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[Full title: Folk Orality (2) Folk Speech and Folktale Patterns in the Films]

In Kolahol, the filmmaker incorporated sequences where he has tried to show the loneliness of the protagonist Kiron. Her son Moti is portrayed as the only support system for her. One night Kiron鈥檚 son Moti asks his mother about demons.Kiron replies to him about the non-existence of such entities, and says that those are nothing but imaginary characters. When late in the night, Kiron hears drunken men shouting outside her house, she narrates to Moti a story in which an old couple is guarded by a dog. In most folk tales, we observe a demonic character who disturbs the normal life of a woman, generally a princess. Through this scene of storytelling in Kolahol, the filmmaker has metaphorically presented Kiron as a fearless woman as she disregards the demons surrounding her.

Not only in Kolahol, but in most of his films, Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saikia鈥檚 stories revolved around a female protagonist. His only film which had a male protagonist is Sarothi. In all his other films, the lead character is a female, who is oppressed yet strong. Single women like Saru (in Sandhyarag), Joyonti (in Abartan) and Lakhimi (in Itihaas) face societal harshness in every step of their lives. On the other hand married, deserted and widowed women like Menoka (in Agnisnan), Kiron (in Kolahol) and Mrs. Dutta (in Kaal Sandhya) respectively have their own share of struggles. All these women, in spite of facing acute oppression, stand against traditional norms with self confidence and dignity. Through this kind of an observation, the narratives in his films might seem to be feminist in appeal, but these were not devoid of the 鈥榝airy tale pattern of Indian films鈥�. As defined by noted folklorist Jawaharlal Handoo, in this category of films, which is termed as the 鈥榝airy tale pattern鈥�, the female protagonist has to rely upon a man to defeat the obstacles of her life. He has to rescue her from adversities and in the later part of the story he is either justified as the 鈥榟ero figure鈥� in the narrative or deserves to live happily with the woman (refer more specifically to Sandhyarag, Abartan and Kolahol). In Sandhyarag Saru asks Moti to rescue her from the verges of poverty, in Agnisnan Menoka takes revenge upon her husband with the help of Madan, in Kolahol Kiron dreams of a new life with Badal, while in Abartan Joyonti starts her life afresh with Porimol Dutta. In spite of being strong female characters, these women have rested their pains on the shoulders of men, which clearly reflect the fairy tale structure in Dr. Saikia鈥檚 cinema.

Distorted reflections of the past life have been utilized by numerous filmmakers to look upon the psychology of characters. Dr. Saikia also imported this feature in his films. For instance, in Sandhyarag, Saru reflects over her past days spent freely in the village as she gets prepared to leave home for work. However, this past life remembrance phenomenon that goes on in every human being's mind has been seasoned with elements of fantasy in the film Sarothi. In this film, the filmmaker plays with the stream of consciousness in the human mind. The subconscious mind is built with blocks from the roots to which an individual belongs. These roots are composed of the folklife led by the individual during different phases, especially his childhood. Beliefs, desires and dreams are part of his folk psychology. In Sarothi, the protagonist travels through an aura of fantasy, an important component of folk orality and psychology. During the course of the film, he dreams of a lost love and fantasizes her to be his wife as well as mother of his real children. The dream sequences compose the actual narrative or subtext of the film and hence could be attributed to the filmmaker鈥檚 keen interest in aspects of fantasy.