Sikkim’s first ever Marwari film goes on floor

Khoto Sikko, the first Marwari film to be made here highlighting the lives of the migrant Marwari community living in the state for generations, has gone on the floors. Producer-director Rakesh Somani says that the small budget family drama will create ripples at the box office.
“This is the first Marwari film being made by a Sikkimese. Marwari boy Raunak Somani from Gangtok plays the male lead. Sonia Seth, who is from Namchi in South Sikkim, is paired opposite him,” Somani, who is also directing the film, told reporters at the mahurat shot of the film Friday.
The film will be shot and made in Sikkim. BP Bagjai will work as the assistant director, while camera work will be handled by Gechen Bhutia.
“The movies that are made in Jodhpur do not appeal to us who live in the Himalayan belt. There are many like us in the Northeast region and other places who don’t understand the pure language used by the films that come out from Rajasthan. This is our film for our audiences,” said Somani, managing director of SK Audio vision Pvt Ltd.
Somani plans to wrap up the film this year and will have 80 percent of the shooting in the state. The rest will be shot in Rajasthan, Siliguri and Kakribhitta at Indo-Nepal border.

Manipur women’s panel directs inquiry into mass frisking

The Commission for Women, Manipur, has directed the Director-General Police Yumnam Joykumar to make an inquiry and give suitable punishment to the policewomen who violated the dignity, modesty and privacy of several women in full public view on Tuesday in the name of searching for weapons.
In an order passed, chairperson of the commission Chongtham Jamini said the commission took a serious view of the telltale photographs in a section of local newspapers taken during a mass frisking in Imphal. She said that although the law permitted the police to make such checking, the actual frisking should be done in enclosures and not in full public view.
An advocate, Rebecca Lourembam, lodged a complaint quoting the reports and enclosed the photographs and prayed for necessary intervention for the protection of women’s privacy and dignity. The report said that the women and girls were humiliated while some men on the other side of the frisking line had jeered at the traumatised women.
State Home Minister Okram Ibobi, who is also the Chief Minister and Yumnam Joykumar have not made any comment on this issue.
Surprise frisking of men and women who happen to be in the city for shopping is a common practice for the Imphal West district police. Meanwhile, a number of women’s organizations have condemned the actions of the policewomen and the higher-ups who had failed to supervise the women constables.Following the scathing reaction from the people and the directives issued by the Commission for Women, the police have suspended such frisking in the city areas.

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