Dal bhat tarkari is the staple food for Nepalis. A Nepali home, wherever it is, can and will serve you a meal of dal bhat tarkari and whoever prepares it, will seldom get it wrong. Naming their movie “Dal Bhat Tarkari”, the filmmakers of this supposed comedy do appeal to the ‘Nepalipan’ of the audience. But like a lone highway eatery in the middle of nowhere, their dal bhat tarkari is stale. Imagine being invited to a dinner with the promise of the best tasting meal ever and then being served hastily prepared, undercooked, unhygienic and tasteless food. That’s what the makers of this movie do: invite you to the cinema halls for a hilarious Nepali comedy movie and then fail to make you laugh, at all.
The plot (if we can call it that) revolves around the family of Ram Hari (Hari Bamsha Acharya), Urmila (Niruta Singh), Rahul (Pushpa Khadka), and Rahul’s love interest, Pinky (Aanchal Sharma)—all of whom desperately want to go to the US, like many other Nepalis who think settling abroad is an end to all of their problems. They are then duped by the stereotypical anti-hero in Swami Gaayak (Shishir Bangdel), a singer turned saint who now is in the business of sending people abroad as ‘performing artists’. Clichéd right? Just expect to see a hundred more in the 125 minutes of this ‘dark comedy’ disaster.
The relation between Ram Hari and Urmila is too tricky to comprehend. One moment they’re fighting like cats and dogs (they mention that in the movie too), and the next they’re a perfect happy couple, as soon as they see a slight possibility of getting a US visa. Their “love-hate” relation and banters are repetitive and tacky and soon wears you out. Singh’s over-the-top dramatization of every scene and overpitched dialogue delivery is especially pathetic. At times, it feels like she is literally trying to scream to the audience that she is making a comeback to the Nepali film industry. (But she’s not the lone culprit. The whole cast is extremely loud—like really, really, painfully loud.) Shocking how the graceful beauty that impressed everyone as Smriti in the blockbuster Darpan Chaya (2001) is not even 10 percent of her former self.
Director Sudan KC (son of veteran actor Kiran KC who also stars in the film and is a producer too) fails to mold the storyline into a believable plot and miserably fails to establish any kind of credible relation between any of the characters. A star cast of some of the most significant names in Kollywood, along with rising newcomers, are all running around the loose screenplay in a chaotic frenzy. What adds to the woes is the under-average cinematography, severe jerks in editing and a nonchalant approach to moving the film forward.
Who should watch it?
If you’re a big MaHa fan and can bear loud slapstick comedy sequences, you can definitely risk your eardrums. Also go if you’re inspired by the preachy Nepali filmmakers who urge you to watch and support Nepali films, even though what they produce is absolute crap.
Movie: Dal Bhaat Tarkari
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Hari Bamsha Acharya, Niruta Singh, Aanchal Sharma
Direction: Sudan KC
Rating: 1/5
