Presenting Kollywood

There is always something that has been lagging in Nepalese film industry. It had been lagging since a huge time. Nebraska, Oscar nominated movie barely has any story, where this old man tries to go after lottery, without even understanding. 


Or, Birdman, which barely has some strong story to present. But, we have always been focusing on factors like location, strong story, strong characters, expensive stars rather than the presentation part. What Nepalese film industry could not realize was - it's presentation that counts the must for any movie industry.

Movies do have important role in promoting tourism, highlighting new places. But, even after these long decades; that has never been considered. Loot, the low budget movie; should have been taken as an example by Nepali movie industry, which brought revolution in the film industry; but that was barely considered. That is fine, story should have some weight, but in the end - it is presentation that counts. Why was Jhola such a hit, and Seto Bagh not any worth? Both had wonderful content to present; but the way Seto Bagh was presented should have confused movie makers themselves. How would viewers understand the essence anyway? It is therefore important to identify the content, and turn the content in simplest form possible. Nepalese audience would not dare to estimate watch movies like Memento, Shutter Island or The Sixth sense. Even if they love those psychological thriller movies; they would love to watch in Hollywood form itself. So, creating complexities in movies would not be appropriate idea anyway.

Where Nepali movie again lags behind is spending resources over scene and spot as if 12 Angry Men was never made. 12 Angry Men should be a lesson, because not always has spot and venue huge things to do. Hence, an important consideration that has to be considered lies not within the space of beauty, but with the beauty of presentation. So, it's not about placing scare crow at some beautiful place; but about placing at appropriate space. Nepalese Film Industry tries to develop other part at first, and then decides about the story. So, they don't go after 'Our Story Needs This'; but rather 'These factor requires this story'. Maybe, this Nepali movie - Safar wanted the shooting abroad.

Besides, Nepali Film Industry seems to be too concerned about expensive stars. Who had noticed Saugat Malla before Loot? Or, who had noticed Dayahang Rai in Dasdhunga? Barely few of us. What we even forget is, Nepalese audience doesn’t have any bare loyalty over any celebrities; they go for something that has to mean. Nepalese audience don't mind criticizing the bad performance of Anmol KC, and don't even hesitate appreciating wonderful performance of Najeer. So, it's not the expensive stars that makes movie popular in Nepalese in the end.

Movie making is divided into three major stages - pre production, production and post-production. There is systematic steps that movie maker go through and finally conclude up with the output. However, Nepalese movie industry barely seems to follow these steps. Planning, Idea Generation, Script writing and raising funds should be the primary phase during pre-production. Do we actually follow through these phase? Or, is it just the budget allocation and scripting that we go through? As far as production phase is concerned, that seems to be satisfactory - as we have been using modern equipment’s to large scale. Again, the post production phase seems to be next troublesome issue.

There is this saying, which states that film making is a game that should be played with all the cards and all the dice and whatever that you have got. So each time, movie is made, they have to give everything. This everything in context of Nepalese scenario is only 'money'; which is entire wrong. There are other skills which counts more than financial provision while movie making too.

Movies are arts, but again profession too. That has to be blended; if movie is taken simply as a profession; the other side - art will be killed. Movie should be about capturing the moments, not the body movements. Let's make - critically acclaimed movies in Nepal. It's all about starting a culture. Culture has to be established. Initiation has to be done. There certainly is some huge scope.



Published in The Rising Nepal's Friday Supplement of September 1, 2017