Crossing Bridges - Revisiting the Cultural roots


Crossing bridges the movie which explores the tale of a young man lost his job due to bankruptcy of his company in Mumbai.  After being jobless for a year, he returned to his native village in Arunachal Pradesh.  As he waits for job offer again in Mumbai, the culture and the way of life in his native begin to have an impact on his career choices.  The movie is the search of one's identity and to find the answer for what one actually belongs to.

In the era of Globalisation,  there is a lot of things happening in India.  Particularly, there is a greater chance of employment opportunities in metropolitan cities.  The North-East people migrated to cities in search of economic and educational opportunities in Urban places.  What they faced in the city is growing alienation from society.  There is a loneliness in the crowded atmosphere due to lack of cultural connect with the people.  On cultural aspects, the accelerating change in urban society is causing people to feel disconnected from the culture.


Tashi the protagonist moved to his town after 7 years of separation from his roots.  The initial attitude of Tashi showed his lack of interest in staying home.  He just passing the days until he receives the job offer from the company.  His attitude showed his inability to adjust the native tribal life in mountain terrain.  The greatest discomfort of Tashi with his cultural roots shown from when his mother's butter tea seem strange to him.

After a long time, he visited the home of an old friend Pemu in his high mountain village.  The beauty is still they hold the strong ties of friendship that is visible from their tight hug.   Pemu lived with his simple life of being married with a kid, satisfied life with land and livestock.  Pemu expressed his happiness of being in the cultural root with simple satisfying life " What more a man wants in this world"  That made a first strike on Tashi's rediscovering his way of life.

Slowly, we'll absorb into the world of Tashi and starting noticing the transformation of Tashi where he finding the answers for Deepside connection with his cultural root. In the end, he rejected the offer from Mumbai, started liking the delicacies of butter tea and so the change in him decided to stay in his roots. This film "Crossing Bridges" is completely a different experience with appealing cinematography that taking an audience to another world.  The stressed the importance of being in the root to protect our own indigenous culture.    Once the culture is eroded, there will lesser importance is given to mankind and the environment.   Everything will be monetized, there will be circumstances of losing empathy and humanity.  Protect indigenous culture by visiting   at least once a year for the native festival.


Reactions