Veteran Assamese filmmaker Munin Barua passes away

Munin – The News Mill
Munin Barua (file photo by Subhrajit L Roy)

One of the widely respected filmmakers of Assam, national award-winning Munin Barua has died at the age of 72 in Guwahati at around 1.55 am on Saturday, said a family member.

The veteran filmmaker was suffering from old-age related illness for quite some time. The film fraternity has mourned the death of the stalwart.

His film ‘Dinabandhoo’, one of the highly critically acclaimed, has also won the national award in 2004. In 2017, Barua received the Life Time Achievement Award from Prag Cine Awards for his immense contributions towards Assamese film industry.

‘Priyar Priyo’ was his last film which was released in 2017.

Munin Barua was born on November 5 in 1946 at Golaghat. He left behind his wife Manjula Barua, son Manas Barua, daughter Puja.

Barua’s first film as assistant director was ‘Faguni’ in the mid 1970s. Then he assisted ‘Ghar Sansar’, ‘Sonmoina’, ‘Bowari’ and many others. He has also written 21 scripts. Barua also popularly known as Bhaimon da made his directorial debut jointly with Nipon Goswami in the 1987 movie ‘Pratima’.

In the next year, he directed ‘Pita Putra’. Following that there is no looking back as he kept on making films one after another which were equally appreciated by the critics and loved the people. ‘Daag’, ‘Nayak’, ‘Prabhati Pokhir Gaan’, ‘Hiya Diya Niya’, ‘Rong’, ‘Bidhata’, ‘Barood’ and ‘Ramdhenu’ among others are some of his movies.

Apart from that, he also wrote and directed several popular drama for mobile theatres.

On Saturday afternoon, the Barua’s last rites were performed with full state honours in Nabagraha crematorium ground in Guwahati. From the family, his son Manas and popular musician Zubeen Garg performed the rituals, as per the wishes of the veteran filmmaker.

Assam governor Jagdish Mukhi chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal condoled the demise of the master filmmaker. Sonowal in a statement termed his death as an irreparable loss to the Assamese film and drama industry.

“Munin Barua left an indelible mark in the Assamese film industry. He gave a renewed momentum to the film industry in Assam and his contributions would always remain our priceless possession”, Sonowal said.

Assam cultural affairs minister Naba Kumar Doley who visited the residence of the filmmaker has promised to adopt certain measures to keep the memories of Barua alive.

Most of the members of the film fraternity were also seen paying their last respect to the master craftsman.

“I recently met him. I was expecting him to recover and come back to the field. But that didn’t happen. It’s a great loss to the industry and the state,” said producer Sanjiv Narain.

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