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For all the art aficionados out there, the Kathmandu Art gallery has brought to you a mega-art exhibition of the year at Le Sherpa, Maharajgunj entitled “Love Revisited”. The exhibition was inau­gurated by the EU ambassador to Nepal Ms. Veronica Cody on March 13, and will continue until April 13. The event showcases about 35 different art projects crafted by eminent artist and former Chancel­lor of Nepal Academy of Fine Arts, Ragini Upadhyaya Grela. Through the exhibition, Upadhyaya wants to convey a message about various fac­ets of love to art enthusiasts and the general public alike. Upadhyaya has been inspired by the various hues of love such as ‘warm red, romantic pink, green of mother earth and peaceful white’.

This is Upadhyaya’s 61st solo art exhibition. It allows visitors to see how love has evolved over the years and the significance of the human heart in making love a success. The artist has used various techniques such as mixed media style, and met­al/aluminum printing to craft her artworks, which are dedicated ‘to all the mothers and daughters’ of the world who have experienced love and pain in all forms. The exhibi­tion is about the continuation of her journey as a woman artist, the cel­ebration of the International Wom­en's Month as well as the power of mother earth.

“Generations of women have often been shackled by male dom­inance and a patriarchal society, wherein women’s roles are given little importance. It’s high time we realized the variety of ways women have showered love upon men, with unending loyalty and trust,” says Upadhyaya. “In love there is always pain. Love and pain share a unique, ubiquitous and great relationship.”

Upadhyaya says women and wom­anhood have always been an inspi­ration for her. Her artworks in this exhibition are about the purity of love and love in the age of social media. She has also made a compar­ison between the various roles wom­en play as someone’s girlfriend, wife, mother, daughter, grandmother and so on. Upadhyaya’s art especially highlights the power of love, vari­ous aspects of love, womanhood, patience and sacrifice women make for their family.

The artworks showcased in the exhibition have been given various titles, such as welcome time, time wheel, sound of love, heart (series), flying time with love, in one, love triangle, love in the air (series), kumara, love and pain (series), the kiss, shadow of love, love time (series), around the stupa, cross culture, etc.

The price of the artworks range from Rs 25,000 to Rs 800,000. And 10 percent of the proceeds from the sales will go to the projects run by Shivata Love Foundation Nepal, an NGO.

“Love provides a special linkage between our hearts and minds, transcending the physical limita­tions of our bodies. My life start­ed as a blank canvas from the moment I was brought into this beautiful world by my loving par­ents. They put their colors and shaped me into who I am today. Lat­er, my society, country and teachers molded me in even better ways. My creations are an open diary of my life, which I want to share with everyone,” says Upadhyaya.

“Mard ko Dard Nahi Hota” (‘Men don’t feel pain’) is a literal rendition of this common cliché about men. Born with a rare ‘congenial insen­sitivity’, a man literally feels no pain. The movie is about how he turns this diagnosis into his strength as he learns martial arts and hunts down muggers. It’s an intriguing concept, and yet you may be disappointed if you go with high expectations. The film starts with Surya (Abhi­manyu Dassani) in his full maroon tracksuit ready to fight a bunch of goons. As they approach him, he has flashbacks of his entire life: how he learned to handle his ‘gift’ of feeling no pain, how he was bullied for it throughout his school life, how he then found his love Supri (Radhika Madan) who was always ready to fight bullies for him, how he grew up with a strict father and an eccentric grandfather, and how, amid all this, he learnt martial arts by watching scratchy VHS tapes.

It is while watching films in his childhood that he comes across ‘Master Mani’, his Karate Guru, and later across Jimmy, Mani’s evil twin and his nemesis. The whole movie is a comic-book style action-comedy filled with flashbacks.

Even though the plot could have been better, most characters do justice to the storyline. Dassani, who debuts in Bollywood with this film, portrays Surya well. His comic timing is good and his char­acter is a brilliant portrayal of how it is like growing up with two very different guardians.

 Who should watch it?

If you like action films, this one is packed with interesting, well-directed fight sequences. But keep your hopes low.

Radhika looks comfortable in her role as Supri, especially in action sequences, with her hair flying and legs kicking. Some of the best parts of the movie are when Supri and Surya are small, the actors emoting their child-like innocence near perfectly.

Radhika however falters in emo­tional scenes, when she has to show the struggle of growing up with an abusive and alcoholic father. Her stilted dialogues are painful to watch as well.

 Writer Vasan Bala could have done so much more, with the movie dealing with such powerful themes as domestic violence, alco­holism, bullying, and toxic masculinity

Writer Vasan Bala could have done so much more, with the movie dealing with such powerful themes as domestic violence, alco­holism, bullying, and toxic mascu­linity. As it is, the movie is flat and fails to touch any of the audience’s emotional buttons.

Yes, Mard ko Dard Nahi Hota is unpredictable and the director han­dles the material he is given rather well. But, again, the plot is still too slow. When the film is over, you real­ize it did not have much to say and was exhaustingly repetitive. Some action and comedy sequences stand out but it is not a movie that will stay with you.

Movie: Mard ko Dard Nahi Hota

Genre: Action/Adventure

Cast: Abhimanyu Dassani, Radhika Madan, Gulshan Devaiya

Direction: Vasan Bala

Rating: 2.5/5

Perhaps the only person who is definitely happy with the federal government’s 11-point agreement with CK Raut’s secessionist party is Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Forget the main opposition Nepali Congress, Oli didn’t even consult senior leaders in his own party before he signed the agreement. There has thus been vociferous opposition of the ‘hush-hush’ and ‘ambiguous’ agreement, even from within the ruling Nepal Communist Party. Congress has repeatedly asked PM Oli to come clean on it, as have the two main Madhesi parties.

Even Raut seems to be in a dilemma whether to talk up the agreement. In a way, Raut wants to have his cake and eat it too. Had he not realized the futility of the quest for an independent Madhes through extra-constitutional means, he would not have signed it. But having done so, he also does not want to lose his core support base comprising Madhesi youths mesmerized by his larger-than-life per­sona and the radical solutions to Madhesi marginalization he offered over the years. As it is, these youths won’t be amused by the agreement with Oli, who was until recently projected as Mad­hes’s ‘Enemy number 1’.

To get Raut to agree to such vague terminology is a political victory for Oli

But nor does Raut want to violate the agree­ment with the govern­ment by saying some­thing incendiary. He rather seems intent on biding his time: to gauge the public pulse, weigh India’s response and explore political options. Either way, he is fighting an uphill battle. With the field of mainstream Mad­hesi politics already crowded, open politics will not be easy for Raut, whether or not he sticks to his referendum agenda on the final status of Madhes.

Many political analysts have been critical of PM Oli for what they suspect is his tacit agreement for a referendum in Madhes, which, they say, is reflected in the ambiguous second point of the 11-point accord that seems to leave open the prospect of a referendum. But then, just to get Raut to agree to such vague terminology, with no clear promises, is a political victory for Oli. It has stolen the thunder of the firebrand revolutionary that was CK Raut, and turned him into just another opportunistic politician in the Madhesi eyes.

Some Madhesi intellectuals are against the government’s agreement with Raut, which they see as kicking the Madhesi radicalism can down the road. But if Oli’s goal was to diffuse the threat of secession, however big or small, or at least to reduce its appeal as a viable option among the Madhesi youth, he has succeeded.

‘The Man from Kathmandu’, an action thriller written and directed by Pema Dhondup, follows the story of Faizal Mus­tafa (Jose Manuel), a disaffected half-American-half-Nepali half-Hin­du-half-Muslim man. He is in Kath­mandu in his quest to find out if his jihadi fighter father has joined the war in Syria. The movie opens with a Dhaka Topi-clad Mustafa in an interview room at the American Embassy in Kathmandu. A Darth Vader-ish robotic voice comes from the other side of the glass (signaling the inter­viewer) which immediately puts you off. This sets the stage for a series of disappointments to follow through­out the movie.

The movie then takes you to a beach in Los Angeles where a couple of bystanders park their vehicle behind our hero’s. When Mustafa asks them to move their car, they make racist gestures and we are presented with our first action sequence.

By Nepali standards, the action sequences are good enough and Jose Manuel can be seen making the best of his martial arts skills, knocking down goons armed with hammers and screwdrivers with his bare hands and feet.

But who is Mustafa? There is a flag of the Islamic State over his bed. He can also be seen communicating with people who supposedly know the location of his dad. While in LA, Mustafa is arrogant, and takes every comment as racist and frequent­ly lashes out at strangers. After a series of communication, Mustafa finds himself back in the country of his origin. We are then presented with our two antagonists: Panditji (Hameed Sheikh), a high-ranked Hindu priest, and Abu Miya (Gul­shan Grover), a rising politician. From this point onwards, everything goes in a downward spiral.

While walking around town, Mustafa finds Namrata (Anna Sharma) getting harassed by a local goon connected to Abu Miya. He fights off the goon, and soon finds himself in a maze of crimi­nal, social and political conspir­acy in his grandfather’s life, and himself tangled in everything from local politics to US foreign policy. The story sounds or at least gives off a great vibe, right? I thought so too.

The film looks to mesh an already complicated genre of action with an even more com­plicating mix: that of politics, romance and religion. While it does some justice to its action genre, it fails in every other aspect. The politics is all over the place, with unexplained plots and inconsequential actions resulting in monumental consequences. The Hindu religion, meanwhile, is presented as a mantra-spitting, soul-possessing endeavor.

The movie tries to unrealistical­ly link the Islamic State recruit­ment camps with Panditji. The transition is weak and so is the flow. In one scene, Namrata is oblivious about Faizal’s work and in the next scene she starts to blame him for everything. The dia­logues are sub-par and the script does not align with what is being shown. Mustafa is seen wearing a normal hoodie with a small beard when a character says he has changed a lot, perhaps hinting of him turning into a Muslim, when, in fact, Mustafa’s get-up could be compared to any beard-sporting teenager in the world.

The cinematography also needs a lot of work. Many scenes are out of focus. Other than that, the film is technically sound—color grading is dynamic and the video quality also trumps that of other Nepali films.

With a plot this complicated, the filmmakers should have done more research. It appears the movie plot was copied from the first line of Wikipedia, with no understanding of the subjects that complicated.

The Man from Kathmandu is branded as Nepal’s first interna­tional movie. With star cast from all over the world, it could have been so much better. As it is, the movie looks like a product of a bunch of good-looking cultural exchange stu­dents with expensive camera gears doing a school project.

The best thing about the movie is that it ends. It is a 1 hour 47 minute movie that is 1 hour too long 47 min­utes too boring. It is so bad it gives a good name to every other movie out there.

 Who should watch it?

No one

 By Nepali standards, the action sequences are good enough and Jose Manuel can be seen making the best of his martial arts skills

Movie: The man from Kathmandu

Genre: Action/Drama

Cast: Gulshan Grover, Hameed Sheikh, Jose Manuel, Karma Shakya

Direction: Pema Dhondup

Rating: 1/5

‘The Runaways’, Fatima Bhutto’s second novel, tackles a tricky topic: how poverty and alienation can lead to extremism. Anita Rose, Sunny, and Monty, who make up the three runaways, come from very different backgrounds but have one thing is common: They are all unhappy with their lives and are looking for something better. It is this search and a promise of change that lead them to adopt radicalism and they end up at a jihadi training camp in Mosul, Iraq. 

But we meet the three title characters much before that happens. Anita  Rose lives in Karachi with her mother and brother in a small cement room. Monty, the son of one of Karachi’s  wealthiest man, is in love with Lay- la and is ready to do anything for  her, and Sunny, a motherless Paki- stani-origin Briton from Portsmouth,  is desperate to realize his father’s dream, i.e. a life filled with security and luxury. Bhutto writes them each their own stories as they make their way from different cities to Mosul.

  Bhutto seems to have given a lot of thought to her characters and their stories, besides minutely chronicling their eventual foray into radicalism. Through Monty, you get the idea that a life of comfort and privilege isn’t as interesting and glamorous as it’s made out to be. Anita Rose’s mother trying to force her to leave school  and work as a domestic helper makes you sympathize with her and almost understand the choices she makes later on. And Sunny, who seems to be confused about many things in life, makes you realize that it’s easy to go astray when you can’t make sense of the things around you.

 Though the narrative is slow and  wobbly, the novel takes off when the stories start to converge. We urge you to have patience till then because, as the niece of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, it’s her understanding of politics that makes The Runaways feel very real. Also, having grown up in exile in Syria after her father’s assassination, and studying in the UK and the US, she brilliantly navigates the world of Islamist extremism. 

 However, The Runaways isn’t just a book about terrorism and radicalization. It’s also a story of how young people end up searching for a cause in life or redemption of sorts through religious violence when they feel out of place in their society and country. The overall effect of the book is in parts both  under- and over-whelming but Bhutto’s ability to write sensitively and  convincingly is what makes The Runaways a riveting read.

Book: The Runaways

Author: Fatima Bhutto

Genre:: Fiction 

Publisher: Penguin Viking

Published: October 24, 2018

Pages: 402, Hardcover

For once Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was on the money. Referring to Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplob’-led Communist Party of Nepal (CPN), he asked, how can an outfit that sets off bombs in public places, shakes down businesses, and spreads terror be called a political party? With violence at the heart of its modus operandi, the group has behaved more like a terrorist organization than a political party. The government was thus perfectly justified in banning it. Or was it?

As the CPN never registered with the Election Commission, some argue, it cannot be banned under existing laws. In order to do so, the parliament will have to pass new laws. But that is playing with technicalities. The absence of law should not deter the government from its primary duty: protecting its citizens at all times, and making them feel safe and secure. It could not look on helplessly even as its citizens were being killed and openly extorted.

 The kind of communist utopia Biplob and his party have in mind is just not happening

Unlike the CPN, the outfit of CK Raut that was pressing for a separate Madhes, with violence if necessary, had not ter­rorized common people. After it gave up its seces­sionist agenda and agreed to abide by the consti­tution, the government had no problem talking to Raut, and helping him make a transition to the political mainstream. By contrast, while Biplob says he is not averse to talking with the government, he has continued with his violent activities, even after the government released his spokesperson as a goodwill gesture. In fact, his party of late has reportedly been busy raising a militia.

Biplob and his ilk do not seem to realize that even though they may still enjoy support in some enclaves of western Nepal, their incipient rebellion is unlikely to get broader approval. After the bloody Maoist insurgency that claimed 17,000 lives, Nepalis have no appetite for more vio­lence. Not just that. The two police forces and the army, bat­tle-hardened during the insurgency, are far better equipped to tackle an insurrection than they were in 1996, the year the civil war started.

The kind of communist utopia Biplob and his party have in mind is just not happening. The sooner they realize the futility of their quest and give up violence, the better it is for everyone, including themselves. If not, they deserve to be treated firmly.

Amitabh Bachchan’s longevity in Bollywood as the lead actor is breathtaking. The veteran thespian, now 76, started his acting career way-way back in 1969 with ‘Saat Hindustani’. Fifty years later, he continues to mesmerize audi­ences with his unmatched screen presence and that familiar deep, resounding voice. Having always ruled the big screen, the mass success of Kaun Banega Crorepati has ensured that there will be no star like him, ever, even on the small screen. And yet his career, in both these formats, is far from over.

Anyone who has watched his latest movie, ‘Badla’, would know exactly why. Bachchan fans of late have gotten some amazing psycho­logical thrillers like ‘Wazir’ (2016) and ‘Pink’ (the same year). Badla is better still. This touch over two-hour dare-not-blink movie will hook you in right at the start, then take you down a roller-coaster murder-mys­tery storyline, before landing in a shocking dénouement. It’s as good a suspense movie as you will ever see, anywhere.

 Who should watch it?

Let us say if you don’t like a film that makes you think, and constantly rethink, your assumptions, then perhaps skip it. For everyone else, go book a ticket RIGHT NOW.

The film starts with the celebrated lawyer Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bach­chan) visiting the house of Naina Shethi (Taapsee Pannu), who has sought his services to get herself absolved of a murder charge. A wife and a mother, and an internation­ally celebrated businesswoman, Shethi has been caught red-hand­ed inside a hotel room with the dead body of her paramour Arjun Joesph (Tony Luke).

The doors and windows are locked from the inside; no one else has entered the room; Shethi’s guilt is obvious; it’s an open and shut case. Even with all the evidence stacked against her, Shethi is determined to prove her innocence and the only person capable of getting her out of the mess is Gupta, the veteran lawyer who has never lost a case he has taken up.

If you love murder-mystery, there are unlikely to be many better than Badla

The whole movie revolves around a three-hour-long lawyer-client con­versation inside Sethi’s apartment. The business tycoon recounts exact­ly what happened inside the hotel room; Gupta goads her to focus on the tiniest of details; and it’s a constant back and forth to estab­lish what happened that chilly winter night.

Nearly the entire movie compris­es flashbacks. If you think that is boring, think again. Written and directed by Sujoy Ghosh, you are guaranteed to be at the edge of your seat right through his tight-knit psy­chological thriller.

Bachchan pulls off another mas­terly performance as a ruthless interrogator; Pannu is as convinc­ing in her role as a businesswoman who does not easily trust her lawyer and yet who will literally lose every­thing if she loses this case. Amri­ta Singh convinces as a distraught mother whose son has been mur­dered, while Tanveer Ghani pulls off another commendable, if low-key, performance as her husband.

The film has no songs to break the tension, nor one extraneous scene. The psychological back and forth between Bachchan, the lawyer, and Pannu, his client, is intense, each constantly trying to outsmart the other, even as they pursue a common goal: her acquittal.

Without giving the plot away, the movie has minor flaws and the ending may not satisfy every­one. But if you love murder-mys­tery, there are unlikely to be many better than Badla, not even Hollywood vintage.

Movie: Badla

Genre: Crime/Mystery

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh

Direction: Sujoy Ghosh

Rating: 4.5/5

 Following the success of ‘Dhamaal’ (2007) and ‘Double Dhamaal’ (2011) comes ‘Total Dhamaal’. With a stellar cast and previous success of the franchise, this film however fails to meet expec­tations: for a comedy film, there are hardly any moments where you feel like laughing out loud. The plot is simple enough. Rs 500 million has been stashed away in a zoo in a town called Janakpur (no, not the one in Nepal). This leads to a mad chase for the booty among a bunch of eccentric and greedy characters. Among them are bad­ly-matched siblings, a bickering couple on the verge of a divorce, a conman, local goons, and a police commissioner. Their slapstick ride to get to the money first, complete with flying cars, falling bridges and crashing helicopters, is what the film is all about. Previous movies of the franchise were also about treasure hunts.

Who should watch it?

Fans of slapstick comedy could like, nay, even enjoy, Total Dhamaal. So might the old fans of Madhuri Dixit. Her pairing with Anil Kapoor is a nostalgia-filled walk down the memory lane.

This film packs in many inter­twined sequences within 2h10m of runtime with ease. The rath­er simple plot also makes the story easy to follow, even though there are a welter of characters. The lavish songs and dance-num­bers are also pleasing on the eye. Fans of comedy movies will get to see known faces in Bollywood like Arshad Warsi, Riteish Deshmukh, Javed Jaffrey, Sanjay Mishra and Johnny Lever, not to mention the famous Madhuri Dixit-Anil Kapoor combo who have made a comeback in this film.

But the movie could have been so much better given its great cast­ing and a famous franchise name. Excess use of badly-executed com­puter graphics and predictability of punch lines are downers too. Dialogue delivery is sloppy, leading to poor comic timing, a problem compounded by equally bad editing.

Devgn, who has appeared in many hit comedies like the ‘Golmaal’ fran­chise, is a letdown. We have also seen better camaraderie between Javed Jaffrey and Arshad Warsi. The film does not do justice to their collective talent and performances they have delivered in earlier install­ments of the film. But Deshmukh does justice to his character of a conman. Though Johnny Lever gets far less screen-time, Deshmukh’s scene with him is hilarious.

Rest of the talent like Boman Irani and Esha Gupta are lost in half-heartedly written characters and poor dialogues. We are see­ing Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit together on-screen after a long time and this is the first mainstream com­edy where they have acted togeth­er. As a quarrelsome couple, they make for a potent combo. But given their filmography of hits like ‘Ram Lakhan’, ‘Beta’ and ‘Tezaab’, these two deserved a better comeback.

The director of the film Indra Kumar has said in an interview that another film will be released under ‘Dhamaal’ franchise, to be called ‘Full-on Dhamaal’ or ‘Triple Dhamaal’. If only movies lived up to their names!.

Movie: Total Dhamaal

Director: Indra Kumar

Genre: Comedy/Action

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor, Arshad Warsi

Rating: 2.5/5