In the history of Indian cinema are a few filmmakers who, by virtue of their creative ability, intense labour and extraordinary perseverance, have come to be considered genius. D G Phalke, V Shantaram, Pramathes Barua, Himansu Roy, Ritwik Ghatak, Satyajit Ray are some such figures. Traveling through the little roads of Assam, we find another member of that pantheon: Jyotiprasad Agarwalla (1903-51), one of the greatest cultural figures to have been produced by the state. He made only two films, far less than other filmmakers, yet with his first film alone he could be distinguished as a radical auteur of all India. Nevertheless, he is little known.
Joymoti, released in 1935, added a new chapter in the chronicles of Indian cinema, primarily in the discourse of realism. Further, Jyotiprasad was the only political filmmaker of pre-independent India, though there were many in post-independent India, starting with Ritwik Ghatak. Above all else, Joymoti is a nationalist film in its attempts to create a cultural world using the elements of Assamese society. It is the only work of its kind of that period.
Biographers of Jyotiprasad Agarwalla are often mystified with the diversity of his interests. From a playwright in his mid-teens, to a popular dramatist, to a newspaper editor; first a student of law, then of music; composing tunes originally by blending local and Western music, later writing revolutionary poems and songs; writing children's literature, then art criticism, then intellectual essays. Jyotiprasad established a makeshift studio to make the first Assamese feature film, and later transformed the space into a cultural centre dedicated to the causes of the people. He organised a volunteer force for M K Gandhi's Salt March; he was labelled by the imperial government as an absconder, surrendered, and was imprisoned twice. He joined in the Communist-led uprising of 1942; he resigned from a government body in order to protest the compulsory contribution by the government to the World War II effort; he was president of the first India People's Theatre Association conference in Assam. The list is endless. One constant remains throughout, however: politics was inseparable from Jyotiprasad's works, whether in poetry or drama, dance or theatre, music or moving image. Throughout his varied career, we see the same conscientious artist striving to express himself in aesthetic terms — with a worldview of his own, immersed in deep love for Assamese literature and culture.
The making of the film Joymoti is remarkable on many counts, yet two things are particularly striking. First was the form of the constructed imagery that discarded norms of Indian cinema (read: 'faded photocopy of spicy Hollywood') that had been prevalent since its birth in 1912. Second was the director's inflexible determination in achieving the concept of that form in the truest possible way. These two intertwined, complimentary aspects cannot be discussed separately. For revealing the natural life of a particular region of Assam, Jyotiprasad decided he would have to develop his own style rather than import elements from elsewhere. Established actors are far removed from the types of characters essential for a lifelike portrayal; studios based in other parts of the country are either too busy producing films for mass consumption, or too incapable of feeling the pulse of the alien concepts espoused by Jyotiprasad.