Achanak - In Cinemas Now!

Cinema Kathmandu, a set on Flickr.

We are curious to find out about Nepalese films. Hence, Saturday afternoon, having finished our Nepali language training, we are off to the cinema together with our Nepalese friend Rajiv. We are driving in one of the ubiquitous white Maruti-Suzuki taxis to a small, old-fashioned cinema in the north of Kathmandu. (The big screens only show Bollywood and Hollywood productions, which dominate the market.)

We enter the building making our way through groups of young Nepalese, mostly men, starring at us. The entrance hall is a large and mostly empty ground floor space without doors or windows; really more like a building shell. In the far end corner, there is a small ticket booth. Entrance fee is priced at Rs. 60, 80 or 100 (about €0.60 to €1.00). There are three Nepalese films on today of which we select, pretty randomly, 'Achanak' (meaning 'Suddenly') based on the posters hung on the bare concrete wall.

At this time, the cinema itself is still locked with a metal gate, in front of which two queues form. Queues are split by gender because, according to Rajiv, guys are rowdies. Once the gate opens everyone is pushing in. Some boys try to get in faster mingling in the female queue, just being rejected to enter at the gate.

Inside the cinema, there is a small shop to buy tea or cold drinks and snacks like popcorn and crisps. All but us, however, head (most actually run) to their screening room right away. When we enter screen 3, a massive room with two levels (probably the largest cinema room I have ever been in), the local advertising is already on. The quality of both the projection (very dim) and the ads (80s home video style with computer animated text) is poor, but quite fun. To our surprise, before the film starts the national anthem is played. It is a relict from when Nepal was a monarchy and no one got up or sung.

The film, a low budget (about €25k) action film with singing and dancing, starts. The story is about a murder and the victim's wife and brother's (= hero) attempt to capture the murderer. It turns out to be very violent and cruel with scenes of fights, kidnapping and torturing. Luckily the super hero is always there to help. his dramatized appearance on scene is accompanied by the spectators' excited clapping. Finally, after about 90 minutes (excluding interval), good defeats evil.

Nepals' film industry, also (a bit ironically, I think) called Kollywood (most of Nepal's film production companies are in Kathmandu), produced about 15-20 films p.a. over the last few years. The country's film history is short with the first Nepali language film released in 1951 (produced in India) and the first film produced in Nepal by the Information Department of His Majesty's Government of Nepal in 1964. The film industry developed depending on the political situation growing rapidly in the beginning of the 1990s and again after peace establishment in 2006. More on Nepal's film history on Cine Sansar.

Most films use Bollywood-style narratives and songs, often they are remakes or imitations of successful B/Hollywood productions (e.g. 'Memento' remake to be released in December). Often, like in the case of 'Achanak', many Indians contribute to the film. Commonly Nepalese films are using glamorous actresses, singing and dancing and too much violence. However, it is said that new generation film makers are set up to produce their own style entertainment and quality films with multi-million ruppees film budgets. Let's see...

PS. Ten years ago, in 2058, the Film Development Board of Nepal published a paper on 'Alternative filmmaking'.