Review: Movie Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi

The Nepali movie industry finally gets out of its ‘financial emergency’, thanks to director Ram Babu Gurung’s “Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi”—which has crossed Rs 50 million in collections at the time this report is being written, and the amount is expected to double shortly.

“Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi” is the third installment of a film series based on the life and times of Bir Kaji (Dayahang Rai), a village simpleton in Mustang who knows how to love but is never loved back. Bir Kaji is besotted with his cousin Maiya and wants to marry her, but she has other plans. He fails to woo her over tough competition from other men and remains a bachelor without any interest in marrying anyone besides Maiya. The tragedy starts for Bir Kaji from the very first instalment of ‘Kabaddi’ (2013), and is the base of the latest installment in the series as well.

From the very first ‘Kabaddi’ to ‘Kabaddi Kabaddi’ (2015) and now to ‘Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi’, there is nothing drastically new in the plot, besides Bir Kaji trying to find a bride and Birkhe (Bijay Baral), a longtime friend and henchman, going to great extent to help him.

In KKK, our ageing hero Bir Kaji has only gotten more arrogant and bitter with time. Love is no more on his agenda but he still doesn’t seem to have a good aim in life. He just wants to live out the rest of his life with Maiya’s memories. But then a much younger cousin Kashi (Upasna Singh Thakuri) enters the scene, raising the hope for the desolate heart of Bir Kaji. As fate would have it, and as in other Kabaddi movies, love is not his cup of chhyang. He has fierce competition here too and a dangerously strict girl’s mother to win over.

Again, the movie’s strength is not its story or plot. KKK is based in a semi-rural Mustang village and then travels to Ghandruk at some point. Its biggest asset is rather how organically filmmakers are able to place characters in their natural settings. It is a proven forte of director Gurung to showcase the Gandaki region as one of the most beautiful, habitable, and hospitable places in Nepal.

When most Nepali films choose the hills and mountains of the country as just another ‘location’, the setting of this film in the hills makes it unique as it takes us into the villages of the Gandaki region cinematographically. Not just that. We are also invited into the humble homes and the simple lives of the people of the area. So much effort has gone into representational costumes and dialect of the area that they all feels natural. As if we’ve lived in rural hills all our lives, we immediately identify with the people there.

Another commendable fact about KKK is that it is a wholehearted comedy that doesn’t rely on gimmicks like insult and sexualization to elicit humor. The characters are not loud, nor overbearing, and they don’t stoop low to make you laugh. They’re just being themselves and easily dissolve into plots and sequences to create clean humor that families can enjoy together.

Despite a heavy cast, including some of the most talented actors in the industry, Rai and Baral steal the show. As an inseparable pair of friends, the pair is funny, yet philosophical too. Their comic timing is impeccable, individually and as a duo. For someone who’s watched the entire Kabaddi series, you can’t help but fall in love with them.

There’s absolutely no message you can take away from KKK. Nor do the filmmakers want to impart any social lesson. The intent of making an organic, believable film is enough to keep the audience entertained, it seems. Despite some flaws, KKK is an all-out entertainer and also offers a great lesson to Nepali filmmakers—you don’t need to bar foreign films in order for the Nepali films to be successful. Just make good cinema.

Who should watch it?

If you’ve liked the previous editions of ‘Kabaddi’, you’ll love this movie too. No worries if you haven’t either. The film is just as good on its own.

Rating: 3 stars
Director: Ram Babu Gurung
Actors: Dayahang Rai, Upasana Singh Thakuri, Bijay Baral
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Run time: 1hr 55mins

Nepal Drives

Mahindra have a certain degree of quirkiness to their designs, and they have had both hits and misses in their lineup. We’d say they hit the nail right on the head with the Mahindra XUV 500 and the Scorpio. The Thar has amassed a cult following and even the Scorpio Pik Up looks absolutely amazing. However, there are models like the Mahindra KUV 100 and the Quanto that are difficult to love.

Regardless, Mahindra have always had a certain air of nonconformity to their products. And now there is the new XUV 300: Mahindra’s newest representative for the compact SUV segment. We thus have in front of us a completely non-quirky premium crossover.

Exterior

The XUV 300 adopts a conventional design language that looks classy and sporty, but still has a robust feel to it thanks to the boxy design. The car is solidly built with 68-percent high-strength steel. Thumb down on the door metal and there is very little flex.

Mahindra have had to keep the length of the XUV300 to under-four meters for tax savings, but they have not compromised on the profile design. The floating roofline with the blackened pillars improves the dynamism of the vehicle. The larger wheels give it a robust look and the side cladding and roof rails enhance its crossover appearance.

Much like the grilles seen on the XUV 500, the XUV 300 gets a piano black grille featuring a large Mahindra badge, a chrome strip on the top, and multiple small chrome inserts. Sleek DRLs are integrated in the projector headlight cluster and in a very unique way extend into the bumper, merging with the fog lights. Maybe they haven’t lost their quirkiness completely.

The rear haunches are one of our favorite things about how the XUV 300 looks. They add character to the appeal of the compact XUV 300. The rear has a neat little spoiler with integrated LED HMSL (High Mounted Stop Lamp). The taillights are beautifully styled and sit on either side of the well-sculpted tailgate. A large silver skid plate adds a sporty character to the rear.

Interior

On the inside you do see that a lot of hard plastic is used, but it is of high quality. The dashboard’s styling is functional. It has a ‘beige & black’ theme with silver inserts, while piano black has been used on the center fascia (climate control panel) and air-con vents. While the lower part of the dashboard is beige, the carpets and floor mats are black. Ergonomically, the cabin is well laid out and all controls are easy to find and reach. 

If you and your passenger usually have trouble with the cabin temperature, you are in luck with the XUV 300 because you get a first-in-segment dual zone fully automatic climate control. You also get an option of a sunroof.

On the center console you get a 17.78cm touchscreen infotainment system (not available on the base variant) equipped with Bluetooth, AUX & USB connectivity, and it is compatible with Apple and Android Auto. It also doubles as a reversing camera display. On the instrument console display you get all the information you need. A useful one that comes to mind is the tyre position display for when you park and start out. The instrument console (with speedo and odometer) gets multicolor illumination, which is great.

Although the functionality is limited, you also get a Blue Sense App with Smart watch connectivity.

The leatherette (artificial leather) seats are comfortable and provide adequate support to the thighs and back. All three passengers get adjustable headrest and three-point seat belts, which are cool to have. You can comfortably seat three people in the rear, even with taller individuals out on the front. These rear seats can be split 60:40 for flexible boot space. The boot space, however, is only 257 liters, the smallest in the segment, and the loading lip is also pretty high.

Fun to drive

On our hands we had the 1.5-liter diesel variant, one that claims to have the best in segment torque of 300Nm produced at 1500-2500rpm. These impressive numbers translate well when you’re driving. The unknowing heavy right foot of an unsuspecting driver will catapult you forwards with surprising menace. The engine properly wakes up at around 2,000 rpm and you instantly fall in love with it. And because of the strong torque reserve at the bottom end you will notice that you are not shifting gears too often.

You will also notice that the XUV 300 is geared more towards tarmac driving. Although it isn’t too fazed by unexpected road undulations, the suspension is definitely on the firmer side. Luckily, this makes it a peach for driving on pitched roads and on corners.

Speaking of corners, the XUV 300 gets the segment-first smart steering system that gives you the option of choosing between Comfort, Normal, and Sport modes. Although there isn’t a huge world of differences between the modes, we definitely noticed that the steering firms up and gives better feedback when put on sport mode. For open stretches and corners we stuck to the sport mode as well. In the city, we chose to try out the other two modes, which worked well, but we ultimately went back to sport mode again.

With a kerb weight of 1,360 kg, the diesel has a power-to-weight ratio of 85 BHP/ ton, is class-leading, and the power is handled well. Till date, all offerings from Mahindra in this segment have been old-school SUVs with body-on-frame constructions. This worked against them because most urban buyers today prefer more modern monocoque-based crossovers.

The XUV300 is the first with a monocoque construction, making it more car-like to drive. The top variant gets a segment-first seven airbags. It is equipped with all-around disc brakes which come as standard, another segment-first. Other segment-firsts include heated ORVMs, smart steering system, and front parking sensors.

Verdict

The XUV 300 is a great car. Although it appears to be a Sangyong Tivoli with its rear end chopped to squeeze into the 4-meter mark, the Mahindra XUV 300 is a completely new car. It uses Mahindra’s own engine and suspension, and all the body panels are new as well.

The performance is tremendously satisfying, and it makes up for the fact that it likes sticking to the tarmac. Further, as Mahindra already have the TUV 300 for more rugged driving, it seems the XUV 300 has purposefully been made for smoother driving.

The little sibling to the XUV 500 does have one factor that will make buyers think twice: the price. Maybe it’s because of the driving fun it offers, or the long list of segment firsts offered; Mahindra have made the XUV 300 a decidedly premium offer.

Elizabeth Is Missing

Emma Healey

Language: English

Published: 2014

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Pages: 293, Paperback

Maud, 82, is slowly losing her memory. She makes tea and forgets to drink it. In her liv­ing room there is a long row of cold cups of tea on a shelf. She keeps find­ing little notes tucked in her pockets that remind her “not to have more toast”, “not to cook”, and definitely “not to buy tins of peach slices”. But the one note that keeps reappearing says, “Elizabeth is missing”.Despite being assured that her best friend is fine, Maud is convinced that something has happened to Elizabeth. She makes rounds to her friend’s home (only to find it desert­ed), calls Elizabeth’s son Peter at night to ask about her whereabouts, and even places a missing person’s advertisement in the paper. She is determined to find out what’s hap­pened to her friend but it’s tricky when she can’t differentiate between the past and the present, or even remember what she did a day before for that matter.

Many years ago, Maud’s elder sis­ter Susan or Sukey had also disap­peared and her family never found out what had happened to her. Maud keeps confusing events relating to her sister’s disappearance with those of Elizabeth’s current unaccountable absence. However, even when her mind fails her and no one believes a thing she says, Maud keeps look­ing for her friend and tries to recall what exactly happened to her sis­ter. In the end, Maud manages to dig up old facts hidden within the recesses of her memory to solve a long-buried crime.

Maud’s thought processes are, by the nature of her illness, repetitive. She constantly does and says the same things over and over again. Though that could have made the story slow and dull, Healey’s nar­rative is gripping enough to keep it from being bleak at any point. Healey writes about old age and aging with such finesse that you can sort of see yourself in Maud’s place someday.

Maud, with her fractured memory, also seems like a highly unreliable narrator at times. You can’t be sure if what she’s telling you is actually the truth (or just her version of it) and this makes it hard for you to guess where the story is headed. But that’s the charm of Healey’s debut nov­el—she lets you be the detective and shift through the clues from Maud’s memories.

Elizabeth Is Missing is many things: a crime novel, a story about mental illness and dealing with mental illness, and a meditation on the complexities of aging. It’s also a powerful and affecting portrait of a woman’s slide into dementia and the frustrations that come with it. It doesn’t fit into any particular genre but it’s a deeply satisfying read and that really should be a whole other genre in itself.

On paper, “Password” has everything that makes for a blockbuster potboiler—romance, action, comedy, suspense, and a raunchy item number. But when it comes to execution, the film falls flats, making it a broth spoiled because of too many ingredients, and a serious lack of intelligence on the part of the filmmakers.

Directed by Samrat Basnet, a national level taekwondo player turned movie director, Password is an entirely unintelligent production that is made with a big budget but bad skills. Everything that can go wrong in a movie goes completely awry in Password, proving the legitimacy of the ‘chaos theory.’

The film stars Bikram Joshi as Bikkie (a nickname from his real life), a most wanted criminal in the list of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) Nepal. He is in London to find a ‘password’ to a locker that has a Shiva statue priced a million pounds in the international black market. The password is with Sanju (Pari Rana) who gets it as a text message from her dying father, who is in turn best friends with Bikkie’s murdered father. She’s too naive to be ware of it. Also pursing the password is baddie Jojo (Anoop Bikram Shahi) who wants to get his hands on the invaluable statue.

So the plot is simple and trite, yet perfect for a high-speed action thriller. But the filmmaking is so juvenile that it is barely watchable through its 2hrs 5min runtime. As the film progresses through its very loose screenplay and random sequences, its feels like the movie was made by someone who came across a lot of money and decided to spend it on sheer whimsy.

The cast is its biggest let-down. Joshi—who introduces himself as a certified chartered accountant, actor, writer, and a taekwondo black belt on his personal website—is unconvincing as the lead character. He might have passion for acting and we can’t hold his profession against him, but looks like the accountant’s calculations were all wrong in this movie. His acting lacks the intensity to be convincing. His body language does not fit with his character and the little dancing he does exposes his inability to groove.

The same with Rana, the lead actress. She has the looks for sure, but her acting skills are way below par. She can’t convey emotions and always appears confused. Why she was even cast is a wonder!

Well, the filmmakers seriously seem to have no idea how to make a bearable movie or to properly spend their money. Many Nepali directors would kill to have that kind of budget. But the filmmakers of Password waste their resources on superfluous stuff when they should have been spending on better actors and a better dialogue writer. As it is, the dialogues are cringe-worthy! Really. We won’t try to translate the weak punchlines, but to give you a flavor, in one scene, Jojo screams, “Welcome to THE London!” Wait… what?? Was everyone sleeping through pre and post-production?

The film tries to offer comic relief in the form of Rabindra Jha (Kanhaiya), Bikrant Basnet (Balram) and Prabin Khatiwoda (Chature)—men from the CIB dressed like MIB (Men in Black) but in much cheaper looking suits—who roam the streets of London in search of Bikkie. Then there’s Buddhi Tamang playing Mangal, a London-based cab driver who befriends Bikkie and helps him, and also ups the humor quotient. But it is clear that even these talented actors cannot perform without the support of stronger main characters. Now Bikram Joshi is no Dayahang Rai or Bipin Karki.

Who should watch it?

No one. And looks like no one is watching it because the cinema hall was less than 10 percent occupied on a Monday matinee show. The filmmakers were heavy on promotion, especially with Sunny Leone as the highlight for the item number. But with Sunny’s limited dancing skills and the amateur lyrics, the item number does not help much. In their attempt to cash in on Sunny’s star-power, the filmmaking team ended up giving her the whole spotlight while getting back nothing.

Rating: 1 star