| Summary/Abstract |
This article looks at three iconic Assamese films, Joymoti (1935), Runumi (1953) and Maniram Dewan (1964), which have been restored in the last two decades. Using a broad definition of the term restoration, this article argues that these three restorations give us an opportunity to read against the grain of the prescriptive account of Assamese cinema produced through local film societies and critics as well as national-level film journals. The restored versions of the three films provide us with a way to deconstruct the myths of purity associated with such pioneering films and enable a critical look at the politics of language and region that are so deeply inscribed within the act of restoration.
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