Movie Review – Kathmandu

Background

Thousands of people enter Kathmandu, the capital, from different parts of Nepal for the search of opportunities and fulfill their dreams. At the same time, many leave to tend their wounds when their dreams get shattered. Akash Adhikari’s movie, "Kathmandu", released today in Kathmandu, the city, is based on such types of different dreams, different problems, and varieties of people.

Story

The movie, "Kathmandu", is made on the story a character, Aryan Rana (played by Akash Adhikari) who comes back to Nepal from USA after completing his study of film making. He competes in Nepal to get an opportunity to make movie and during his struggle, he faces different problems, typical of Kathmandu. Although he tries to fight with every problems, a problems in his family forced him to return back to the USA.  Apart from the family problem, "Kathmandu" tries to portrays problems in teens caused by the misunderstanding between their parents. Drugs abuse in teens and problems in them caused by the carelessness of their parents. The movie also deals with the problems of street children, problems of youth, unemployment, negligence of the government, the games played by politicians, and girls being exploited to make indecent movies.

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Chapali Height – copy paste poster again!

The poster of Chapali Height released yesterday are copied from an Michael Douglas’s English movie Basic Instinct. It’s not only the poster, the name also has a similar design.

It’s not only the poster, the name of the movie is also inspired by the movie.

With these similarities, it’s anybody’s guess what the story should be like!

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Loot – A Nepali movie review

‘Loot‘ is a Nepali movie. It doesn’t cater the Bollywood flavor. Although the concept of item songs comes from Bollywood, and Loot has made a full use of it, that hasn’t ruined the Nepaliness in the movie.

The item song ‘Udhreko Choli’ and it’s popularity has helped in the marketing of the movie. But, that is not the whole story.Simplicity in story, the style of story telling, better than average acting, no nonsense scenes in the movie are some of the positive aspects in ‘Loot’.

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Poster morphing, concept stealing – damaging trend in Nepali movies

We posted a poster of Nepali movie "Premika" in which, the poster was 100% copy from a Telugu movie. The poster of another movie, Devyani, isn’t 100 percent copy but it also has picked poster of a German movie ‘Perfume: The Story of a Murderer ‘ to add in it’s poster. Such a copy in poster reduces the credibility of the movie and gives an impression that the movie itself is not original.

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First Nepali Movie on Story of Lesbian Lovers, Snow Flower, shooting complete

The shooting of the first Nepali movie to feature lesbian couple, Snow Flower, has completed recently and has entered in the post production stage.

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Acharya – do movies have nationality?

The nationality of the movie based on the life of Nepali Bhajanshiromani Bhakta Raj Acharya is being disputed based on it’s submission to a film festival in India as an Indian movie.

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Manoj Pandit’s review and Richa Ghimire’s response to ‘illegal’ website

Background

Manoj Pandit wrote a review of Richa Ghimire‘s movie Brakefail. He wrote – "Richa didn’t look like an heroine in the movie," and published it in a website. Richa got angry, and complained to the police, who arrested Manoj. He admitted his "mistake" in getting personal about the actress. Nagarik published the issue and it was made public.

In the article, Richa claimed that the website, Merocinema, wrote the negative review because of the fact that she refused to provide an advertisement to it.  She also told, only NJA designated journalists should write movie reviews – all others should only write positive things.

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Dulahi premier on it’s Dulaha, Rajesh Hamal, birthday

The movie Dulahi (Dulahee) is going to be premeired on the birthday of its Dulaha, Rajesh Hamal. Wednesday, June 8, 2011 (Jestha 25) is the birthday of Rajesh Hamal.

The movie directed by Baburam Dhakal features Rajesh Hamal, Mukesh Dhakal, Karishma Manandhar, and Sumina Ghimire in the leading roles.

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Movie Reviews – case study of Nepali movie Swor

As I had already talked on previous article about how Nepali reviewers review movies. And I also wrote about how is it done. During the release of the movie Swor, my notion about the irresponsibility of Nepali reviewers proved right.

Different newspapers published reviews of Swor and they tried their best to create to discourage audience not to watch the movie. I am not saying that those reporters did wrong reviews. They were were right in their point of views. They did their best to show all the negative points of the movie.

Most of the reporters were able to point most of the negative points of the movie. My thumbs up to the reporters whose reporting helped the director of the movie, Prasanna Poudel in realizing the weakness of his movie.

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Movie Review – Batch No.16

After watching the new movie Batch No.16, I think, it’s director Pitambar Pandey has proven that a successful movie can be made after film related education and proper experience. Film making is different from making a music video or a television serial. Batch No.16 is another flick in which the film crew has shown that, we have the technology required to make good movie and all our movies lack is the concept and a good story.

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Nepali Movies – confusing names – is Nepali language poor?

Nepali TV viewers are often irritated and confused with the Nepali movie related program and advertisements. Every report of upcoming movies adds up a confusion due to the similarity in the name. I usually exclaimed -

What? Didn’t I see this movie last year?

But, the names are not always same, they are similar! It is not only the name that is similar; thanks to the limited supply of artists, they usually have the same actor and actresses. Many get confused and prefer not to visit theaters to watch "similar" movies.

Here are some of the confusing names I came across various newspapers in various themes:

Maya ke ho?

• Ke Yo Maya Ho?
• Ho Yahi Maya Ho
• Maya Ta Maya Ho

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Movie Review – Bato Muni Ko Phool – deserving movie made a victim

Full movie is posted here

Nepali feature film Bato Muni Ko Phul was released on 29 November 2010 all over Nepal. Bato Muni Ko Phul features Nepali singers Yash Kumar and Babu Bogati along with actresses Rekha Thapa and Nandita KC.

In this movie, Yash Kumar has attempted to show the problem faced by the lower caste people in our society. The movie had done the justice in all aspects. Although, this movie is not hundred percent perfect and a lot of negative aspects can be found in this movie, the presentation and the story of the movie are very good. In the context to Nepali film industry and Nepali society, the movie is can be considered a to have a good impact in the society.

As usual, after watching Bato Muni Ko Phul, I went through all the reviews published on daily newspapers, websites, and other Medias. Most of the reviews are positive and everyone had appreciated the movie.

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Dasdhunga won the Merocinema Popular Award 2010

The result of the online voting for Merocinema Popular Award 2010 is announced today. Dasdhunga has become the  most popular movie of the year.

The most successful movie has become Bato Muni Ko Phool with 6 awards in different categories. Other winners are:

• Best movie – Dasdhunga
• Best director – Suroj Singh "Nalbo" (Bato Muni Ko Phool)
• Best actor – Rajesh Hamal (from Desh / Swabhimaan / Didi Bhai)
• Best actress – Rekha thapa (from Bato Muni Ko Phool/Kasle Choryo Mero Man)
• Best musician – Mahesh Khadka (Nai Nabhannu La)
• Best singer (male) – Dipak Limbu (Nai Nabhannu La)
• Best singer (female) – Prakriti Giri (Bato Muni Ko Phool)
• Best actor (supporting) – Vinaya Shrestha (First Love)
• Best actor in comic role – Nirmal Sharma (Afno Manche Afnai Huncha)
• Best actor in negative role – Saugat Malla (Dashdhunga)
• Best script writer – Suroj Subba "Nalbo" (Bato Muni Ko Phool)
• Best action director – Rajendra Khadgi (Desh/Ranasangram)
• Best choreographer – Alok Nembang (Kohi Mero)
• Best editor – Simosh Sunuwar(First Love)
• Best cinematographer – Sanjay Lama (Bato Muniko Phool)
• Best new face (male) – Yash Kumar (Bato Muni Ko Phool)
• Best new face (Female) – Richa Sharma (First Love)

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Movie Reviews – How do Nepali reviewers review movies?

Note: This article follows the previous article – Movie review – How is it done? in which Raunak has talked about how a good review is written. In this article, Raunak is analyzing some Nepali movie reviews.

At the time when Hindi movie Ravaan featuring Avisekh Bacchan and Aiswarya Rai was released (June 18, 2010), Nepali daily Kantipur published a review of the movie after a few days of the release. The review mentioned that the movie also featured Manisha Koirala and Govinda. The article appreciated their role even if they appeared briefly in the movie. I had watched the movie on June 19 (before the review was published) so I had to ask a friend for the DVD of the movie to confirm the error in the film review. There was no mention of Manisha in casting and she never appeared in the movie.

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Movie Review – how is it done?

I am not much sure about the Nepali viewers but, in India and Hollywood, viewers first read the reviews of newly released movies in newspapers or websites before going to theaters. The movie with good rating and reviews help in its promotion. That is one of the reasons review writers enjoy huge respect in the film industry. Many of the movie promos and advertisements also feature ratings and newspaper reviews. A review serves the viewers to spend their time and money wisely in the movie they prefer to watch.

Review writing is not an easy task. Before writing a review, the reviewer needs to know some basics of movies. Although, there aren’t any standards, rules or formula for review writing, some of the basic concepts. I once had a chance to chat with an Indian review writer, Taran Adarsh, of India Fm. I am indebted to Taran for the short and sweet tips on review writing.

I asked, “What are the necessary things to write movie review? And, what do you try to find on the movie when you go to watch?”

Taran replied, via email:

• The first thing, the reviewer should have contacts with the film makers to ask how they have made the movie. They would give the information about how they are doing the publicity of the movie. The reviewers will also know the expectations of the film makers from their viewers. Knowing the history of the crew members might be unnecessary as the reviewer should be writing about the movie not about the crew members.
• The second thing, the reviewer should watch the movie. While watching, the reviewer should judge if the movie fulfills its theme or not. The movie should have all those stuffs as said by promos and the crew members like directors.

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