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 ‘Hellboy’ is an action thriller based on the graphic nov­els of Mike Mignola and the movie franchise of the same name. Directed by Neil Marshall, the 2019 reboot revolves around the lead protagonist, Hellboy, who finds himself caught between the super­natural and human worlds.

After watching an hour of ‘Game of Thrones’ gore in the morning, I had assumed Hellboy would make for a fresh change of mood. Turns out, I had completely missed the ‘R’ rating on the movie and the fact that the director also has some Game of Thrones work under his belt. So, boy, was I in for a surprise!

The movie starts with a husky male voice narrating the plot back­ground, with the camera slowly moving towards the top of a hill. The color isolation in the first scene highlighting the red in Nimue (Milla Jovovich), a sorceress, with a pitch dark background, is simply fantas­tic. The first scene is really about how King Arthur has the body of Nimue dismembered and scattered in little chests.

Then you’re taken to the pres­ent, in Colorado, where we get the first look at Hellboy (David Har­bour) clad in a maroon hoodie with rock music blaring from his ear­buds; we’re taken to a boxing match. And did I tell you our boy is a product of hell? Given his devil­ish look, he naturally evokes the crowd’s xenophobia. This scene caught my eye for its fantastic use of translation subtitles: When the characters speak in Spanish, a bright yellow stroke text is displayed in a very natural way.

Our friendly beast has a great sense of humor. Mid-fight, trying to calm his best friend down, he says “remember the old times, you played that acoustic crap, while I played real music?”

Shortly after we are treated to our first gore scene. A beast, seek­ing revenge on Hellboy, goes on a quest to resurrect Nimue. In this scene, he breaks into a church and kills the priests merciless­ly. At times, the thriller feels like a horror movie. When the beast takes out and eats the brain of a priest in order to chant the holy verse I knew how mistaken I was about the movie’s nature.

When the beast brings back the sorceress to life the trio of Hellboy, Alice (Sasha Lane) and Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim) go on an adventure to hunt down the sorceress, with the support of the protagonist’s father Trevor (Ian McShame). Kim, in his character of a martial Jap­anese-American, gives a wonder performance too.

The movie also has a fair share of ‘fourth wall breaking’, not a new thing since the advent of Deadpool, but Hellboy has it even in serious scenes. Hesitant to kill, Hellboy keeps asking Alice why he should really kill the sorceress. The answer: “To make sure she doesn’t come back for the sequel”. There’s also a fair share of pop culture reference here and there with an old wizard being referred to as Gandalf.

It is a spectacular movie in the first half. Really. It had me with the dark visuals, the gore, the funky rock music, and a clever plot. The second half felt underwhelming though. In this half, character development was poor, the emotional scenes failed to con­nect with the audience, and the movie just felt bland. I feel that is not the fault of the comic characters but the director.

Movie: Hellboy

Genre: Fantasy/Action

Cast: David Harbour, Milla Jo­vovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim

Direction: Neil Marshall

Rating: 3/5

 ‘Shazam!’ is not just a super­hero movie, but a cre­ative blend of effortless humor, family drama and sus­pense, all packed into a compact action film. Based on DC Comics character of the same name, this movie is the seventh installment of the DC Extended Universe.x

In the wake of such successes like ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Aqua­man’, expectations from DC movies have risen and this film doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it rais­es the bar higher for upcoming DC films.

The movie revolves around the 14-year-old foster kid Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who can turn into a superhero, Shazam (Zachary Levi), by shouting ‘Shazam!’

In his life before his super­stardom, this pure-of-heart boy is desperately searching for his birth mother from whom he had been accidentally separated during childhood. Away from his parents, he finds real home with a foster family.

By and by, Billy gets cho­sen as ‘the one’ by an old wiz­ard who is keen to transfer all his superpowers on to a decent human being.

The wizard wants to give his powers to Billy so that the young man can fight the super-villain Dr Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), the embodiment of the seven deadly sins.

In the first half, Billy as Shaz­am is shown trying to discover his superpowers—Can he fly? Can he produce electricity with his bare hands?—which gives us some hilarious moments.

The second half is more action-oriented as Shaz­am finds himself locked in a pitched battle against the evil Dr Sivana.

The casting does justice to a strong script. Levi is a perfect fit for Shazam, as he ably channels the innocence of the 14-year-old Billy into a muscular adult body with multiple superpowers. Levi is hilarious, heartwarming and, above all, believable as an ‘adult child’.

The brilliant use of VFX in this 3D film completely transports you into the DC Universe

The character development of Billy, and Levi’s comic chem­istry with his ‘sidekick’ foster brother Freddie (Zack Dylan Grazer) are also interesting. Freddie, a sickly boy in a crutch, helps keep Shazam grounded, reminding him that “with great power comes great responsi­bility”. Mark Strong as Dr Siva­na is scary as hell, and the per­fect embodiment of a comic super-villain.

The brilliant use of VFX in this 3D film completely transports you into the DC Universe. A mas­ter of the horror genre, Director David Sandberg (‘Lights out’, ‘Annabelle: Creation’) effortlessly blends some creepy stuff—in the monstrous depictions of the sev­en deadly sins, for instance—into this superhero film as well, and as such will hook lovers of horror as well.

Besides this, with a sunny couple fostering five homeless children of diverse backgrounds, ‘Shazam’ offers a poignant picture of model foster families.

A complete package of action and comedy, this mov­ie is good enough to win many new fans, appealing even to those not normally into superhero genre.

 Who should watch it?

DC Comic fans will love it. Even those not into superheroes and fantasy should watch. You are sure to like big chunks of it, if not the whole thing. Go get Shazammed!

Movie: Shazam

Genre:  Fantasy/ Science Fiction

Cast: Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Zack Dylan Grazer

Direction: David Sandberg

Rating: 4/5

‘Saili’ is a rom-com dealing with the social repercus­sions of foreign migration in rural Nepal. Based in a beautiful village in Kaski, director Ram Babu Gurung (‘Kabaddi’, ‘Kabaddi Kabaddi’, ‘Purano Dunga’) has once again aced a rural theme. Saili is exactly what cinema should be: a piece of art.

It is a feminist movie while not screaming of forced “Naari Shakti”, basically a tale of a Muna who falls in love with the wrong Madan.

The movie opens with two men and a woman inside what appears to be a ‘bhatti’. They are both hus­bands to women who are away on foreign employment. They go on a misogynistic rant about the soul-crushing reality of having to live at their wife’s expense, when the Sauni promptly reminds them who pays for their alcoholic life. The scene then contrasts to a face of a young woman navigating Tribhuvan Airport, cautious in her steps and innocent in her emotions.

And with a quick scene transition we travel back. The story starts with Saili (Menuka Pradhan) and Suni­ta (Kenipa Singh) sitting beside a river when Saili loses her slipper to a wave. Following the route of the slipper, Saili meets Pitambar (Gaurav Pahari) and his friend Bir­man (Dayahang Rai), who are both bathing downstream. Pite is instant­ly smitten by Saili. When asked for the slipper, Pite refuses, upsetting the women who then head home.

The male duo are then on a quest to woo the two women and head to Saili’s home on the pretext of giving back her slipper. After a rather awkward conversation with Saili’s father, who happens to be a lender to his own father, Pite plants a love letter inside one of Saili’s shoes. He writes of his feelings and proposes a date over ‘Jhol Momo’. Saili, with a knack for romance nov­els, is instantly wooed. For his part, Dayahang Rai or Bire, with his typi­cal ‘bango humor’, keeps the tone of the movie light.

And there are plenty of oth­er light moments. In one notable scene, Sunita can be seen taunt­ing Saili that she might take away her lover because “Ajkal ko Madan lai Muna haina Munni chaincha” (No, we won’t even try to translate that). The entire movie hall thunders with laughter.

The romance borrows elements from Nepali rural society—indirect approaches to romance, reluctance to public display of affection, inabil­ity to express love with a straight face. The Pite-Saili affair progress­es steadily until Saili’s father gets a wind of it. He senses a ploy by Pite to null out his father’s debt by marrying his daughter. Time and again, Pite is reminded to pay off his father’s debt, and even offered a job oversees by an ex-wardman.

By and by, Saili’s father fixes her marriage with someone else. Pite’s father in turn suggests he elope with Saili. “Everything is fair in love”, his father says as the audi­ence go wild again. On a rainy eve­ning, Pite arrives at Saili’s, with Bire in tow, to rescue his princess. The three run away.

To pay off his father’s outstand­ing debts, Pite then decides to go abroad. But as luck would have it, Pite is denied a passport because of the unrealistically similar looks between Pite and his father.

After the middleman (the ex-ward­man) proposes Saili go abroad to work instead of Pite, the movie takes a melodramatic turn and the misogyny of the lead male character comes in full display. The propo­sition hurts his male ego and he is mad with anger. Nonetheless, in having to make this tough decision, Saili can be seen as representing all Nepali women working abroad to feed their family back home.

The filmmakers could have done more justice to the character of Saili by giving her more screen time and delving more into her strug­gles abroad. And the only problem with storytelling is towards the end, when the filmmakers try to white­wash Pite’s previous actions.

The musical score is fantastic at the start. But as the movie is filled with many renditions of the Saili song, it feels super-repetitive and loses its charm. There are also some noticeable faults in sound mixing. Of course these are little things on the grander scale. But when you’re watching a movie this good, you’re only left with bread­crumbs of criticism.

Who should watch it?

Fans of Ram Babu Gurung’s rural storytelling. You don’t need to watch ‘Saili’ just to support the Nepali film industry. First, it’s a good movie, and only then a Nepali one.

Movie: Saili

Genre: Romance/Comedy

Cast: Gaurav Pahari, Menuka Pradhan, Daya Hang Rai, Kenipa Singh

Direction: Ram Babu Gurung

Rating: 4/5

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