I wrote about film related websites in Nepal in August of 2010. The websites reviewed at that time are still in operation. Some have improved in their quality and others have remained the same.
The sites I reviewed were:
Tag: merocinema.com
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.
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)
Mero Cinema Popular Award – Voting going on for the winner
The nomination for the best movie are:
In the similar manner, there are 17 categories and the completion is among 39 movies released in the year 2010 form January t
o November. Please visit merocinema.com to vote for your favorite choice in each categories. A person can only vote once in each category on a given day.
With due respect and support to the award ceremony, I have some reservation on the fairness in popular votes method to choose the winner. A latest example is the Time person of the year selection. Time magazine asked its readers to select the person of the year – the Wikileaks founder was leading by a vast majority of popular votes. But, the final announcement was different from what everybody expected – the Facebook guy Mark Zuckerberg won the Time Person of the Year.
Increasing number of Film related Nepali websites
The first film related magazine in Nepal was ‘Kamana‘ but they never made a good enough website to talk about. The group that publishes Kamana is not that interested in website and they are pretty happy with the printed publication. The screenshot on the right speaks volumes on its online presence.
As far as I know, the first dedicated film related website was filmnepal.com. The site is still there but it doesn’t get updated that frequently. The site is full of age-old stories that no one is interested in.