IN Defence of Raibaar-The Film: How It Is an Avant-Garde Film Despite Fault-Lines!

– By Suresh Nautiyal Greenananda

Except for Jagwal (1983), the first Garhwali-language Uttarakhandi film, I’ve rarely written about these films individually. But Raibaar—The Film compels me to break that silence. While I don’t claim it’s the greatest Garhwali film so far—because we lack a rich tradition of cinematic excellence—it undeniably stands out as a bold, new genre and avant-garde effort worthy of defence and praise.

The Story Behind Raibaar

Raibaar (released internationally on 19 September 2025) is inspired by an American author but rooted deeply in Garhwal’s essence and ambience. The film narrates the story of Pushkar Singh Bisht, a mountain village postman, torn between escaping his life in the hills and the fear of his strict father. When he discovers an undelivered apology letter from a deceased father to his estranged son, Pushkar embarks on an inward and transformative journey to deliver it. Everyone, who knows about Pushkar’s inner whirling and churning, gets worried about his future.

The film’s genesis lies in producer and writer Bhagat Singh Saini’s fascination with forgiveness, sparked by the story, The Son Who Forgave His Father, by American author Auriela McCarthy. Over time, Saini and co-writer Shishir Uniyal merged this theme with Jeevan Prakash Chamoli’s poem Daakiya, creating Raibaar—The Film. Resultantly, the film explores forgiveness not as mere absolution but as liberation—an inward journey as much as an outward one. Barring a few exceptions, the dialogues, written by Bhagat Singh Saini and Dinesh Bijalwan, resonate with traces of green ideology and authenticity of Uttarakhand.

Fault Lines and Strengths

No film is perfect, even cinematic milestones like Citizen Kane or Bicycle Thieves! What makes these films great are their innovations that redefine cinema, outweighing their flaws. In elevated terms, even the masterpieces have flaws but remain great due to their innovations and new breakthroughs. And, that the imperfections do not undermine their pioneering role in cinema.

Similarly, Raibaar has its share of imperfections but it redefines Uttarakhandi filmdom in a way that no other full-length feature film has so far.

In fact, it is the beginning of the new genre Uttarakhandi Cinema.

Undoubtedly, Raibaar drags in the first half, with a lethargic pace and some overstretched scenes; and, its message-driven narrative lacks subtlety, and the runtime could’ve been trimmed to under 115 minutes. Yet, these shortcomings pale in comparison to its achievements.

Performances and Production

Sunil Singh delivers a strong performance as Pushkar, while seasoned Suman Gaur impresses as his mother. Shrish Dobhal portrays a conflicted and constipated father convincingly, and some of his flaming frames can compete with the great cinema, though his character remains underutilised. Vibrant Mohit Ghildiyal shines as Pushkar’s colleague, while Hari Semwal, a veteran of Jagwal, does not have much footage as a village guy to prove his versatile acting skills. In fact, he looks like an avoidable note in an otherwise harmonious Beethovenian symphony. Rajesh Naugain too impresses the audience with his not too short role but needs a deviation from the monotonousness of his unmodulated deliveries.

The cinematography by Dharmendra Singh Sisodiya tries to capture the serene beauty of Pipalkoti, Chamoli, where the film was majorly shot, but certain portions (perhaps the drone shots) look blurred due to the lack of efficient technology. The music, composed by Rajendra Chauhan and directed by Vibhu Kashiv, is understated yet evocative. Certain parts in the film are without music purposefully but resonate with emptiness rather than with the purpose. The editing by Mohammad Tariq and Shishir Uniyal could have been quite cruel. It is not a good idea to edit own films.

The film is directed by an enthusiastic young director, Shishir Uniyal; and produced by Bhagat Singh Saini, Parveen Saini, Balraj Jangra, and Shishir Uniyal. The co-producers of the film include – Babita Agrawal, Ipsita Manna, Ishita Manna, Rakesh Pokhriyal, Shashi Pokhriyal, and Subhash Chamoli. This means it is a big collaborative endeavour.

Besides Sunil Singh (in the lead role as Pushkar), the NSD trained veteran actor Shrish Dobhal, famous Garhwali actor Suman Gaur, and popular actor Rajesh Naugain, the cast of the film includes actors like Mohit Ghildiyal, Dharmendra Chauhan, Mohit Thapliyal, Rakesh Arya, Indira Prasad Uniyal, veteran actor and theatre director Hari Semwal, Savitri Mamgain, Bharat Bisht, Anju Purohit, Aarav Kemani, Shrishti Rawat, Sushil Purohit, and Shreya Pokhriyal.

Whole of the team worked hard to bring a placid and simple story-line to life. They deserve a pat or two for their will to create a film in a marginalised regional language to be extinct sooner than later as per the UNESCO reports.

A New Beginning for Uttarakhandi Cinema

Whatever, Raibaar is a paradigm shift for Uttarakhandi Cinema, devoid of conventional tropes like romance, violence, or love songs. Instead, it is a contemplative, character-driven story with an emotional core and internal conflicts. It dares to be different, much like how Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, Ritwik Ghatak or Adoor Gopalakrishnan pushed boundaries despite their own fault lines.

In simple words, Raibaar is a new genre film, marking the beginning of a serious cinematic journey for Uttarakhandi films in general, and Garhwali language films in particular.

In 2009, Bhagat Singh Saini, one of the producers of the film, had read a story called, The Son Who Forgave His Father by an American author, Auriela McCarthy, in her book, The Power of the Possible. The story stayed with Saini because of its theme of forgiveness. Thus began his personal journey of understanding why people hold onto anger and grudges and not lean towards forgiveness. Therefore, he wanted to tell this powerful emotion in a film. Years later, he wrote a short film with his own understanding of the character. When Shishir Uniyal and he himself were discussing the story of a postman in the mountainous region, Saini played with the idea of planting that story in Raibaar.

The film was eventually woven around the experiences Shishir and Bhagat gained during their several visits to Garhwal using the public transport systems like the buses, the jeep taxies, and even during the stop-overs at the chai tiparis (tea kiosks).

Saini says: “Our discussions and revisions of the story led us to the story of Pushkar and the long-lost son Ajay. Pushkar empathises with Ajay and on some level can feel that he is on the same page. Therefore, it becomes important for Pushkar to meet Ajay to understand life and this morally complex situation. The poem Daakiya by Jeevan Prakash Chamoli and the story The Son Who Forgave His Father by Auriela McCarthy merged and became Raibaar”.

The film’s literary inspiration—a rarity in Uttarakhand cinema—as well sets it apart. So far, the films in the Uttarakhandi languages have hardly been noted for their literary orientation.

So, in an industry that rarely draws from the Uttarakhand’s rich literary heritage, Raibaar is a refreshing variance. It proves that great films often stem from the simplest of ideas, and its success could inspire adaptations of iconic regional stories like Shekhar Joshi’s Kosi Ka Ghatwar or Masterji by Suresh Nautiyal, Dinesh Bijalwan and Umakant Baluni.

Raibaar is a collaborative effort, produced by Kinoscope Films and Vortex Echo Productions, with a cast and crew dedicated to bringing this placid yet poignant story to life. Kinoscope was founded to praise broad variety of cinematic works, to promote and support film-makers, and to enhance appreciation and understanding of art.

Conclusion

Despite its flaws, Raibaar is a remarkable and timely effort. It offers hope for a marginalised regional cinema and demonstrates that the literary stories deserve a place on the cinematic map. With its subtle message of forgiveness and its bold divergence from formulaic storytelling, Raibaar is more than a film—it’s a promise for the future of Uttarakhandi Cinema because it attempts to redefine the grammar of regional Uttarakhand Cinema. The critique of it is that no film or filmmaker is flawless, but their strengths outweigh limitations—just as Raibaar does. So, we can claim that with Raibaar, begins the journey of Uttarakhand Cinema, which so far and at the most was termed as the Uttarakhand Filmdom only!

Also, Raibaar gives hope that floats on the blue oceans and flies in the pure blue skies. It is also important to note that hardly any other film-maker of the Uttarakhandi films ever thought of marking up a simple idea or a simple story by converting it into a full-length feature film. Truly, great films are woven from the material extracted from the simplest of ideas.