Two-time National Award winner Nilaanjan Reeta Datta's Bollywood Hindi Debut Film ‘Shadow Assassins’ is putting spotlights on 'secret killings' in Assam

Two-time National Award winner Nilaanjan Reeta Datta's debut Bollywood Hindi film 'Shadow Assassins' is putting spotlights back on the 'secret killings' of Assam. Director Neelanjan Reeta Datta shared the subject matter of the film which is based on the darkest period in the history of the North-Eastern region of India. More than 1,100 innocent civilians reported to have been killed between 1998-2001. Over two decades after the ‘secret killings’ ended, the chilling carnage continues to cast long shadows on the survivors and their families.

The film charts the journey of its protagonist Nirbhay Kalita, who leaves his home in Guwahati, Assam, with a lot of hope and dreams of starting a new chapter in his life on a college campus over 2,000 km far away in Pune, Maharashtra but the political turmoil in his home state Assam soon engulfs him and his entire family, triggering a chain of events that will radically alter the course of his life.
 
Masked gunmen would raid the homes of those thought to be sympathisers of the outlawed militant group, ULFA, and pick them up. Their bullet-ridden and mutilated bodies were discovered across the countryside, in fields and forests, streams and rivers. Homes were set on fire, and families destroyed in a devastative manner. The dreaded night-time knock on the door ended up unleashing a blood bath, with more than 1,100 innocent civilians reported to have been killed between 1998-2001. In the year 2005, the Justice KN Saikia Inquiry Commission was set up to investigate the cases. 2 years later, the panel submitted its report. In 2018, based on a writ petition by former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, during whose regime the horrors took place, the Guwahati High Court declared the constitution of the commission invalid. ‘Shadow Assassins’ is based on the Commission’s report into the brutalities.
 
‘Shadow Assassins’ turns back the pages on a dark chapter of history that has for long remained in the backdrop of our collective conscience. Not anymore, though. The film, comprising an ensemble cast and crew drawn from the Hindi, Bengali and Assamese film industries with Anurag Sinha and Mishti Chakravarty in the lead character roles, and Rakesh Om and Hemant Kher in pivotal roles, released in theatres on December 9th 2022 and running successfully.