Assamese cinema has just completed 90 years of its journey. Yet, nothing interesting or exciting has been happening in the space of current theatrical releases in Assam. On February 28 director Bikul Dutta released an abomination in the name of Assamese film called Xopune Pakhi Mele (2025). The tag line was: Dreams Come True Just Think act (exactly in this way). Please don’t question about its meaning. Due to lack of audiences, screenings of the film were suspended almost everywhere. The next release was Chandra Mudoi’s Gomon: The Last Journey.
Gomon: The Last Journey (2025), released on March 14 across cinema halls of Assam, is faithful to its director Chandra Mudoi’s school of direction. Its voraciously loud, over-the-top and relies more on sentimentality than sentiment to make its point. Much of the first half of the film cycles around in a loop. There is a failed marriage in which the wife has walked out, leaving behind an abusive husband and a young school-going son. Now, the responsibility of the son falls on his unmarried uncle and grandmother, who live together in a joint family. Actor Jatindra Nath Khanikar plays the role of the uncle who runs an old timber shop from his home, supplying wood and logs to the cremation ground nearby. There’s a threat to his survival because the government soon plans to launch a new electric crematorium, which, as many assume, will put an end to his business.
The story is set in Guwahati and the electric crematorium featured in the film is the Dr Banikanta Kakoti Electric Crematorium, constructed by the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority, located at Ulubari.
The film alternates between the child’s constant questioning of when his mother will return, and the daily routine of taking him to school and bringing him back. In between, there are scenes depicting the husband’s frustration and his arguments with his elder brother (Jatindra Nath Khanikar) and mother. Meanwhile, the wife appears only when the son is taken to school, watching him from a distance as he enters the school. The school is Assam Jatiya Bidyalay and it gets prominently featured in the film for a multiple of times. Had enough audiences had turned up to watch the film, this film would have been a good advertisement of the school.
After spending much time repeatedly dwelling on the same set of situations, the director finally decides to carry the plot forward as he explores the backstory of the failed marriage between Boby (Amrita Gogoi) and Dipu (Dibyajyoti Das). What started off as a love story for them, gradually became hell for Boby because Dipu resorted to drugs, violence and abuse after the birth of their son. Dipu burns Boby with his cigarette and hits her physically. When Boby demands that her husband earn money because they can no longer afford their child’s upbringing and school fees using his uncle’s money, Dipu responds by questioning the value of schooling and education in society. He should have thought that before becoming a father.
Very soon, a jobless Dipu, trapped in a chronic situation of learned helplessness, gives up on everything. An electrical engineer by profession, he throws all of his equipment and tools down the drain because, despite his qualifications, he believes he has gained nothing significant in life. He is now disinterested with his life, his son and his family and is in a perennial mood of frustration. Unable to bear the everyday verbal and physical abuse, Boby leaves. Failing to find a direction for his anger, Dipu now channels his energy into picking random fights with strangers, arguing at home, and loitering aimlessly while smoking joints.
There are occasional bits of social commentary in the film that are so strong that it almost feels like a lecture on morality. In one particular scene, the elder brother’s cart, while carrying logs to the cremation ground, is hit by a car. The driver of the car, apparently a spoiled rich brat (played by Bikram Rajkhowa in a guest appearance), becomes furious and strikes the helper pulling the cart. Enter the big brother, who delivers a moral lecture in the middle of the road about how pride and strength are ultimately useless, as one day everyone will be reduced to ashes and return to the ground. And yes, whatever the elder brother says proves true: later, the rich spoiled brat dies from injuries sustained in a bike accident and his dead body is brought to the same cremation ground that the elder brother supplies wood to. A real karmic connection.
The lecture on morality takes a very verbose form, as the focus also shifts to discussing whether the inauguration of the electric crematorium will mark the end of the old wood business. Should we embrace scientific progress, or should we stick to traditions? The grandmother even hides a few logs in anticipation of her death, fearing that she shouldn’t be cremated in an electric crematorium. But after her death, how would she tell her family members where the wood is hidden?
Actually, the purpose of the entire dilemma related to technology, change and how it will make the services of providing wood to the cremation ground obsolete, is an attempt to re create the psychological complexities of Bishnu Kharghoria’s character in Jahnu Barua’s Xagoroloi Bohu Door (1995), only that Gomon: The Last Journey feels amateurish and fake. And it is mainly because of the unrealistic, dated, loud and poor filmmaking skills of director Chandra Mudoi.
The lecture-baazi doesn’t end there because Gomon: The Last Journey is not just a film; it’s a collection of multiple social commentaries, held together by a few plot points that tie everything together. It also speaks for the collective issue of unemployment and how success doesn’t always come to those who work hard. Using the background of a failed marriage, it also dwells on issues such as domestic violence and marital rape. There is also the recuring reference of a great public intellectual in the film, someone who consistently advocates for the betterment of the Assamese people and society, yet whose efforts have often been misunderstood by the public. No brownie points for guessing whom the film is referring to.
The filmmaking language of Chandra Mudoi is also repetitive. The visual motif of breaking glass in anger to symbolise conflict and tension is repeated multiple times in the film. Amrita Gogoi is wasted once again after the debacle in the name of filmmaking called Soi Gaaor Chompa (2017), also by Chandra Mudoi. There is poor dialogue delivery in the film which is fixed in post and can be easily made out. And special appreciation must be given to the poster designer of the film. To sum it up, it seems like the film was made very casually. It’s mainly because of a lack of formal and professional approach in handling the promotional materials of the film. For example, the Facebook page of the film says the name is Gaman, The last Journey but ticket booking platform, Bookmyshow states that it is Gomon… The Last Journey.
It is very much films like this that repeals the new generation of Assamese audiences from embracing Assamese cinema and filmmakers like Chandra Mudoi are very much responsible for this plight. They are repeatedly making cringe content in the name of cinema. Any audience who is willing to challenge this claim can watch Chandra Mudoi’s GO GO i (2022), again featuring Jatindra Nath Khanikar. It’s a dare, a double dare. Interestingly, no reviewer or critic from the region has been daring enough to watch these film and write about it.
But there is an urgent need to discuss or call out these films as well to ensure a healthy film culture in the region. Many of these films are also notorious for managing some recognition in shady, bogus and uncredible XYZ awards and film festivals and promoting it like winning the Nobel Prize. The media is equally responsible for amplifying these claims.
Moreover, Gomon: The Last Journey also shows the consequences of social and personal derailment if relentless anger and pessimism is given the control of a situation. This particular aspect works better in the film because of Dibyajyoti Das’s performance and the inability of his character or rather his disinterest in explaining himself which limits the reliance on dialogues to explain his condition. The situation speaks for itself which is why it is more palpable and this should have been the overall approach in the film rather than relying on character monologues to examine the morality of a situation.
Whatever progress the film makes in the characterization of the younger brother, it undoes it in its characterization of the elder brother. The more flawed the younger brother is, the more morally superior the elder brother becomes. In one scene, when the elder brother goes to drop off his nephew at school in the morning, they witness a road accident. Seeing the tragedy of the person lying on the road, the good Samaritan in him rises, and he immediately abandons the child to take the victim to the hospital. He returns to the kid only after evening. While his dedication and selflessness in helping an accident victim (whom no one was willing to help) highlights his sense of social responsibility, but at the same time, his decision to abandon his nephew — a child who is left alone in his school uniform for the entire day — definitely casts a shadow over his priorities.
The character of Boby is equally confusing. She leaves her child in the shadow of an abusive husband and an indifferent father while she herself escapes the family. Now she works in Central Mall, Guwahati and looks after herself while also being sad about her son. Her character is definitely that of a flawed mother. In fact, all the characters in the film are escapists in their own way. Boby as a wife walks out of her marriage and as a mother leaves her child. Dipu has given up on everything. Even his mother gives up on him. In such a situation, how can the only sane person in the family, Dipu’s elder brother, function reasonably? This is why when he goes to the shop to buy some sugar and tea leaves, he does a big mix up.
While on his way, he notices some litter on the road. Being a good Samaritan, he immediately collects the trash in a white bag. However, later, in his absent-mindedness, he accidentally throws the package containing the sugar and tea leaves into the roadside dustbin, thinking it’s the trash he collected earlier and returns home with the actual litter, which he had picked up on the way. When he realises his mistake, he goes back to the dustbin and gets inside it to search for the lost bag of sugar and tea leaves.
While he is inside the bin, people come and throw their wastes (because it is out of their imagination that a person might be inside the bin) which hit him directly. Very soon he is dressed in waste food and litter from head to toe. So, what does the filmmaker might be trying to convey here? Are we supposed to feel sorry for the character?
Or are we supposed to believe that a character – who shops in Centrall Mall for his nephew or immediately buys a second-hand mini truck when his wooden cart breaks in an accident – is so poor that he had to get inside a dustbin to retrieve the minor items that he had mistakenly thrown away? This is a perfect example of non-sensible filmmaking. Here, mention has to be made of one more ridiculous scene where the child’s t-shirt is ripped off just because there was a need to meet his mother. Confused? Let’s have an explanation.
The film stages a scene where the child is pulling his father’s bike from behind. The father needs to go somewhere urgently but is unable to move forward because the child is clinging to the bike. Observing the situation, the child’s uncle rushes over to help, creating a sort of chain: the child pulling the bike while the uncle pulls the child. The uncle yanks the child so forcefully that the child’s t-shirt rips off.
Now, to buy a new t-shirt, the uncle and his nephew head to Central Mall. Why Central Mall, though? Can a person who makes a living by selling wood afford to spend shopping at such a place? The answer lies in the fact that the child’s mother works there. And the entire scenario is drafted in just to stage a supposed re-union between the child and the mother. The re-union happens or not is a different equation altogether. Moreover, the way the child is made to act in the film, it is sure to give him a guilt trip ten years later, if he watches the film again because the child delivers an act of pure cringe. Especially the way he says: Yayy maa aji ahibo… maa aji ahibo… maa aji ahibo. His acting in the film seems like terrible prosthetics applied to the plot.
Its strange to observe that some filmmakers from Assam are so constantly resistant to change – in terms of the subject matter of their films or their filmmaking style. Neither these films are making any money nor are they able to gain any genuine praises (good words from the friends and family of the cast and crew are to be considered as moral support) and yet they are getting enough financial support, one film after the other, to keep the machine of churning out cringe content going on and on. How?
The fate of Chandra Mudoi’s Gomon: The Last Journey is very similar to that of Xopune Pakhi Mele. It witnessed no healthy audience in cinema halls and as a result the film was removed after one week. But the more interesting question is – what’s up with filmmaker Chandra Mudoi lately?
The rest of the cast of the film includes Saju Ahmed, Ashim Krishna Baruah, Arati Kalita, Amulya Kumar, Master Chakshit Om Sarma, etc.
The trailer of the film can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OkAoxsMyRg
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