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I’ve said it a few before, and I’ll repeat: if you love watching South Indian films, you should get out of the YouTube bubble and get subscriptions to a couple of OTT platforms. Watching Hindi dubbed versions of Tamil or Telugu films is like eating momo with mayonnaise and barbecue sauce—you just don’t get the authentic flavor. And Amazon Prime—which has plenty of South India movies in all regional languages—is not very expensive to get either.

Anyways, this week I watched “Mahaan” (transl. “The Great Man”), a Tamil-language action thriller starring Vikram. Most of you may remember Vikram from the 2015 thriller “I”, which was one of the first movies to break out among the Nepali audience and get them hooked to South Indian cinema. It’s popularity, followed by back-to-back action movies from Vikram, earned him a name in Nepal.

Going back to the movie, Mahaan is about Gandhi Mahaan (Vikram), the prodigal son in a family of freedom fighters and devout Gandhians. Starting in flashbacks, the film tells of how Gandhi Mahaan as a teenager in 1968 brought disgrace to his family by drinking and playing cards with the local boys. Fast-forward to 1996 and Gandhi is a schoolteacher living a clean life with his wife Nachi (Simra) and son Dada (Druv Vikram)—free from the ‘sins’ of gambling and drinking.

Then, on his 40th birthday, Gandhi meets a beggar who tells him how boring and mundane his life so far has been and that only five percent of people in the world get to live the way they want to. Influenced by the beggar’s words, Gandhi goes on a drinking spree and ends up at a gambling den owned by Sathyavan (Bobby Simha), his childhood friend and also the father of his former student Rocky (Sanath).

With his mathematical skills, Gandhi makes a killing at the den and ends up partying all night with Sathyavan and Rocky. But that fateful night changes everything for him and his family and sends Gandhi into the criminal world, the repercussions of which will hit him years later.

Told over a span of almost 50 years, Mahaan’s storyline has enough twists to turn it into a 10-episode series. From Gandhi’s childhood to his old age, the film shows him in different lights under different circumstances, making him a hero, an anti-hero and a villain. The screenplay moves fast, but still strongly connects the multitudes of dots in the film’s story, and the cinematography is typical South India—giving the audience some never-seen-before POVs. Karthik Subbaraj’s writing and direction are the film’s strongest aspects.

To pull off a movie with such strong writing and direction, the actors must be onboard with the production team. In this case, Vikram again proves why he is such a big name in South Indian cinema. From playing a 40-year-old school-teacher and a family man to transitioning into a criminal kingpin, Vikram never leaves his character and justifies Gandhi’s every move.

Bobby Simha—who’s not exactly been given a superstar status but never fails to impress—as Sathyavan, matches Vikram’s prowess in the movie as his close friend and partner in crime. Much younger than Vikram in real life, Simha comes to the screen with a high level of maturity to match his senior co-star’s intense presence. Together, the duo takes away much attention from other characters.

Who should watch it?

Mahaan is a commercial movie. If you’re not well acquainted with mainstream South Indian cinema, you may not connect with it or with this review. The praises heaped on the story, screenplay, acting and direction are all based on the fact that this movie was made with one and only one purpose—to entertain. And entertain it will all those who have enjoyed Tamil blockbusters before.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Genre: Action thriller

Actors: Vikram, Bobby Simha, Simran Bagga

Director: Karthik Subbaraj

Run time: 2hrs 43mins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4ORfM-q35Y

Border expert Buddhi Narayan Shrestha's book 'International Boundaries of Nepal' has been translated and published in eight languages.

The english script book was published by Lambert Academic Publishing, Latvia, Europe in 2019. Now the book is translated into eight languages (Russian, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish) and published recently. Foreword of the book is written by Professor Martin Pratt, Former Director of International Boundaries Research Unit (IBRU), University of Durham, UK.

Various items such as international boundary principles, stages of boundary making, reasons of boundary aggression, border disputed countries of the world, ways and means to resolve the issues, countries of the world who fought on the border issues, border diplomacy and other theoretical deliberations have been elaborated in the book.

This book could be read online and it has internationalized the Lipulek-Kalapani-Limpiyadhura border encroachment. According to the book, dialogue is the first and foremost way and means to resolve the Kalapani issue with India.

The book also discussed the Sagarmatha issue that was negotiated with China and its new height was announced jointly. Practical issues such as debate on the border marker # 57 with China, BRI of China and corridor of Nepal have also been elaborated.

Activities of the International Boundaries Research Unit (IBRU) UK, Association for Borderland Studies of America, Borderland Research Networks of Africa & Asia, and Denmark based International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) have been described.

International border diplomacy, America-North Korea two-minute diplomacy, Trump ignored Nepal border on the world map, unquiet border between India and Pakistan, message of the Bangladesh-India border agreement has also been described.

With all these items, the book is useful for the border researchers and to prescribe as the basic course book on the boundaries for the college and universities. Due to the weight of the book, the European edition has been published in eight languages. This book was published a month ago by Nirala Series, New Delhi, as the South Asian edition.

Tanka Bahadur Vishwokarma is something of a raconteur. The 28-year-old, who runs Pyuthan Dai Ko Tapari Mo:Mo in Dhobighat, Lalitpur, has many stories and anecdotes to tell. For his regular customers, his tales are an indispensable aside to the delicious momos he serves from his tiny stall.

He is a gregarious, self-assured man. And yes, he is also a karate master, who has won several medals in domestic and international tournaments. His eyes light up when the topic of his martial arts career is brought up.

Vishwokarma, who hails from Hansapur, Pyuthan, says he dreamt of becoming a fighter all his life.

“I was a feisty little boy who got into many fights,” he says. “The only thing that piqued my interest at the time was action films.”

When he was just 15, he left his home for Delhi, India, to forge a professional fighter’s life. In Delhi, he found a hotel job and signed up for a local karate class.

“I used to work all day and take karate lessons in the mornings and evenings,” he says.

Vishwokarma stayed in Delhi for three years and returned home as a karate black-belt. After coming back, he took part in a local tournament, where he won a silver medal, which he says was a great confidence-booster.    

 “I had been training hard for years, but my actual launch pad was that tournament,” he says.

After the tournament, he went on to compete in the 2013 Delhi State Karate Championship, where he won a gold medal. He also bagged gold at the third Shito-ryu Kosho Kai Karate Championship, also held in Delhi.    

Vishwokarma’s exploits in martial arts made him something of a local celebrity in his hometown. He continued to train along with other karatekas under karate master Rajendra Ojha and to compete in tournaments.

In 2016, he and his fellow team members participated in the ISKU International Karate Cup in Gujarat, which had participants from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mali, Algeria and Canada. Once again, Vishwokarma proved his mettle as an accomplished fighter, becoming the only Nepali player to win gold in the men’s kumite 84kg category.

At around the same time, Vishwokarma started working as a karate instructor in his hometown.

“I started with 12 students and soon the number rose to 40,” he says. “I was doing well. Even the local government had noticed my work and offered me a job as a karate teacher in local schools.” 

Vishwokarma’s students say he was a doting yet strict teacher. “He could really push you to bring out your best. Giving up was never an option when training under him,” says Sanjay Samat of Darban, Pyuthan. Samat learned karate under Vishwokarma for two years.

Many of Vishwokarma’s students have competed in several domestic and international tournaments and won gold medals.

Sushant Gain says Vishwokarma taught him that karate was a discipline of self-defense not violence.

“He was patient with his students. Always smiling, never angry,” Gain says. “I have learned a lot from him—not just karate, but also the importance of patience and non-violence—and to lead a happy and contented life.”

Vishwokarma appears content even though he is no longer pursuing his martial arts dreams. He says the life he had imagined for himself was upended by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I had no way to earn a living as the classes were closed, so I came to Kathmandu in hopes of finding a job,” he says.

Outside of teaching karate, the only job experience he had was when he worked in India as a little boy. So he heeded the suggestion of his friends and family members and jumped into the momo business. 

“It’s been nine months since I opened this shop. It’s hard work but things are looking up,” he says with his characteristic optimism. “I had never imagined that one day I would be selling momos, but here I am.”

Vishwokarma has not given up on his dream though. He still wants to do something in the field of martial arts and recently started teaching karate at a school.

“I think I have got my second wind. One day I plan to open my own karate class in Kathmandu,” he says.

Absolutely. He’s still got the fight—and age—to pursue all his dreams.

I read ‘They Never Learn’ by Layne Fargo on Kindle after fruitlessly waiting to get my hands on a physical copy for months. I couldn’t wait anymore. The anticipation was too much. And the book lived up to the hype. It’s a solid story, one you find yourself rushing through (you want to know what happens) and simultaneously slowing down (you want the story to never end). Centered on a university professor who kills ‘bad’ men, They Never Learn, unlike most other suspense novels, is a thriller that poses a moral dilemma. The social drama aspect of it plays out beautifully and you struggle to decide what morality means in an increasingly hostile world.

Scarlett Clark is an English professor at Gorman University. She is also a serial killer. Scarlett only targets those who she believes “deserve to be murdered”, mostly men who have a reputation of harassing women or haven’t been punished for their crimes. She studies her victims in advance, plots elaborate plans, and stages the perfect deaths. So much so that, though she has been killing since college, she has never been caught.

In Scarlett’s mind, she’s doing the world a favor by getting rid of these abhorrent personalities. But then she gets a little too personal and murders someone she has a grudge against. At the same time, the university puts together a task force to look into all the mysterious deaths on campus. Dr. Mina Pierce who heads the committee sort of figures out that many of the suicides and accidental deaths are actually murders and carried out by the same person. (Curiously, Mina is the ex-wife of Scarlett’s most recent kill.)

There’s also a parallel narrative of a student, Carly Schiller, who comes to Gorman after escaping a suffocating and abusive household. All she wants is to be invisible and survive college. Then she gets to know her roommate, Ashley Hadley, and the two become close. When Ashley is assaulted at a party, Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay.

The dual stories of Scarlett and Carly play out in alternating chapters, and the similarities between them make it starkly clear that deep-rooted misogyny is the harbinger of violence against women. They Never Learn isn’t bone-chilling. But it’s intense. The feminist rage is palpable. And at times, even if you don’t believe in the idea of revenge, it feels strangely cathartic.

3.5 stars

Fiction

They Never Learn

Layne Fargo

Published: 2020

Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press

Pages: 352, Hardcover