Axone by Nicholas Kharkongor, which released on Netflix recently to mixed reviews, revolves around two flatmates from Manipur and Nepal, living in Delhi, who wish to surprise their third flatmate, from Nagaland, by making her favourite dish. The first two characters, played by Lin Laishram and Sayani Gupta, spend the day trying to find a spot to cook meat with axone, a fermented soy paste from Nagaland made with either fresh or dried beans.
They scurry furtively to ensure its pungent aroma doesn’t reach the neighbours and invoke their wrath.While the film seems to have disappointed many people from across the North-East, one of the central locations in it is popular with them—Asha Stores, a one-stop shop set up in 2011 in Humayunpur,.