Nepali Film – Muna Madan Starring – Usha Poudel, Dipak Tripathi, Subhadra Adhikari, Mithila Sharma, Bijay Lama, Dinesh DC etc. Director – Dayaram Dahal
The lyrical book by Laxmi Prasad Devkota is one of the most popular bestseller in Nepal. The book is taught in school and colleges. The film is based on the book about foreign employment in the time almost half a century ago.
Dhurmus and Suntali – the comedy actor duo had been quite successful in fund raising for their social work. While working for others, they have been able to do good to themselves. Now, they are working to raise fund – a whooping Rs. 3 Arba (3 Billion) to construct the stadium.
It would certainly be a challenge for them to collect such a large sum from Nepali foreign workers – who are mostly unskilled labour forces. In their past social work, they had collected huge sum of money. They were appreciated by the people for their selfless work.
I think stadium is a challenge because of the following facts:
Dhurmus and Suntali have stopped their main job – to make people laugh. They have stopped appearing in TV and films and they have made “social work” their main job. This, I guess, wasn’t what people have wanted and they have started questioning their motives.
When it was for some poor people, people were willing to set aside a little fund. But, when it is about a stadium – that no poor person will use, people will be skeptical in donating their hard earned money. There is not incentive of feeling happy on helping some poor and disadvantaged group of people.
In smaller projects – the help was tangible. They could seen the progress of something being built. But, in a large project – it takes a longer time. Dhurmus-Suntali have anticipated it to be completed in 2 years (that is a long time). In most of that time, the building won’t even start – or even it starts – progress will not be visible.
3 Arab is a large sum of money. When Dhurmus and Suntali started their work in Giranchowk, they were the only people asking for donation. Now, a lot of others are doing the same. For example, Shree – Shweta foundation is building Majhi Basti (she has complained that there is not enough funding). Rabi Lamichhane Foundation is building a hospital in Raskot. Priyanka Karki has started her own foundation – Ayanka Foundation and there are a lot of other organizations. They will all be going to the same people to ask for money. Can they afford to donate all of them? I doubt.
People have started questioning the integrity – specially when they don’t have any apparent sources of income. Â For example, Mukunda Ghimire, has created the following photo of Kunjana Ghimire, Suntali.