Assamese short film ‘Mur Ghurar Duronto Goti’ wins ‘Best Film Award’ at Golden Raven International Film Festival in Russia

Assamese short film ‘Mur Ghurar Duronto Goti’ (The Horse from Heaven) directed by Maharshi Tuhin Kashyap has won the ‘Best Film Award’ at the prestigious Golden Raven International Film Festival in Russia.

The Golden Raven International Film Festival was held at Anadyr city in the Chukotka Autonomous Region in Russia yesterday.

The award was received by the representative of the Indian Embassy in Russia on behalf of Maharshi Tuhin Kashyap.

On winning the award, Maharshi greeted the audience through a video message and thanked the Golden Raven International Film Festival for honouring his film and said, “There is a lot of violence, agony, pain and wars in the world. In Assam, we have had a very difficult history which still continues. So let’s just pray for the wars to end and peace restored in the world.”

Maharshi thanked his producer, artists, and crew members as well as the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata (SRFTI), where he made the film as a class project.

The story of the film revolves around an Ojapali practitioner, Kuxhol. Kuxhol believes that he has the fastest and beautiful horse in the world and wants it to win all races in the city, but what he actually has is not a horse but a donkey.

Maharshi who has also written the film’s script, used Assam’s 600-year-old dying story-telling art form ‘Ojapali’ to narrate his tale.

The film has also been screened previously at the Kolkata International Film Festival, Jaipur International Film Festival, Himalayan Film Festival etc and has won several awards.

The film was also curated at the Cineteka National Museum in Mexico.

Previously the film ‘Mur Ghurar Duronto Goti’ had won Best Film award in Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF), an Oscar-qualifying film festival and was qualified to represent at the 2023 Oscar Awards, but could not win an award.

Notably, this short film was the first Assamese short film to participate at the Oscar Awards.

The film had also won Best Film award at VGIK International Film Festival.

All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov (VGIK), the oldest film school in the world which was established in 1919 supported by Lenin.

Senior actor Atul Pachani along with Snehankar Chakravartty, Abhijit Nag, Gourav Haloi, Ashish Chatterjee, Sonatan Karmakar have acted in the short film produced by Nilanjana Rudra.

The other film crew inlcudes–Arnab Laha as cinematographer, editor Pulkit Phillip, cameraman Arnab Borah, and sound specialist Somnath Gogoi. Top Ojapali artist Nayan Jyoti Nath, who has performed for generations, leads the background music team, which also includes Nagen Deka, Bholaram Nath, Rupjyoti Chowdhury, and Deep Jyoti Nath, they are all former students of the SRFTI.

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