If you think you’ve figured out the content of the movie “Kumva Karan” by its name or its trailer, you might want to leave your assumptions at home, for you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Directed by Dipak Oli, Kumva Karan is not an all-out comedy. It sure is based in the comedy genre but the thrilling, suspenseful twists and the shocking ending will keep you entertained throughout, despite all its glitches and flaws. It’s a Nepali movie—for Satya Harishchandra’s sake! We can sure be a little forgiving. The name Kumva Karan does not allude to the mythical sleepyhead demon from Ramayana, unlike what we’d assume. Instead, the name is a tell-tale of the movie’s plot, cleverly revealed in the second half. The whole film is done smartly, actually. Sans expensively shot item numbers and massive production cost, Kumva Karan relies on its plot, screenplay and star cast to keep the audience hooked to their seats for the 1.47-hour runtime.
The film centers around three Karans—Karandeep Ghimire (Bhola Raj Sapkota), Karan Prasad Upadhyaya (Gaurav Pahari), and Karan Bahadur Chhetri (Abhay Baral)—respectively the head master, Nepali teacher and a peon of a community school in Pyuthan. Their otherwise passive nature is given a masculine jolt by the entry of Sapana madam (Nisha Adhikari), the English teacher who they all fall for heads over heels.
They compete for her attention, healthily and unhealthily, and the first half is all about their antics to win her affection. Then, what follows changes the narrative entirely. (As we don’t know any other reviewer who’s spilled all the beans on a review and lived to work another day, we’ll leave it at that.)
Coming to the performances, the troika of Karans fit right into their characters and are pleasant to watch. Well, it’s always good to see a Nepali comedy where the actors don’t scream their lungs out to make you laugh. Comedy can be subtle, like it is in Kumva Karan. Bhola Raj, who shot to fame with his significant appearance in the Bollywood hit ‘Barfi’ (2012), puts in a par performance as a wannabe strict headmaster, who actually ends up looking comical and cute. Gaurav as the shy, spectacled Nepali teacher also justifies his character.
Only if the dialogues were better! Forgiving as much as we want to be, we do need to address the elephant in the room
The one person whose name has cruelly been left out from the trailer and promotions wins the man-of-the-match though. While Bhola Raj and Gaurav manage to score what they’re expected to, Abhay Baral as the obnoxious yet lovable peon is like the tail-ender who scores a blazing 17-ball half century to take his team home. His comic timings are impeccable and he manages to grab all the attention onscreen with both his physical performance and dialogue delivery.
If only the dialogues were better! Forgiving as much as we want to be, we do need to address the elephant in the room. The dialogues undercut the possibility of this being a brilliant movie. All the emotions in the film are basically visible, thanks to the actors, and had the dialogues given to them been any better, the characters would certainly appear stronger. Imagine a Gabbar Singh without Salim-Javed’s prolific prose-work. Jason Kunwar’s background score manages to save some grace during the pivotal scenes though and the aural needs of emoting are somewhat fulfilled.
Who should watch it?
If you can excuse some typical glitches of our Kollywood productions, you might actually like the film. It’s definitely worth the time and movie tickets. A little humor and a rather simplistic thriller is also good when the weather is bad and you have nothing else to do.
Movie: Kumva Karan
Genre: Comedy/Thriller
Cast: Nisha Adhikari, Pramod Agrahari, Gaurav Pahari, Bholaraj Sapkota, Abhay Baral, Kuldip Adhikari
Direction: Dipak Oli
Rating: 2.5/5
