the majority in any country.

The character of Bendang Longkumer is a tragic one. He is someone who has survived

a lynching and it has left him scarred and unable to have normal friendships with anyone outside of his own community. This is clearly a nod to the tragic murder of Nido Taniam in South Delhi in 2014. Had Nido survived, he would have felt trauma similar to the film’s character.

For me it was important that the film showed how acts of hate and violence affect people mentally and emotionally. It’s something I keep talking about - trauma - and I did find it odd that the film created some silence around the subject of trauma.

Trauma can drastically shape our political world views and our sense of belonging to any community. The character of Longkumer is asked how many friends he has outside of his community and told that not all Indians are bad, in one poignant moment in the film.

However, in doing so it removes the questions of justice for hate crime victims and also does not hold mainland Indians accountable for their racism and violence.

In fact, this is the part that troubled me most. Even the friendly young Indian man practices casual racism and objectifies northeast women. I find these quotidian microaggressions as problematic that the film used them as sources of humor for the plot.

I worry that it may have ended up arguing that casual racism/ commentary is somehow acceptable.

However, I did watch every minute and I was glad to see Northeast represented in its own way and through its own words on screen. I loved the music and am going to see

how to get the soundtrack. I also cried a little when Bendang sings a beautiful song with his guitar telling a story.

Many moons ago my roommate in college was a Mizo woman. She had many struggles in life and could sometimes be distant.

But often she would sit by the window in our dorm and sing to herself while I made beaten coffee for us with milk powder.

On watching that scene in the film this memory suddenly emerged. When I had visited her in Mizoram she had told me about the death of her

younger sister in Delhi. An unsolved mystery, now a closed case. But almost certainly a suspicious death. I wrote about it in an imperfect way when I was younger. Went to the grave in my mind. And suddenly the hate crime plot of the film was all too real.

You can watch Axone and enjoy it but also let it open you to the pain of northeast people. I am not an expert on technical aspects of film making, so I can only share what I thought of the script.

One last point. Everyone has a right to cook whatever cuisine they want without being censored for smell. But this struggle to find space to be able to cook something which is an affirmation of one’s identity, really broke my heart.

For a more thorough and critical review you can read this piece by @kaustubhdeka whose interactions have always left me more educated than before. raiot.in/diluted-smells…