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[Full title: Aspects of Material Culture (2) Food and Cookery]

Food habits, processes of food composition, preparation, their preservation, taboos related to fooding, and the psycho-social functions of food serve to be important components of material culture. These aspects played an important part in all the films made by Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saikia. In fact, he carefully utilized food as markers of society, economy and human psychology.

Sandhyarag has portrayed the elite living style of Saru鈥檚 employers with scenes where she turns into a good cook and a perfect housekeeper, serving food in a well decorated manner. Saru cooks folk delicacies like fish in a sour curry, which is a popular food in the Assamese household. Kanta, the daughter of Saru鈥檚 employer, gets married. Tired Saru has to get up from the bed when young men working late night for the next day鈥檚 grand reception ask for tea that is to be boiled with ginger and black pepper. Shots of wedding cuisines like fish and meat being cooked, vegetables being chopped and spices being prepared, sweetmeats being cooked and served to the guests are shown to depict a real picture straight from the pantry. When Saru and Toru return to their village, it is the shortage of food at home which is used to portray their poverty. In fact the film鈥檚 climax has been set around a community feast where Saru and Toru are employed to cook for important guests, and at the end of the day the sisters have to starve as food gets exhausted.

Though not prominently yet, shots of the kitchen and food have also been used in Anirban. Rajani鈥檚 wife is seen cooking in the kitchen in several shots. Moreover the lady of the family where Rajani used to tutor children is seen sending fulori (vegetables coated in seasoned batter and deep fried) for Nisha, Rajani鈥檚 daughter.

In Dr. Saikia鈥檚 third film Agnisnan, Mohikanta orders to butcher a goat every Sunday at his rice mill. Menoka is seen cooking mutton and Mohikanta eating the meat with great pleasure with his dose of wine. Other kitchen scenes where Menoka remains busy have been used in several parts of the film (Image 5).

People have a natural tendency to forget many happenings around the society if some form of compensation, especially a feast is arranged for them. This is particularly true for the economically backward societies. Kolahol also has scenes from a community feast where meat cutting and eating shots have been used (Image 6). In fact this time, unlike Sandhyarag, the filmmaker has used a community feast in a poor neighbourhood as a symbol of contentment and forgetfulness of the people.

Food has occupied a central position in Sarothi. Here the director has cleverly used cooking scenes to depict different phases of the protagonist鈥檚 life. He reminisces about his childhood when he used to sit with his parents near the fire and roast potatoes for food. At the beginning of his professional life in the city, he is seen cooking in a rented room (Image 7). Many years later, the night before the day when he had planned for concrete casting of the roof of his new house, he brought home bags full of food. He believes in celebrating special days amidst the family with good food (Image 8). As the family dines together, delicacies mentioned and seen on the table include鈥攆ish in sour tomato curry, chicken curry, fried mixed vegetables, salad and papad. The protagonist is seen daydreaming at several instances, and in one of them, his wife has served food to her friends and is seen explaining a chicken recipe. Before that she is seen cooking in a modern kitchen of her dreams (Image 9). At another instance he dreams of his lost ladylove bringing a tiffin box for him at the construction site and serving the food with utmost care. Above all, it is the forgotten lunch box, which was to be sent to him during the day of the concrete casting of the roof, that narrates the psychology of his entire family.

Abartan uses food as an economic marker. While the theatre owner and his family dine with delicacies like lusi (a kind of fried cake), payash (rice cooked in sweetened milk) and rosogolla (a sweet), the theatre artists are provided with very simple food. Scenes of prasad being served after the evening puja are also included in the film.

In Itihaas, food is used to project the pains of an ailing mother. The lady of the house keeps lying down on her bed owing to her continuous illness and the husband is seen preparing roti and omelette for his daughter鈥檚 school tiffin. In another scene, the husband is seen working in the kitchen together with the house help Lakhimi. Here the kitchen is serving as a teller of the agony through which the lady of the family was passing through.