Hmanlai Film Dangdai: A Commentary

I consider it unnecessary for a story to have meaning. This is why I love anecdotes and random narration as much as full-fledged chronicles. In fact, I have never particularly enjoyed ‘moral of the story’ type tales. I like for morals and romances to be incidental to stories, not have them be central, overarching, all-encompassing themes. As in life. Most of life indeed is random and chance-like. This is why I have not been a big fan of Mizo literature overmuch, much less Mizo films. 

Then came Hmanlai Film Dangdai. Anyone who has ever watched HFD would know how very random the narration is and how arbitrary the picture has been captured. There is seemingly no rhyme or reason to the film, just the story and how it is told however it has to be told. Whatever the plot demands, the cast provides, reason be damned.

It is comedy gold reminiscent of Monty Python. I doubt I could give them a higher compliment than that. They also often answer real world queries in their films off-handedly, like how people thought the protagonist's name was Cheu-a but he was actually Tleu-a, as though that was an in-world misnomer. Never shying off of any topic, even mostly taboo topics like sex, HFD presents slices of life in a way that is novel to Mizo films in short bursts.

The dialogue is hardly ever stinted, although you can tell it has been thoroughly worked on because the punch line nearly always lands. The delivery by the actors is on point and sounds more natural than the majority of Mizo films; the conversations have a relaxed, between-friends sort of a vibe that is very often missing in Mizo cinema.

However, it was the costume that captured my attention first and foremost because there was a relaxation in it that was hilariously inconsistent. You’d have characters dressed in ‘proper’ ‘old-timey’ Mizo clothes and barefooted. Then you could erratically have one of those wear proper modern shoes. How? No explanation. Even more unpredictably, a character, most notably Hauchhumi, would appear in proper modern clothes – in her red flannel shirt, black jeans and shoes – with no clarification.

The characters themselves are another ambiguous ballgame. Sometimes they talk about characters from folktales like they were neighbours or at least living in the same time as them. Sometimes they casually go to the side of the road and enter ‘the deep forest’ and call out a Lasi who has magical powers and bestows upon the humans boons. These magical creatures exist side by side with them with zero impact on the humans unless they actively interact with them which is such a matter-of-fact story-telling which I deeply appreciate. They even whip out smartphones and if I remember correctly, talk about folktale characters being part of group chats or something similar. Possibly Japanese-esque in this regard. Or in the vein of retelling of stories where fairy tale creatures are in the modern world. Like Once Upon A Time, perhaps. 

I like the demonstration of relationship between the characters as well and how easy their bonds are accepted without making anything into a complicated love triangle. We all have those friends. We know them. We understand them easily enough. Of course, since there is only one major male character, he is often paired as the love interest of many of them ladies without it ever coming off as complex and intricate. They’re truly literally just playing parts. And simply playing off of each other as friends, like we do in real life. I cannot express just how deeply I respect this.

I have enjoyed many Mizo films. I have done my part watching the cringe fests with interest, even rented their CDs/DVDs from movie rentals. I can recite a few Mizo film dialogues with my sister. I sometimes howl with laughter over some comedy acts. Also over non-comedy acts too, in all honesty. YouTube is a relatively new venture and there are a ton of acts there that are refreshing. Not all of them films though. Not all of them brilliant.

One of the biggest problems I have with Mizo films is with direction and editing. There are simply too many unnecessary, empty screen times and scenes that drag out longer than they need to. Add to that moralizing and forced dialogues. HFD is novel again in that they do not waste screen time and utilize mostly all their scenes, often covering with overlaid voice-overs or dialogues. I truly admire this. It cannot be easy.

In the end, a good movie is about how well it tells a story and how engagingly it tells it. A good HD camera or good casting alone cannot be enough. HFD is good at it. I am a fan.