PANAJI
Films Division’s 52-minute documentary made by Amarjeet Singh Maibam, tracks the journey of a group of truckers as they manoeuvre through perilous highways, risking their lives, ferrying essential commodities to serve the people of Manipur.
“It is an interactive film on the highways of North East India. I started filming the documentary in 2014 and continued till 2017 so that I could capture the moments live in the camera. I was able to complete it in 2018 with the final touches and patchworks to it,” said Maibam.
National Highway 2 and 37 which are considered as the lifelines of Manipur connects the landlocked state to the rest of the world. The documentary which has been made over a period of five years pictures the economic blockades, strikes, extortion and bad road conditions that make the highways a life-threatening terrain for truckers.
He also shared his opinion that one of the reasons why the rest of India has too little knowledge about the state of Manipur. “There is not much about the state of Manipur in our education system and syllabus. Hence, few people know about the real issues,” he said.
Speaking about documenting the film amid a risky environment he said, “I was arrested several times during the making of this documentary. Whenever there was a protest, I used to reach the spot immediately with my camera for real footage. They even confiscated my camera and deleted all my footage on a particular day. But it gave me the confidence to go on with the project.”
