Director Rishi Raj Acharya’s Suntali lai Bhagai Lagyo Jhilkeley aspires to be many things but ends up being a shrewd display of the polarisation present in Nepali cinema.
To be fair, the movie, set in a generic milieu is about the general concerns of a familiar group of villagers, and does try to infuse a sense of distinction.
Set in Panchayat-era Nepal, the movie delves right into the lives of the villagers somewhere in western Nepal. The use of Khas language tries to establish the setting, even though lives populating it could have come from any village anywhere in hilly Nepal.
Before a date becomes a mere stamp on a letterhead and a rote melodrama takes over every semblance of distinction set earlier through the heavy-handed use of elements like language and artifacts (it uses closeup shots of 25 paisa coins more than it should), the movie keeps viewers engaged in the lives of the villagers, even as they are a mere re-imagining of tropes of popular Nepali cinema.
Only if engaging the viewers were a marker of how good a movie actually is.
A more pressing concern that arises from movies like Suntali lai Bhagai Lagyo Jhilkeley is how divisive the Nepali film fraternity has become over the years.
If nothing else, Suntali lai Bhagai Lagyo Jhilkeley is a testament to the Nepali movie industry’s unwillingness to let go of its past.
It is one thing that the makers are incapable of doing anything more. We all have room to grow. But herein lies a genuine concern if for any reason, producing this dismissible fare is a matter of only abusing the liberal nature of filmmaking.
It may be a hard reminder of the latter fact that credit roll of Suntali lai Bhagai Lagyo Jhilkeley boldly announces two future productions–as if movies were a commodity.
A more pressing concern that arises from movies like Suntali lai Bhagai Lagyo Jhilkeley is how divisive the Nepali film fraternity has become over the years.
How else can Bhaskar Dhungana’s Suntali (which in its own peculiar way tells more about this very nature of our film fraternity than this review will ever do) exist alongside movies like Suntali lai Bhagai Lagyo Jhilkeley which build on the exact derision (notice both the titles) Suntali cleverly builds upon.
But then, film-making is a medium for all, and unlike literature, it is also accessible to all. A fledgling fraternity like ours can only wait and watch.
***
More reviews on Nepali cinema
‘Teen Ghumti’ movie review: A sincere adaptation of Koirala’s novel
‘Gajalu’ movie review: A fair addition to Hemraj BC’s universe
