Aribam Syam Sharma’s Ishanou ('The Chosen One') is a poignant tale of love and loss steeped in the Manipuri culture of India’s far northeast. Tampha, a young mother, abandons her family to join the Maibi sect of priestesses, but devotion to the deity cannot soothe the anguish of separating from her child.
The film beautifully juxtaposes the spiritual world of the Maibis with the rhythm of ordinary life. Aribam Syam Sharma’s delicate approach, the luminous camerawork, the naturalistic performances and the use of traditional music of Manipur (composed by the filmmaker himself), give the film a spellbinding authenticity.
Ishanou is presented from the gorgeous new 4K restoration by Film Heritage Foundation which premiered at Cannes in 2023. Our region-free Blu-ray also includes a rare, newly filmed interview with director Aribam Syam Sharma, interviews with actor Kangabam Tomba and Film Heritage Foundation's Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, plus a booklet with new writing on the film by Dr Omar Ahmed, plus Syam Sharma on the film and Singh Dungarpur on the restoration.
• Ishanou (1990) presented from an HD transfer of the new 4K restoration by Film Heritage Foundation.
• Director Aribam Syam Sharma on Ishanou: a rare, newly filmed interview with the filmmaker on this important work
of Indian cinema.
• Ishanou at Cannes 2023: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur and actor Kangabam Tomba interviewed by writer and broadcaster Anupama Chopra for Film Companion.
• 20-page booklet featuring a new essay by author and film scholar Dr Omar Ahmed, plus director Aribam Syam Sharma on the film, and notes by FHF founder
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur on the restoration.
• New English subtitle translation.
• Region Free (A/B/C) Blu-ray.
• World Premiere on Blu-ray.
Directed and Produced by Aribam Syam Sharma
Story, Screenplay and Costumes - M. K. Binodini Devi
Director of Photography - Girish Padhiar
Music - Aribam Syam Sharma
Editor - Ujjal Nandy
Sound - Durgadas Mitra
Main Cast
Anoubam Kiranmala - Tampha
Kangabam Tomba - Dhanabir
Baby Molly - Bembem
Manbi - Tampha's mother
Soraisam Dhiren - Tampha's neighbour
Baby Premita
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1991 Cannes Film Festival / Official Selection
2023 Cannes Film Festival / Official Selection: 'Cannes Classics'
“Simplicity becomes elevated and profound in Ishanou”
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
“Manipuri culture is the mystical canvas against which the human tragedy of 'the chosen one' plays out”
Aribam Syam Sharma
“The beautiful restoration will remind cineastes of the work
of the doyen of Manipuri cinema and a renaissance man like Aribam Syam Sharma, who has placed Manipuri cinema on
the world map”
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation
“Perhaps the best film in the [Cannes] panorama, largely because it tells a good story with great honesty and lack of guile, came from the State of Manipur, where two or three directors have worked against all odds for a decade or more” Derek Malcolm, The Guardian, May 1991
“One of the best Indian films of the past year”
David Stratton, Variety, April 1991
“To indulge in a story that does not abuse, hyperbolise or appropriate mysticism was exciting, sparking hope within me that perhaps it is still possible for the beauty of cultural practices to be conveyed to audiences unfamiliar with different ways of living and believing. […]
I find this demonstration of theosophy from a movie to be tender and powerful, and I hope others will too.”
Honi Soit
“An impressively measured work that fuses together ancient themes of spiritualism with a contemporary slant on motherhood, family and duty” Dr Omar Ahmed
