Name: Boong (2025)
Genre: Drama, Adventure
Released: 2025-09-19
Rating: 8.0
Cast: Vikram Kochhar, Bala Hijam Ningthoujam, Gugun Kipgen

Winner of the Best Children’s & Family Film award at the 2026 BAFTA Awards, the first Indian film to receive the honour, Boong follows a young boy in Manipur who refuses to believe his father has disappeared for good. As he sets out on a journey to find him with the help of a friend, the search unfolds into a story of family, resilience, and growing up.

Boong (2025)

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Directed by debut filmmaker Lakshmipriya Devi, the Manipuri coming-of-age drama revolves around a 9-year-old boy named Brojendra Singh, aka Boong, played by a charming Gugun Kipgen. The story follows his stubborn, innocent search for his missing father near the Myanmar border, even when the adults around him have already accepted the worst.

What makes Boong special is how adorably simple it is. There's no grand spectacle here, no dramatic background score trying to tell you when to cry. Instead, the film gently slips into your heart through small, everyday moments. A mischievous schoolboy, a worried mother, and a friendship that feels beautifully real.
Years have passed since Boong's father disappeared. Despite unanswered phone calls and voice messages, Boong is convinced he is alive. He wants to surprise his mother, Mandakini, with the 'gift' of his father's return. While the village has accepted the father's death, Mandakini's refusal to accept it fuels Boong's determination. And, with his best friend Raju (Angom Sanamatum), Boong ventures into the unknown, navigating the complexities of the border town of Moreh and even crossing into Myanmar.
The story is told from Boong's innocent point of view. Because of this, the serious issues around him, like ethnic tensions, separatist struggles, and cultural stigma, feel like a normal part of daily life. The camera shows small moments from his world, where prejudice and patriarchy appear in everyday situations without over-the-top drama.

His antics, like altering his school's board name to 'Homo Boys School', reciting Madonna's Like a Virgin as a morning prayer or calling a bully a â€œsecond-hand foreignerâ€, leave you giggling but also shows the kind of surrounding he is growing up in. The film handles these themes gently, choosing a quiet, thoughtful style instead of directly preaching its message.

Boong also touches upon the insider-outsider debate. Raju's father Sudhir (Vikram Kochhar) is warned to stay out of local matters after he helps Mandakini deal with the village head. Despite his family living in the region for over a century, Sudhir still faces discrimination because of his Marwari heritage. The situation mirrors how migrants from the Northeast are often treated in other parts of India (Not long ago, three women from Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur were subjected to racial slurs in Delhi).

The bond between Boong and Raju is really what carries the film forward. Both boys are dealing with losses. Boong is growing up without his father, while Raju lost his mother when he was young. Their friendship moves through constant arguments and patch-ups, which is what childhood friendships are all about.
The performances are unpolished and feel real. Gugun Kipgen, who plays the titular role, carries the film with a sweet mix of mischief and vulnerability. He is the USP of the film. Then there's Bala Hijam as Boong's mother Mandakini. Her performance is restrained but quietly devastating. In a film filled with children's curiosity, innocence and optimism, she represents the weight of reality.

Boong doesnâ€™t try to impress you. It simply tells a story - tenderly, honestly, and with a lot of heart.

At a time when mainstream cinema often prioritises scale over soul, Boong reminds you that sometimes the most powerful stories come from the smallest voices. And in this case, that voice belongs to a stubborn little boy who refuses to stop believing.

Early in Boong, a group of schoolchildren gather on a picnic while their teacher tells them about the ancient kingdom of Manipur. The children listen closely as she shares a story from the land's distant past.

The Manipur valley was once submerged before it slowly revealed itself as habitable land. This land was eventually grown into a kingdom that shapes its monarchical history.

Like the schoolkids, we, as viewers begin to feel drawn to a place that's rarely been depicted in our mainstream cinema.

The BAFTA-winning film is filled with such thoughtful, delicate touches that quietly bring forth the cultural, social, and geographical identity of the north eastern state.

First-time director Laxmipriya Devi gently places these details into the story that feels like small personal tributes to her homeland, which she described as 'troubled, ignored, and much underrepresented' in her heartfelt acceptance speech at the BAFTAs.

At a media interaction after a screening in Mumbai, Co-Producer Shujaat Saudagar said, 'LP is Boong. Boong is LP.'

'LP,' as everyone affectionately calls Laxmipriya Devi, smilingly replied, 'Everything I have known, I put in this film.'

There's a raw emotional honesty to Boong that is rarely felt in our movies. It is in the way it treats its characters and setting, which are crafted with so much warmth and tenderness.

The film talks about borders and boundaries, but it never overstates it. It touches on grief, yet it is never turns into misery.

It's the kind of film that grows on you, with storytelling that feels natural and sincere. Even though the story packs serious themes, the film never feels heavy or overwhelming.

What Boong is about
Boong unfolds through the eyes of a young boy, the film's titular protagonist. We watch the film through his perspective, and because of this, the tone often feels gentle and playful.

A firecracker, Gugun Kipgen plays Boong with mischievous energy and curiosity. He is the kind of child who is always moving, always thinking, always planning something.

His father has been away for a long time, working somewhere near the India-Myanmar border, with no word back home. Boong sees his mother (Bala Hijam) quietly carrying the pain of her husband's absence.
Has he been taken hostage? Has he left his family behind? Has he joined a militant group? Or is he dead, as some people in the neighbourhood suggest? In a region shaped by conflict, these troubling questions arise.

Instead of waiting and wondering, Boong sets out to find his father and bring him home.

Boong is not alone in his adventures. He is accompanied by his best friend Raju (played charmingly by Angom Sanamatum). Raju is often treated as an outsider whose family had migrated from Rajasthan years go, and this shapes how others see him.

Laxmipriya Devi captures Manipur with honesty
As Boong searches for his missing father, the film slowly reveals a portrait of modern Manipur, where unrest and violence quietly linger beneath the surface.

The playful antics of the two children shape the story with easy charm, but the film never forgets the challenges and tensions of this world.

Armed forces appear in the background, people speak about militancy, and the story gently nudges on identity politics, language politics, and the complex insider-outsider dynamics within the country.

Laxmipriya Devi avoids heavy-handed speeches or overtly dramatic moments that the story like this could have easily leaned on. Instead, she lets these important details quietly build the subtext of the story.

In an unexpected moment, a group of boys is seen watching Hindi films in a secret video parlour in a state that enforced the ban on Hindi cinema. On the wall hangs a poster of Mary Kom, which prompts a character to remark that the boxing champion could not see her own biopic in her homeland.

Boong gives beautiful nods to local culture, showing the blend of folk music, festivals, and traditions that make Manipur come alive on screen. Characters speaking in the local language adds another layer of realism to the story.

The drama flows naturally, and the interaction between characters feels believable though some moments toward the end unfold a little too conveniently.

Still, the story takes a sharp and deeply emotional turn when Boong discovers the truth about his father. What follows is one of the film's most poignant moments, and it feels completely earned.

Make the effort for this one. Watch it, and experience its quietly heart-aching beauty.

Marked by a keen eye for detail, a gentle rhythm and controlled buoyancy, Boong, Manipuri writer-director Lakshmipriya Devi's remarkably accomplished debut feature, probes a climate of discord and disquiet in the garb of a story of a boy, his mother and her absent husband.

The deceptively simple but marvellously evocative and wonderfully well-crafted film views life in a strife-torn region through the prism of a fractured family that hopes against hope of becoming whole again.

Boong, produced by Excel Entertainment, is a tale of love, loss, longing, and a tenacious spirit rooted in a child's innocence and innate ebullience in the face of adversity. 

The film just won a BAFTA Award in the "children's and family film" category. But it breaks the confines of the genre with intent.
The narrative, centred on a lively, wide-eyed schoolboy unsullied by the doubts and despondency around him, opens out into what is a vivid and illuminating portrait of a place and a time where surface serenity conceals a brewing unrest.

Boong plays out in a part of India that has seen that steady widening of ethnic fissures, aggravated by a leadership vacuum and delusional politics. The situation has left the people at their tether's end and groping for elusive answers.

It is, indeed, a film about a search for reconciliation and peace. It seeks to make sense of socio-political and familial turmoil from the standpoint of Brojendra, alias Boong (Kugun Kipgen), a lively schoolboy who defies distances and barriers.

The boy, with his best friend Raju (Angom Sanamatum) in tow, goes in search of his missing father, hoping to give his mother Mandakini (Bala Hijam) a surprise gift, a gift that has the potential of bringing her life back on track.

Mandakini, who sells handloom sarees from a shop in the bazaar, has not heard from her husband Joykumar (Hamom Sadananda) since he left Imphal for the border town of Moreh in search of work.
The man, a wood smith whose tools now lie idle and bear witness to his inexplicable absence, has gone completely incommunicado. Phone calls to him go unanswered, triggering understandable fears and motivated rumours that he might no longer be alive.

Mandakini is, however, loath to believe the worst. Her son, too, hasn't stopped waiting for his father, his confidence and optimism bolstered by public acts of assertion by his mother.

Boong's deep connection with his missing father is most directly reflected in how he uses a sling shot, a skill that he imbibed from Joykumar.

A Madonna album lying around the house is a reminder of the man's fondness for the American pop singer-songwriter. Boong's father was the president of the Imphal East Madonna Fan Club.

Later in the film, after Boong sets out with his best friend to look for Joykumar, the Madonna factor returns centre stage, if only briefly and tangentially. Her 'presence' opens a door for him when a popular performer does a show in Myanmar, across the border from Moreh, to help the boy find his father.

In Moreh, Boong and Raju encounter migrants, armed security men in uniform and a thriving underground performance arena kept alive by a transgender subculture. They represent the many directions in which the state is being pulled. But since they are beyond Boong's comprehension, they matter little to him.

What does though are the racial slurs that Raju, a boy who never saw his mother, faces. The only son of a Marwari trader Sudhir Agarwal (Vikram Kochhar), he is branded a "meyang" (outsider). But no matter what, he and Boong are an inseparable duo.

The prankster in Boong comes to the fore when he is asked to lead the school prayers. He breaks into "Like a Virgin". The transgression is
among other deliberate acts that he indulges in in the hope of being expelled.

He has his sights set on getting into an English medium school. Once he makes it there, the social and class divides become more apparent than ever before but for him and Raju, like for the adults around them, life goes on even as tensions keep bubbling forth to the surface.

The tone of the film changes perceptibly when the boys decide to do the unthinkable. They sneak into a van headed to Moreh with the body of a female classmate's deceased grandfather. Armed with a photograph of Joykumar, the duo goes to great lengths and even crosses the heavily militarised Manipur-Myanmar border to locate the man.

Boong's steely childlike resolve drive him into a quest that is fraught with risk and uncertainty. Gugun Kipgen's performance, marked by infectious joie de vivre, provides the film a solid core. As Raju, Angom Sanamatum is terrific.
The underlying family and village dynamic reflects a wider, more ominous phenomenon that is alluded to through the passing reference to an insurgent outfit fighting for a Manipur that is free to determine its destiny.

But Boong is eventually about hope and acceptance, about the need to look for flashes of light in the darkest of times and find a way to move on. Not to be missed for it articulates truths that matter.

Everybody has a different way of dealing with grief. Boong is a Manipuri story about a young boy (played by Gugun Kipgen) whose desire to reunite with his broken family doesn’t really go waste. The best thing about the film is that it never gets preachy. Lakshmipriya Devi’s film touches on significantly important issues of hope, resilience, and the bond of a child with her mother. There is no high drama in the movie, and everything is done in a pleasant and gentle way. The filmmaker has made sure in this carefully crafted film that nothing in the state of Manipur must be addressed like an issue; rather, it is shown in a very organic way.
Boong (Gugun Kipgen) is raised by his single mother, Mandakini (Bala Hijam Ningthoujam), and he goes on a poignant quest with his best friend to find his missing father. It touches on significantly important issues of hope, resilience, and the bonds of child and mother. There is a tendency in all of us to see children from a very adult perspective; the main character here is a young kid called Boong, played by Gugun Kipgen. This child actor is one whom we should look up to because his craft is effortlessly beautiful. Boong and his friends go on a journey to get his father back, who has been presumed dead for years.
After watching Boong, I feel we should have more films on Manipur. Lakshmipriya’s Boong is not just an immersive and engaging watch, but it shows us how people are tolerant and they don’t lose their sense of humour even during the harshest time of their life. It is a short and sweet tale of ’tolerance.’ The character of Raju, Boong’s best friend played by Angom Sanamatum, shows how real friends are. In fact, the film makes it clear that the greatest sweetener of human life is friendship. Bala Hijam, who plays the role of Boong’s mother, is honest, and she expresses grief and anger in a very genuine way. She makes us believe that grief can be silent and personal and that there shouldn’t be any unnecessary drama around it.
Grief is completely a personal thing, and both Boong (Gugun Kipgen) and his mother deal with grief in the most stoic possible way. Hoping to surprise his mother, Boong decides to bring his father back home. Boong indeed is a heartfelt coming-of-age film. In his mission of finding his father, he comes across the harshest truth about his father. His friend, who accompanies him on his mission, thinks that his father is a militant and must be hiding from the army and police. But the truth is far from reality. He tells his friend on his way back home that he would like to gift his mother ‘a new beginning.’ This shows the maturity of a young kid who has seen the harshness of life in the last few days.
The normalisation of homosexuality and empathy for the LGBTQ community is also shown in a brilliant way, which is rare in Hindi cinema. The compelling performances, storytelling, and cinematography are good enough reasons to watch the film in cinema halls. The sense of humour of the narration is subtle, modestly telling socio-political realities of Manipur that could be mistaken for frothy fun. But a special mention to Gugun Kipgen’s performance as Boong, which holds the whole narrative together in the most delightful way!



Boong (2025)(2025)