Paatal Lok: Looking at NE issue from a different perspective
Veteran filmmaker Jahnu Baruah & writer Sudip Sharma share their views on the second season of the web series

The North East has always piqued the interest of filmmakers from outside the region. However, few could delve deep into the complex socio-political fabric of the place, resulting in a facile generalisation of the subjects focused on the North East. Paatal Lok Season 2, the web series that gained much popularity from the first season, finally broke the tradition of misrepresenting the North East in mainstream productions (Read: Bollywood bloopers on NE).
Created by Sudip Sharma, the story of Paatal Lok begins in Delhi and unfolds in layers in Nagaland. The series cast some well-known faces from the North East, such as Bendang Wallang, Merenla Imsong, Theyie Keditsu and Lovita Morang. But the most significant face is of national award-winning director Jahnu Baruah, who plays Uncle Ken, a key character in the story.
Sunday Monitor speaks to the septuagenarian director and the creator of the series to learn about their experience during the making of Paatal Lok and understand their views on the hellish world of drug trade and abuse in the northeastern state.
Jahnu Baruah
The veteran director came on camera for the first time in Paatal Lok. “I am not an actor and I get very scared (in front of the camera). Second, I do not enjoy being in front of the camera at all. Somehow it happened,” said Baruah when asked about this role reversal.
Earlier too, Baruah was approached for acting, especially when the story would be about the North East. However, the veteran filmmaker would always tread cautiously.
“Most of the people outside the North East do not understand the region and they do not have any respect for the region. Even after so many years of independence, people do not want to know about the North East or study about it. It disturbs me and I would straight away reject (the requests to act). But for the first time, I felt that the makers (of Paatal Lok) have a lot of respect for the issues in the North East. I felt that they had a genuine concern. These things matter. So, I felt that maybe I should be a part of it,” said Baruah, adding that the local leaders of the region were to blame for not representing the North East properly at the national level.
The story of the web series begins with the murder of a prominent Naga leader in Delhi. The investigators connect the dots to find out the drug trade route leading to the northeastern state.
Nagaland is among the northeastern states that are reeling from the drug crisis. Drug abuse has been rampant in the state, which has a proximity to the Golden Triangle which produces about 80% of the world’s heroin and other illicit drugs.
Talking about the issue, Baruah said the problem could have been eradicated had action been taken. “Not that the problems cannot be solved provided the leaders get together and show genuine concerns. They should have a homogenous perspective to study the problems. It is not difficult. However, there is a lack of leadership in the region. The entire region is suffering owing to an individualistic approach,” he observed.
Baruah pointed out that the subject is sensitive and one has to be careful while dealing with it while fictionalising the issue on the screen.
Talking about the character that he played, Baruah said it was a welcoming approach to point out that a different perspective was needed in the state to move ahead.
Baruah plays the role of a Naga leader in his seventies who has seen it all and believes that violence will not achieve anything for the state. Hence, he is leading a delegation to attend a development summit in Delhi.
Baruah was the most senior member of the Paatal Lok crew and working with the young generation was a “great experience” for him. “What was notable was that the young artistes felt for the subject during the shoot. They were not mechanical. That was important,” he said.
Baruah also believes that the web series is a major boost for the local talents who acted in the series.
While the veteran filmmaker is not keen on acting any more, he said he was working on a few directorial projects and would like to focus on those.
Sudip Sharma
Writer Sudip Sharma was the one who approached Baruah for the key role. Sharma grew up in Guwahati and had witnessed the years of turmoil in the region. This is one reason why he could put the North East in the right perspective.
On what made him interested in the subject of Paatal Lok Season 2, Sharma said he always wanted to explore the country and various cultures through his writings.
“It is my way of learning about the various cultures because you have to do a lot of research. Also, I grew up in the North East and I lost the connection with the region after my parents moved out of Guwahati in 2005. This was an opportunity to go back to the region where I grew up. So, the subject took me back to the places which I remember from my childhood but not vividly. We dealt with the subject as authentically as possible,” said Sharma.
Sharma had a first-hand knowledge of the region where he grew up in the eighties and the nineties. This helped him understand the intricacies of the place. Dimapur-based writer Anungla Longkumer helped Sharma with fact-checking.
“She came on board as a researcher and she was there throughout the shoot,” he informed.
Talking about the series, Sharma said the focus of the story was not the drug issue. “The genesis was to set the story in the North East and tell an authentic story. Nagaland is unique in terms of its culture. It has witnessed a long struggle and insurgency and yet it remained resilient. It has a strong culture. It is the only Baptist-dominated state. The tribes and the tribal system there are unique in the state. Also, it was a challenge. I knew Assam very well, and so, to set the story there would not have been a challenge,’ Sharma said about choosing Nagaland as the centre of the story of Paatal Lok Season 2.
On the subtlety of the politics of the region’s drug trade in the series, Sharma said it was a deliberate choice as “we did not want to stigmatise the place but tell a larger story about Nagaland”.
The story also has the mention of the year 1997 when the Naga Peace Accord was signed. Sharma said it was coincidental because the nineties was the time when the insurgency reached its crescendo and then the ceasefire agreement was reached.
“It was also a significant period in my life. It really came from my memory rather than connecting insurgency to the storyline,” he added.
“Even the motifs in the shawls that the characters are wearing have been created and do not belong to any particular tribe. We did not want unnecessary controversy but tell the story as authentically as possible,” the writer explained.
The conversations among the Naga characters in the series are in Nagamese, a Creole language used for inter-tribe communication in Nagaland and spoken along the border areas.
Paatal Lok Season 2 is probably the first attempt outside of the state to put the right perspective on the North East. And it may be the first step towards understanding the region from an outsider’s point of view.
However, it will take years for the rest of India to look beyond the facade of the North East that is being promoted for commercial gains, and understand the people here and their ways of life. The gap is too deep to be filled singularly and requires a concerted effort by the central and regional leaders. As Baruah says, it’s all a matter of time and a time will come when the barriers will vanish completely.
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