A “Kafkaesque” Nepali flick
Tragicomedy
HARI
CAST: Bipin Karki, Sunita Shrestha Thakur, Kamal Mani Nepal, Thinley Lhamo
DIRECTION: Safal KC and Pratik Gurung
4 stars ****
I’ve never used the word “Kafkaesque” to describe a Nepali feature film. But it is the only word I could find to sum up the experience of watching Safal KC and Pratik Gurung’s ‘Hari’. Just like Franz Kafka takes his mundane stories into strange and dreamy landscapes, Hari juxtaposes elements of realism and surrealism to give us a quirky and lighthearted fantasy about a man having an identity crisis. Thirty-year-old Hari (Bipin Karki) is a bachelor and a momma’s boy. His possessive and controlling mother (Sunita Thakur Shrestha) still packs him his lunch, picks what he should wear for office and makes him sit through her favorite TV serials. She’s indoctrinated the meek Hari to become a god-fearing vegetarian, the kind that considers garlic and onions unholy. At work, Hari’s tormented at the hands of his junior colleagues, mostly by the mean-spirited Akash (Kamal Mani Nepal). They make fun of him behind his back and take advantage of his submissive nature to dodge work.
Thus Hari’s life is unhurried and ordered, stretched between office and home, and between a dominating mother and disobeying colleagues. Nothing happens to him out of the ordinary. Then something almost insignificant upends Hari’s sedate life, thrusting him into a spiral of ups and downs. He finds himself doing things that he would rather not do, from being infatuated to a girl (Thinley Lhamo) to taking a stand against his office bullies.
KC and Gurung belong to the new crop of Nepali filmmakers who are daring enough to introduce nuanced cinematic style in their storytelling, to subvert established narrative norms and carve out a niche that is fresh and original. At a time when our cinema is thriving on big budgeted romantic musicals and ensemble comedies at one end and pretentious experimental misfires at the other, the Kafkaesque ‘Hari’ is in the sweet spot of the world cinema that is both accessible and inoffensive.
Chintan Raj Bhandari’s cinematography and Sajan Thapa Magar’s production design gives the film a distinctly original look. Much work has gone into the framing and lighting of the scenes to capture an overall modernistic European art house feel.
Its visually innovative sequences are glued together with Hari’s metamorphosis and ultimate explosion. And with what brilliance Bipin Karki pulls off this character! He’s the right cut for Hari, who often seems like a long lost sibling of the henpecked Phanindra of ‘Jatra’. Karki makes Hari’s struggles believable even when things become hazy and otherworldly.
A true cinephile will rejoice in KC and Gurung’s effort to create the atmosphere and aesthetics we are used to seeing and admiring in films of auteur directors like Wes Anderson, Terry Gilliam and Richard Ayoade. The two Nepali directors’ approach not only pays homage to the filmmakers they love but also displays the courage to achieve a grand visual design with limited budget, small crew and not a little determination.
In that regard ‘Hari’ is a total winner. But the film will polarize audience. The story progresses without an obvious causality of events and intentionally conceals layers of ambiguity. So viewers will not get an ending that neatly ties up everything.
I don’t know if this stylistically crafted yet off-kilter comedy will rake in profit for its makers but I’m confident that ‘Hari’ is an ideal representation of the changing face of Nepali cinema. This is a movie that will age well and wouldn’t be dismissed or undervalued because of its poor theatrical run.
Oh budget, ah budget!
This trading week, which started on May 27, has seen lots of volatility around budget speculations. Downward movement of the index had paused at 1,291 and since then it had shown erratic movements guided by optimism (upswings) followed by pessimism (downswings). This cycle continued even after the budget for fiscal year 2018/2019 was unveiled on May 29. Investors/traders are analyzing what changes can be expected in the market fundamentals after budget comes into effect on July 17. The budget came up with many positive features to directly impact the prevailing fundamentals. All in all, positive features outweighed negative ones.The budget finally ended confusions surrounding the provision of VAT levied on broker commission. The budget touched on capacity building of regulatory bodies and amending Nepal Rastra Bank Act, the Insurance Act and the Securities Act in line with the changing times. It also addressed the need for regulatory mechanisms in the hydro and other sectors. In the BFI sector, it came up with an ambitious plan to encourage every citizen to open a bank account. It also increased the deposit insurance coverage of smallholder depositors, to Rs 300,000, in order to safeguard their hard-earned money and build confidence in formal channels. If this happens, we should see additional liquidity in the banking channels.
The budget has announced health insurance of Rs 100,000 for senior citizens over 70. It also expanded health insurance coverage for the general public in all 77 districts. Currently, this provision is being implemented in 25 districts only. The budget plans to bear 75 percent of insurance premium on agriculture, livestock and fishery. Health insurance coverage of the civil servants will also be raised. All these provisions are positive for the insurance sector, both life and non-life. With one policy decision, the government has expanded the market size of the insurance sector. One will see the results in terms of growth in net profit and EPS in the coming years.
The budget has made it compulsory for the companies with one billion or more of paid-up capital to go public. Moreover, it encourages companies that have Rs 500 million of paid-up capital to go public by providing them tax breaks. Likewise, private equity, venture funds and hedge funds have been allowed into the equity market. It has plans to get Nepal sovereign credit rating to facilitate easier access to foreign investment and credit. This again will help industries as well as ease up the liquidity situation.
Raising the ceiling on capital gain tax for individuals is the negative aspect of the budget. Of course, one can always argue that the budget has raised the CGT simply by 2.5 percentage points, from 5 percent to 7.5 percent. But if one calculates the percent increment, it comes to 50 percent. This might encourage the traders to trade less often as they need more margin to ensure that they are still making money.
The positive provisions stated above are related mostly to creation of newer supplies in the equity market. But the budget is silent on how the excess supply, already available due to capital increment of the BFIs and insurance sector, is going to get absorbed. Today’s reality is that people from only a handful of districts are linked to the Nepali equity market. So long as this situation is not addressed, we will continue to see the supply overshadow the demand.
Saving face in China
If all goes well, PM KP Oli will visit China in the third week of June. As is the tradition, he will seek China’s help in building infrastructure projects and repeat the pledge that Nepal will not allow its territory to be used against China. The Chinese side will thank him for Nepal’s unwavering support to the ‘one-China’ policy and promise us a new building or highway. Upon his return to Kathmandu, PM Oli will proudly announce that Nepal will host President Xi Jinping this year and most of us will go gaga over the visit (which, in all likelihood, won’t take place). Newspapers will be filled with articles by pro-China Nepali nationalist intellectuals telling us how lucky we are to have President Xi visit us and they will advise us on proper etiquettes to welcome him. For a few days, our foreign policy/China experts will be busy analyzing various “ground breaking” bilateral agreements that neither side will be keen on implementing any time soon. And PM Oli’s visit will soon be forgotten.
But how about making the visit a memorable one? And it can be done if PM Oli visits China with a new mindset and without the customary begging bowl.
Way to make it memorable
Truth be told, PM Oli’s visit doesn’t mean much for the Chinese government. Although we cannot make the Chinese take us seriously all of a sudden, we can make at least a segment of the Chinese population talk about us—not as another third-world beggar but as a friendly neighbor with historical ties that despite being poor today was at one point thought of highly, even by the mighty Chinese emperors.
As I have written elsewhere, there’s no better venue to highlight this than the Yonghegong temple in Beijing. The main attraction of the 18th-century temple is a giant statue of Maitreya Buddha carved in Nepal. Similarly, six Nepali artists were involved in its renovation from 1744 to 1747. Since it is an important monastery, a visit or a press conference there with his Chinese counterpart would highlight Nepal’s importance in Chinese culture to the Chinese public.
Rather than touring factories or lecturing at universities/think-tanks or meeting with the self-declared know-nothing Nepal specialists of no importance whatsoever, PM Oli needs to meet the family members of the Chinese workers who lost their lives while working on various construction projects in Nepal. It’s about time we appreciated and honored their sacrifice. It’s long overdue.
Prove me wrong, please
Most importantly though, we need to accept and learn to deal with the inherent contradiction in China’s Nepal policy. It expects us to view it independent of our relations—and problems—with India. But then it views us through the Indian lens. Its Nepal policy is intricately intertwined with its India policy, as was evident from its passivity during the various political changes, and the ‘help’ rendered during the Indian economic blockade of 2015: 2.3 million liters of gasoline, 5,000 pieces of overpriced induction cookers deducted from the aid for that year and “moral support”. As of today, it wants to make its presence felt in Nepal, but not to the extent to make India uncomfortable. It is not talking about trilateral cooperation for no reason. It wants to assure India that it is ready to work with it on/in Nepal. Given our weak economy and defense, it knows it can easily use our territory against India, if and when it has to, and so it has no reason to take us seriously.
Therefore, PM Oli, it’s quite unwise to expect China to build infrastructure projects that will miraculously “end” our dependence on India. To avoid losing face (diu lian), an important concept in China, don’t make a request for projects that have far-reaching geopolitical and economic consequences, or those we can build on our own, just to establish your nationalist credentials. Because no help will be forthcoming, and it will make us appear stupid before the Chinese. Certainly, we can sign agreements linking us with the Pacific Ocean, Central Asia, East Asia and Russia and even with the moon and the space via China, but it’s not going to change anything in the present or in the future.
Just show your hosts the proud, wise and humane side of Nepalis to make this visit a success. But, given our bureaucratic submissiveness, diplomatic appeasement and intellectual poverty, I remain a pessimist. PM Oli, please prove me wrong.
Oli’s 100 daze
In a video address to the public on the occasion of the completion of the first 100 days of this government, Prime Minister KP Oli boldly proclaimed: “This government does not work for populism. We become popular by doing good work.” The paradox however is exemplified in the accomplishments, or lack thereof, of this administration. Deep down we all know this government is largely founded on populism and it’s still unclear how Oli and his government will change the dynamic.
To be clear, 100 days are not sufficient to really assess the intentions and scope of a government. But a preliminary ground assessment shows plenty of hot air with little or no substantial effort in changing the working style of the Nepali state. Still the public are constantly being fed words of hope and imminent prosperity, which may ring hollow in the face of hopelessness and frustration of the realities of everyday life. It is as though drumming the idea of prosperity into the minds of the people would be enough to magically lift the curtain and make ‘prosperity’ materialize.
Missing pieces
In his address, PM Oli outlined 16 major achievements of the government in its first 100 days. It is unheard of in any country, much less in one of the poorest and most corrupt, that 16 major feats are achieved in 100 days. But as with most things, KP Oli says these achievements too are a product of his imagination and dreams. The truth is, it is unclear where the administration is headed after its first 100 days.
The government received overwhelming public support to stamp out the transport cartel. Everyone in the government proudly talks about how Nepal’s transport syndicate has come to an end. However, we are yet to see how this government intends to manage public transport, improve its quality and ensure passenger safety. The only tangible change we see is that public transport operators are now forced to register their vehicles under the Company Act. This does not necessarily bring about changes in services. If concrete measures are not taken to actually improve services, there is no meaning in ‘ending the transport syndicate’.
Similarly, PM Oli has repeatedly made commitments to eradicate corruption. He says, “I do not indulge in corruption and do not let others indulge in it either. The days of corrupt people are over.” But again the question is: what steps has he taken to tackle corruption?
The government’s anti-corruption body remains headless. Oli seems to have no interest in appointing a head for the Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA), possibly because it is a position rife with political interests. The way the system currently functions, it is near impossible to appoint a credible figure to head the body without compromising on political interests, which this government is not ready to do. Instead, the focus has shifted to specific cases of gold smuggling and immigration fraud. Oli understands that investigating isolated incidences of smuggling or fraud could make him more popular.
Company he keeps
Early signs indicate that Oli is uninterested in strengthening the system, which has progressively decayed over the past two decades. He has not risen above party interests to build a system that works in the nation’s interest. The prime minister is the sum of the company he keeps, and being surrounded by only party cadres with mediocre professional grit means little is likely to change in the government’s working style. Party meetings continue to be held in Baluwatar and there is a reluctance to engage professionals in supporting the administration, opting instead for loyal party cadres who do not question or analyze critically. This is a practice that goes back to the beginning of the democratic era and has been a core cause behind the disarray in the governing system.
No doubt, Oli seems desperate to leave a positive mark during his premiership, but his working style is likely to prove counter-productive in realizing his dream. To deliver results, Oli must first and foremost rise above party interests and establish himself as a national leader working in the national interest.
