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Most love stories, as we know them, are full of clichés, repeated for generations to give the receptors a romantic facade. Familiar with the girl-boy enmity that turns into love? A love triangle where the bond of friendship overrides and makes room for life-altering sacrifices? A good-turns-evil or evil-turns-good character change? We’ve watched them all in cinemas, daily soaps, music videos and all kinds of consumable video materials for years.

Until when will the audience be subjected to these irrational clichés, and continue to have their intelligence challenged? Released this week, “Love Diaries” is a supposed romantic drama that in reality is nothing but a show-reel of repetitive banalities. In fact, one is forced to consider if the filmmakers first jotted down all the available clichés into their diaries, and then nonchalantly wrote a plot over them.

Love Diaries was meant to be a Valentine’s special. Directed by newcomer Saurav Chaudhary, the movie collided in its release with Bollywood veteran Imtiaz Ali’s “Love Aaj Kal,” both the films trying to capitalize on the Valentine’s Day crowd. It was courageous on the part of the distributors and producers to release the Nepali movie against Love Aaj Kal which stars the current Bollywood heartthrob Kartik Aaryan.

Unfortunately, both the movies failed to make V-Day romantic enough. There are reports of Love Aaj Kal’s weak collections, with critics already claiming the market has rejected it. We can only guess from the empty cinema halls, the dwindling number of daily shows, and social media word-of-mouth that Lovie Diaries too is a box-office dud.

It’s a story of three strangers who cross paths and then intermingle in a complicated relationship, like hundreds of similar romantic movies released across the world. Needless to say, even the characters are written dispassionately and the lack of creativity in writing (both the plot and dialogues) makes one cringe.

Nirvan Narsingh Rana (Sushil Shrestha) is a wealthy NRN, born and brought up in Canada, who is forcibly sent to Nepal by his father to curb his drinking and womanizing habits. Ram Aryal (Bishwojit Rimal) is a migrant worker who’s deported from England and has a family loan to settle in his hometown of Chitwan. Sanjana Malla (Rubeena Thapa) is a Kathmandu-girl who wants to be an interior designer against the will of her father.

A hotel in Chitwan—owned by Nirvan’s father, where Ram works as Nirvan’s assistant and Sanjana as the interior designer—becomes the plot’s epicenter. What then transpires between them has been played onscreen for years, only presented rather absurdly in this one. The story of how they get to Chitwan—don’t even ask. The screenplay offers more jerks than a Ratnapark-Jorpati microbus trying to outrun its competitor.

The writing is not the only disappointment in the movie. There’s a feeling of immatureness, negligence and sloppiness surrounding the whole production. The night scenes suffer from terrible lighting while continuity is a forgotten art for the filmmakers.

Debutant Bishwojit is the biggest let-down. His presence onscreen makes one question the filmmakers’ intent. With zero acting skills, feeble dialogue delivery and the most unassertive gait possible, Bishwojit proves to be a disastrous choice for the lead, not that the filmmakers seem to care much about other aspects of the movie.

Another debutant, Rubeena, kind of becomes a causality amid all this mess. But she definitely draws attention with her acting as well as dancing skills. She’s a promising performer who hopefully makes better choices in the future.

Who should watch it?

Well, we met a group of a dozen-odd young men who’d come to the theater just for Sushil Shrestha. Performance-wise, the actor is just repeating his character from “Hostel Returns” (2016) for which he earned many young fans. If you’re not among his big fans, spare the ticket-money for another film.

Rating: 1 star

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Run time: 2hrs 5min

Director: Saurav Chaudhary

Cast: Sushil Shrestha, Rubeena Thapa, Bishwojit Rimal

Renault Nepal has launched the new Triber in the Nepali market at a starting price of Rs 28.20 lakhs. But the sub-4 meter seven-seater Triber will only be available in a five-seater configuration in the Nepali market. The compact multi-purpose vehicle will come in three trims: RXE (Rs 28.20 Lakhs), RXL (Rs 31.60 Lakhs), and RXZ (Rs 33.99 Lakhs), with over 20 features as standard across all trims.
The Triber gets a sporty look up front with the Renault logo highlighted on the triple edge chrome front grille, which in turn extends to the projector headlamps. The LED DRLs are circled in chrome and black headlamp masks. At the rear, the vehicle gets eagle beak split tail lamps that onto the outside of the wings and taper to point to the center of the tailgate. Other features include front and rear SUV skid plates, roof bars, and black plastic wheel arch protections.
The interior is a modern-day affair with two-tone colors, from deep black for the upper part of the dashboard to a beige tone for the lower part and door trims. It gets a host of features like an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity, Auto climate control, tilt steering adjust, seat height adjust, MID display, four-door power windows, powered ORVMs, rear defogger, start/stop button and hands-free card, among others. In addition to the lower glove compartment, which is also cooled, there is an upper glove compartment with a capacity of more than four liters. The Triber offers the best level of interior storage compartments of
up to 31 liters.
The Triber comes equipped with a 1.0-liter 3-cylinder petrol engine which generates 71 Bhp with 96 Nm torque and is paired with a five-speed manual transmission. The Triber has a length of 3,990 mm, and the width and height are 1,739 mm and 1643 mm, respectively. The wheelbase is 2,636 mm, while the ground clearance is 182 mm. Similarly, the vehicle boasts of a massive 625-litre bootspace. The vehicle also comes with functional roof rails with a 50 kg load-
carrying capacity.
Safety features on the Triber include ABS with EBD, 3-point belts in all rows, four airbags (driver, passenger, and front sides), rear parking sensors and reverse camera. The Triber is the outcome of a joint project between Renault teams in India and France and is based on the modified version of Renault’s CMF-A+ platform. It’s available in five color options: Fiery Red, Ice Cool White, Moonlight Silver, Electric Blue, and Metal Mustard.
Triber RxE comes with dual front airbags, ABS with EBD, rear parking sensors, projector headlights, body color bumpers, wheel center cap, dual-tone dashboard, digital instrument cluster, manual AC, front power windows, second row of seats with slide, recline, fold and tumble functions, powered boot opening, and a 12V charging socket
in the front.
Triber RxL has chrome-finished front grille, wheel covers for the 14-inch steel wheels, and blacked-out B- and C-pillars, tilt-adjustable steering, and manual adjust for wing mirrors, remote central locking, 2-DIN audio system with Bluetooth and USB, two front speakers, and cooled storage in central console.
Triber RxZ features four airbags, rear camera, and 14-inch alloy wheels, LED DRLs, keyless entry, push-button start/stop, two front tweeters, rear defogger and wiper O

When the first-look poster of “Selfie King” was released a few months ago, it was widely criticized and trolled on social media for its similarities with the Hollywood movie “Joker”. But having watched both, I can confidently say there is no similarity of any sort. Joaquin Phoenix’s “Joker” was a psychological thriller that had the lead character—a failed comedian—descend into insanity and nihilism. Bipin Karki’s “Selfie King” is rather about a successful comedian who fails to manage his life. The big difference is, while Phoenix was able to put in an Oscar-winning performance, Karki has become a victim of bad writing, poor direction, and lethargic screenplay, a casualty of his own reputation as it were.

“Selfie King” disguises itself as a compelling drama depicting the problematic life of a popular performer, but the movie turns out to be an overly ambitious project. It is a cinematic blunder that botches Karki’s reputation as an ace method actor, because there’s no method to this madness. For an actor who has banked more on his acting skills than on his looks and publicity, Karki’s credibility from roles like “Bindu” in Chhadke (2013), “Bhasme Don” in Pashupati Prasad (2016), “Phanindra Timsina” in Jatra (2016) and even the lesser known “Goldie” in Naakaa (2017) are questioned as he utterly underwhelms as the “Selfie King.”

Debutant director Bishal Sapkota relies too much on Karki’s character and gives him so much screen time that all other characters pale into insignificance. And Karki, despite his proven talent, is unable to connect with the audience in and as “Selfie King.” He manages to emulate the intensity of Phoenix’s Joker at times, but rare are the occurrences. The result is an excruciatingly slow movie with no palpable conflicts and resolutions, and no grit to hold the story together. And, would you believe it: despite being centered on a comedian, the movie doesn’t have a single laughter-inducing scene?

The protagonist Gopal Dahal goes by the stage name Selfie King, for no convincing reason as it’s evident from some scenes that he’s uncomfortable taking selfies. His mother is his biggest fan but his father, not so much. But when his father has a brain stroke and is hospitalized for surgery, the story takes a new turn.

Selfie King then has to undertake two journeys. One, travelling to the remote Salleri in Solukhumbu district for a stage show. The other, his journey to find himself amid self-doubt, guilty recollections and fear of fading out. Unfortunately, the parallels are far from perfect and the audience soon tires of the forced efforts.

Written by the director himself, the film’s screenplay is extremely loose and the story unconvincing. Selfie King appears to be a well-recognized comedian since people instantly recognize him. Then the question comes, why is he not making much money despite the huge popularity? Only the writers know.

There’s no evidence that his popularity is waning either. There are tangential hints at times, but not enough to justify his downfall. The drinking and extramarital affairs are his vices, but again, not enough to spiral him into the state he is in. Without backstories to establish his situation, the character of Selfie King is so poorly written that even an actor of Karki’s caliber cannot get the audience to empathize with him, including in potentially the most poignant scenes.

The film does tries to portray the lives of performing artists whose work is not taken seriously by even their own families. Lack of privacy, stress of having to keep a presentable personality in public inner suffering, fear of waning popularity, cost of stardom and insecurities from younger prodigies—the film tries to paint them all. But the painting has by this time become so abstract that the audience is unable to understand either its form or features.

Who should watch it?

This is one of those painful times we cannot recommend even a highly-anticipated Nepali film. But we have to bite the bullet on this one for our revered readers and advise them to stay away. Not worth your time.

Rating: 1 star 

Genre: Drama

Director :  Bishal Sapkota

Cast :  Bipin Karki, Laxmi Bardewa, Abhay Baral

Run time: 1hr 50mins

Once upon a time, my favor­ite fairytale was Cinderella. A rags to riches story with a fairy godmother and a handsome prince thrown in the mix. It was hopeful, happy, and magical.Or so I thought.

Years later, I realized how prob­lematic the story is or all fairytales are. Cinderella, Snow White, Rapun­zel, Sleeping Beauty—they are all the same: There is a perfect girl—with flawless skin and glossy hair—and she has many problems in life. She is unwanted and often mistreated, and she always pines for a prince. Then comes a dashing ‘Prince Charming’ who puts an end to her misery by fighting against the ‘villains’ and becomes her ‘hero’.

The girls never become their own heroes.

These stories are still what most of us are reading to and telling our children because they are popular. And by doing so we are covertly perpetuating the idea that girls are the weaker sex and thus fueling misogyny.

Stories can be powerful resources for confidence building and our fairytales—despite its goodness-al­ways-prevails message—do nothing in that regard.

I feel it’s time to move away from Brothers Grimm and Hans Chris­tian Andersen so that our daughters don’t grow up with a warped idea of how we are defined by our gen­der. It helps that there are so many new and exciting takes on classic fairytales now. ‘Fierce Fairytales’ by Nikita Gill is one of my favorites. Here, the once helpless heroines are empowered and don’t sit around waiting and wishing for a prince. The poems and stories also deal with issues of love, feminism, abuse, and mental illness.

But retellings aside, there is a book that we should all be reading to our children. ‘Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls’ by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo is an illustrat­ed collection with stories of 100 inspirational females. Written in a fairytale format with the classic opening line ‘Once upon a time’, these are real stories of phenome­nal woman like Marie Curie, Coco Chanel, Michelle Obama, Malala Yousafzai, and Serena Williams, among many others.

Growing up, I felt there was a severe lack of female role models to look up to—in the worlds of sci­ence, politics, history, art, sports, etc. But it wasn’t because there weren’t remarkable women out there but because their stories nev­er came to the forefront, always being overshadowed by the tri­umphs of men. Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls can be an empow­ering read for all girls (and wom­en too!) as the stories convey an important message: Though dam­sels might sometimes be in distress, they are capable of finding their own way out.