When wishes come true

by POOJA GURUNG

FROM ISSUE # 153 (September 2008) | IN THIS ISSUE
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A lot has happened since the release of Kagbeni. Political loggerheads have signed peace treatise, elections came through with the removal of royalty and the germination of a new system of government. Then why am I still writing a stale stiff story about Kagbeni? Probably because wishes did come true and misconstrued a different plot, not just for those involved in the movie but for those who watched it as well.

Two years ago when I hatched from the embryo of Actor's Studio, I was ready to test the waters or rather the cesspool of Nepali celluloid. Enthusiastically, after hearing about the casting for the movie, we auditioned for the parts unintimidated by a queue of actors who walked the walk and a row of gentlemen under the banner of Quest Entertainment, who talked the talk. A week later, I was overjoyed to know that I was to do my first film.

It was a film of the first timers, even the director who after stamping music videos with 'Bhushan Dahal Films' logo, was finally directing a full length feature film. Saugat Malla, an intense theatre actor was going to prove his mettle on celluloid. Diya Maskey and I had batted our eyelashes in several music videos but this was a different ball game all together. Mohammed Hanif  was fresh out of film school and Asha Magrathi wanted to break away from the clichéd pattern of acting. When Nima Rumba, the pop star jumped into the band wagon, unsure of his acting skills, all of us felt as if we were on the same boat. The only one with substantial experience in movie making was Prashant Rasaily, the script writer and the undesignated assistant director.

Playing Pema, the coy bhatti sauni serving rakshi and sukuti to a pair of friends, I discovered that acting was effortless when working with good co-actors. I had only levered a small amount of effort on my accent. A great deal of the scenes in the movie was improvised coquetry and an unscripted peck was to be planted by Nima on my cheeks. I almost shriveled and died when I watched that scene on the big screen, not embarrassed by the innocent indecency of the kiss but by the sleazy subtitles. The other controversial kiss between Saugat and Diya had the producers all excited as it would be a never-before-shown proper lip-lock in Nepali cinema. It would further entice and excite the audience about the movie; and excited they became because of the buzz that was created for the ambitious scale of production around a simple story. 

The movie may have been path breaking on several levels but it sure did puzzle the audience as they came out of the theatres with the lingering footnote of the film. "Be careful of what you wish for." It warned us in English, because apparently when it comes to superstition, Nepalis don't need subtitles.

Prashant Rasaily never got his due for ghost directing and writing the film but at least scraped a credit for his stunts as Nima's body double that falls off the cliff. His projects with Quest Entertainment were shelved and he quietly went back to Sikkim to take part in a TV talent hunt for film makers. Mohammed Hanif went on to write the script for Sano Sansar, which he honestly scraps off as a hotch potch of My Sassy Girl and other block busters. Saugat and Asha are still faithful to their love for theatre, as for others I can't say. I didn't dream or wish big from the movie but with its commercial success, I had hoped that the billboard in front of Singha Durbar that says 'Make it Large' would be replaced by a centre spread of Marpha Brandy with a catch phrase that would say 'When Wishes Come True'.

(Pooja Gurung is an actor, a television personality and a music video dirctor)