A Song For Everyone

About the film

The film reconstructs the story of the 1960 linguistic riots in Assam that erupted around the issue of making Assamese the state language. An all artists cultural troupe travelled the length and breadth of Assam at that point under the leadership of Hemango Biswas and Bhupen Hazarika to spread the message of peace and harmony. This also led to the creation of some iconic songs by the duo. The film reconstructs memories related to those times and contextualizes it within the current political scenario in Assam..

Director’s Note

The film uses some rare still photos from the initial years of the IPTA movement in Assam and the 1960 peace initiative. It retraces the journey of Hemango Biswas, Bhupen Hazarika and the cultural troupe called the ‘Let us meet cultural squad’, interviews elderly people, activists and witnesses to the riots and to the specific cultural interventions made by the troupe, and uses Assamese traditional music as well as songs of those historic moments to re-create the narrative of the peace initiative.

Director Biography

Rongili Biswas is an economist by profession as well as a singer and writer. For the past few years she has been building an archive of her father’s— the celebrated singer, composer, writer and activist Hemango Biswas’—works. As part of that, she has recently completed her first (documentary) film A Song for Everyone.