‘Boong’ review: An utterly charming tale of love and tolerance
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His name is Brojendra but he’s known as Boong, little boy. It suits His Impishness better. What else to call someone who, when asked to sing at his school, bursts into Madonna’s Like a Virgin?
Madonna fandom is one of the threads in Lakshmipriya Devi’s comfort blanket of a movie. Made in 2024 and originally released in September, the Manipuri-language Boong is back in cinemas to mark its recent BAFTA award. Devi’s feature debut won the top prize in the Best Children’s & Family Film category – the first Indian production to do so.
Devi’s screenplay begins with a yearning by the ace slinger Boong (Gugun Kipgen) to meet his father Joykumar, who has seemingly abandoned him and his mother Mandakini (Bala Hijam). Mandakini isn’t one to mope or mourn, but Boong’s pleading and gossipy relatives remind the independent-spirited singleton of her absent spouse ever so often.
Boong resolves to find his father, who appears to be in Moreh, on the Manipur side of the state’s border with Myanmar. Somewhere in this steaming wok of tribes, languages and cultures, where even Tamil migrants have made a home for themselves, lies the secret behind Joykumar’s vanishing.
Accompanied by his best friend Raju (Angom Sanamatum), Boong sets out on a journey that’s child-like in...