Note: Pre-release review of Chapali Height covers general information and other details.

With a lot of controversies and publicity from sexually aggressive posters and promos, Chapali Height is released all over major theaters in Nepal. The third directorial venture of Dipendra K Khanal and second movie produced by Arjun Kumar, Chapali Height, has a story of sex for adult audience. Hence, it has received an Adult certificate from the censor board of Nepal.

Story:

Chapali Height is a story of Amir (Amir Gautam) , Bineeta (Binita Baral) and Raj (Raj Ghimire). Amir and Bineeta come from Pokhara to live in Raj’s house at Chapali Height where he is living alone. After spending some time there, relationship between Amir and Bineeta becomes sour and an accident commences the main story of the movie. Its better to Keep the details of the accident, and the suspense that follows, a secret so that your movie experience is not ruined when you watch the movie in theatre.

Strength and Weakness:

Chapali Height’s strength is its cinematography. Thumbs up to cinematographer Niraj Kandel for impressive work in the movie. Another good point is its music. Movie consists of two songs and both are good. They sound good and they do entertain the audience. Lyrics of Bhupendra Khadka and music of Arjun Kumar is appreciable. Movie starts with the rocking performance of Sabin Rai which will charge you up to watch the movie forward.

Other aspects of the movie are average. Story of the movie is something new to our film industry. But, story has been used in a wrong way. Use of sex in each scene has in fact made the movie unimpressive. But, if you go to see the movie for the sex scenes, you might be disappointed because it doesn’t have such intimate scenes. It was because of the use of vulgar words it got an adult certificate. Dialogues of the movie are nothing special. One can get a feeling that the movie is influenced by Hollywood suspense movies. But, that doesn’t mean it has such suspense and thrills. There is nothing in the movie to create an impression on the minds of audiences.

The director Dipendra K Khanal had previously tried twice to score a hit movie, without any success. Even the movies featuring superstars like Rajesh Hamal and Manisha Koirala were no help to make a successful movie. But, this time he might have used right thing, sex, to score a hit movie. Use of sex and a lot of vulgar dialogues in the movie has opened a possibility of making the movie a hit. Technically, the director hasn’t done an appreciable work.

One of the main weaknesses of the movie is its focus on nudity and vulgarity rather than genuine thrills. Thanks to the cinematography of Niraj which gives a feeling that, there is something adventurous and thriller left in the movie with all those vulgar and sexual contents. It’s another story, this same weakness might be strength to cater the needs of sex-hungry Nepali audience.

Star Cast:

One of the interesting parts of the movie is that the whole movie features only three leading actors. There is no supporting actors in key roles in the movie. But, the sad truth, none of these actors have done an appreciable work. As the first half of the movie is full of vulgar dialogues and sexual contents, viewers may miss their weakness in acting and dialogue delivery. When the main story starts in the second half, real performance of the actors can be observed. Their acting is average, at best.

In a thriller movie, background score and the facial and bodily expressions of the actors play an important role in binding the audaince. In ‘Chapali Height’ such adventures and thrills in the expressions of the actors is missing. Although there is no artistic and creativity in the performance of Bineeta Baral, she might benefit from the exposure and sexual scenes she had given in the movie. We have witnessed, in the history of Nepali film industry, such liberal actresses gain popularity and more movies.

Summary:

In it’s promotion, the movie was publicized as having content related to ‘sex psychology’ but, although there is lot of sexual content there is nothing related to psychology. The movie will surely entertain young peoples with the sexual content and exposure in its first half. At the same time, it will not create any positive impressions to the same the viewers. It is not sexual contents or vulgarity that makes the movie to get a low review but, making such contents a big deal has backfired it. There is a high possibility that the director might get his first hit movie based on sexual contents but, artistically he has done no contribution at all.

Overall, ‘Chapali Height’ is a movie with sexual contents made to cheat the sex-starved audience. It might be profitable, stepping stone for directors and actors but, it has made no contributions to the artistic and creative aspect of Nepali movies. It has got vulgarity, sexual contents, suspense, thrills but none of them are strong enough to make a memorable and remarkable impression. Some have claimed the movie to be the next ‘Loot‘, some even claimed it beating the record made by ‘Loot’ but, the truth is – there is nothing comparable in ‘Chapali Height’.