Boong

“Boong” (Gugun Kipgen) is your typically mischievous young lad. Adept with a catapult and always with his best pal “Raju” (Angom Sanamatum) he is usually causing some sort of trouble for his mum (Bala Hijam Ningthoujam). His latest infraction of the school rules sees her decide that he’s never going to be happy there and so both boys are sent to the rather more sophisticated “St. Anthony’s” where both start to realise what it means to be an "outsider". Now although he’s a bit of a thorn in her side, there is a loving bond between mother and son, and he has decided that he wants to give her a gift. Not something throwaway, but something long lasting. He wants to have his dad return for a forthcoming festival. He left them a while ago to run his teak furniture business but has been ignoring phone calls for ages so “Boong” hasn’t really much of an idea where to start. Then they get what appears to be be some bad news from his family, and so sceptical the two boys decide to enlist the help of recently converted school friend “Juliana” (Nemetia Ngangbam) and her unwitting grandfather to enable them to travel to the troubled border with Myanmar to see if they can’t track him down. This is where their adventures begin, opening their eyes to clashes of culture and creed along the way. There are a few messages contained within the plot here, but rather than hammer them home auteur Lakshmipriya Devi uses the innocence of the children, some really quite witty dialogue and some even earthier humour - “don’t talk when you’re on the toilet, the germs will get in” to keep us smiling as we observe so many of the man made differences that keep us on our guard with each other. Now not wishing to be critical, but I’d have to say the completely tone deaf “JJ” (Jenny Khurai) turns in one of the worst drag acts I’ve ever seen, and I doubt Madonna will be actively seeking a video of her performance of “Like a Virgin”, but even that shows the huge variety of attitudes and tolerances that prevail in the country, and I felt rather summed much of it up. As we now know, that border became a bit of a war zone afterwards, but somehow I doubt that had so much to do with the locals on the ground. The two boys are great and this is good fun with plenty to say about the truth, hope and decency.