M. K. Binodini Devi

Biography

Maharaj Kumari Binodini Devi (Meitei: ꯕꯤꯅꯣꯗꯤꯅꯤ; born Sana Wangol ; 6 February 1922 – 17 January 2011), better known as Binodini, was a writer, poet, and princess from Manipur. She worked in multiple genres, including fiction, essays, drama, screenplays, lyrics, and ballet scripts often addressing themes such as patriarchy and colonialism in Manipuri society. A social activist and pioneer of post-modernism in Manipur, she is regarded as a cultural renaissance figure. She received the Padma Shri in 1976, and her historical novel Boro Saheb Ongbi Sanatombi (1976) won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1979. The novel was subsequently translated into English as The Princess and the Political Agent and published in 2020. M. K. Binodini Devi took the first all-Manipuri dance troupe on a tour of Latin America, North America and Europe in 1976, resulting in her collection of travel essays called O Mexico! Lamkoi Wari (2004). But it is her work in film that of her nine feature films and four documentaries, her collaborations with director Aribam Syam Sharma that M.K. Binodini Devi had the most international impact. Their film Imagi Ningthem (My Son, My Precious) received the Grand Prix at the 1981 Festival des 3 Continents at Nantes; their documentary Sangai, Dancing Deer of Manipur received the British Film Institute Outstanding Film of the Year Award for 1989. Their feature film Ishanou (The Chosen One) was an Un Certain Regard selection at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991 and the restored version of the film was selected to be screened at the classics section of Cannes 2023. Their films garnered international acclaim at other international venues such as the Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center in New York. A program of a selection of the films they made together was screened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York in 2000.