Nava Thakuria
Film lovers across eastern India are in for a special cinematic treat on 29–30 November 2025, when the 9th Chalachitram National Film Festival (CNFF) presents a curated selection of around 30 short films. The festival celebrates Bharat’s ancient civilization, cultural legacy, and enduring heritage, while also exploring authentic human experiences reflected through new-age storytelling.
Many of this year’s entries portray themes rooted in human struggle, particularly the effort to preserve cultural legacy and emotional stability in a fast-changing world. Several films highlight the psychological challenges young people face today— alienation from family, emotional withdrawal, and identity uncertainty — and how reconnecting with love and familial support helps them rediscover purpose, confidence, and belonging. The depiction of slow learners and differently-abled children offers touching glimpses into worlds rarely understood by mainstream audiences, opening emotional windows into their realities and resilience.
Other selected films delve into the shifting dynamics of family relationships, showing how trust and understanding are often overshadowed by conflict, yet ultimately restored through empathy and forgiveness. Some stories portray the solitude of older professionals living in urban landscapes, and the emotional lifelines offered by friendships, folk tales, songs, and memories of community. The erosion of traditional family values — where nearly every member suffers in different phases of life — also finds thoughtful representation, along with glimpses into caste-affected communities struggling for dignity and overcoming prejudice through determination.
Audiences will also encounter cinematic explorations of matriarchal societies where men leave their parental homes to join new families after marriage, often resulting in emotional distance from their own fathers. Films touching on ancient magical practices, traditional Assamese string puppetry, Bharat’s centuries-old textile traditions, ghost and spirit folklore from rural life, human connections with land and nature, and rediscovered legacies of creators and forgotten monuments promise to add depth and diversity to the festival. These narratives evoke nostalgia, curiosity, and reverence for cultural continuity.
Today, India hosts an impressive range of national-level film festivals that attract filmmakers and enthusiasts from a population of over 1.4 billion. With its theme “Our Heritage, Our Pride,” CNFF has gradually earned a respectable place among the country’s prominent festivals, alongside the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, Great Indian Film and Literature Festival, Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival, Jagran Film Festival, New Delhi Film Festival, Vibgyor Film Festival, and many others.
The journey began modestly in 2016, with the conceptualization of Chalachitram as a platform to bring meaningful cinema closer to ordinary people and to use creative media as a tool to spread cultural awareness. The first edition, held as the Guwahati Film Festival (GFF) in 2017 at Rabindra Bhawan, the Textile Institute, and Cotton University’s Mass Communication Department, marked the festival’s entry into the cinematic landscape. In 2019, it adopted its present name — Chalachitram National Film Festival.
At GFF-2017, then-Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal remarked that “cinema reflects the philosophy of life, the reality and expectations of society, and plays an important role in transforming it,” acknowledging legendary Assamese filmmakers such as Jyotiprasad Agarwalla, Bhupen Hazarika, Bhabendra Nath Saikia, Jahnu Baruah, and Manju Bora.
The 2018 edition moved to the iconic Jyoti Chitraban Studio in Kahilipara and featured personalities such as writer Manmohan G Vaidya and award-winning filmmaker Santwana Bardoloi. Since the third edition in 2019, CNFF — organized by Chalachitram, a subsidiary of Vishwa Samvad Kendra–Assam under the mentorship of Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna — has continued to showcase artistic works at the venue dedicated to the memory of Assam’s pioneering filmmaker Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Agarwalla.
As CNFF-2025 approaches, anticipation grows among cinephiles and cultural enthusiasts eager to immerse themselves in films that celebrate not just craft, but also identity, heritage, and the timeless soul of India.
