Machis Ko Sinka a short film on Gorkhaland Agitation by Radhamohini Prasad

Machis Ko Sinka (Matchstick) :

Machis ko Sinka is a short film by Radhamohini Prasad on Gorkhaland agitation by the Indian Gorkha community for their identity.

Radhamohini Prasad recently graduated as a Digital Video Production student from Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore. She was born and brought up in Kalimpong, Darjeeling district.

Radhamohini Prasad Director of Machis Ko Sinka (Matchstick) 

Director: Radhamohini Prasad | Producer: Radhamohini Prasad
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2008 | Story Teller's Country: India
Tags: Asia, Democracy, Governance, India, Peace, Politics, Social Progress

Synopsis: A project which began as a search for an Indian-Nepali identity, "Machis Ko Sinka (Matchstick)" evolved into an attempt to understand the movement for Gorkhaland as it was then in 2008 in Darjeeling. The film looks at a specific moment in the recent history of the movement when arguments for and against the use of violence were raging amongst the restless youth, touching thereby the spectre of violence and hatred that haunted the hills in the late 1980s. 

Watch Machis Ko Sinka (Matchstick) 

When asked her how she conceived the film. Radha says, “The project began with a search for the Indian-Nepali identity and to represent it for mainland Indians who are complacently ignorant about the region, its politics and economics. It evolved in trying to understand the Gorkhaland Movement in Darjeeling.” Machis ko Sinka was made as part of Radha’s student diploma project in 2008, while she was at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore. Radha says, “Kalimpong is a town in the Himalayas which in the past century has been the scene of many migrations, from Tibet in the north, from Nepal in the west, from Bhutan in the east and from India and Bangladesh in the south. I’m a product of two such migrations: my great grandparents themselves came from Uttar Pradesh and from Okhaldhunga and Ilam in Eastern Nepal. The town itself could be described as a great crossroads where trade with Tibet and Nepal flourished and it also functioned as the starting point of many expeditions to Central Asia.”


Radha continues to make films in and around the region. She says, “I’m currently working on a film that tells the story of fifty-year old Land Rover cars operating on a route that trails the remote frontiers of India and Nepal. Another project in the pipeline is based on the water crisis in the hills. It’s a recurring theme in a lot of projects that I’ve worked on.”

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