Written and directed by Sunil Gurung, “Macha Macha” was promoted as the “crime comedy of the year.” And with some witty writing, a talented cast, meticulous production and first-rate cinematography, the movie is actually a lot more enjoyable than the past few releases we’ve reviewed. There’s mystery, there’s suspense, and a whole lot of goof-ups to make it entertaining.
Macha Macha revolves around a series of unfortunate events that take the lead characters—“Pradip” (Saugat Malla), “Babu Ram” (Bijay Baral), and “Kishore” (Anoj Pandey)—on a rollercoaster ride. The trio of unemployed, impoverished and not-so-bright men are offered a murder contract by their mama (Praveen Khatiwoda). With nothing better to do to get themselves out of their sorry financial state, they take up the job to kidnap and murder “Ghanshyam” (Bhola Raj Sapkota) for Rs 2 million. Thus starts a comedy of errors as the three get into trouble one after another.
There’s definitely some smart writing to create plots that twist and turn and keep the audience entertained, to an extent. The cinematography and direction follow the characters around the streets of Kathmandu, capturing them from different angles, and making intricate details visible on the screen. The smartness in writing is backed by equally nifty filming to create a moderately entertaining package.
What drags the film down though is that the writers spend too much time creating subplots, some of which are unnecessary. Also, in an effort to capture more details, some individual scenes are rather extended, making it difficult to thoroughly enjoy the film. It would have been much better if Macha Macha was an all-out fast-paced comedy without emotional baggage.
Pandey steals the show even when matched against more experienced and popular actors. He embodies the character of a confused, scared yet amusing Kishore with artistic panache. Not only does Pandey impress in dialogues and gesticulations, he’s equally good in the background—one of the centerpieces of the movie’s comedy.
Baral lives up to his name and does nothing to better it. Malla is the disappointment here though. Carrying so much reputation from his iconic “Hakku Kaale” character in the Loot franchise, Malla does nothing to get into his character as Pradip in Macha Macha. He’s just changed his hairstyle and hasn’t worked at all in dialogue delivery to make his character any different from the recent films he has done. In order to stay relevant, Malla needs to work on his dialogues to stop sounding monotonous.
Among supporting actors, Kamal Mani Nepal is mildly engaging in his brief role as “Janga Bahadur”, a luckless gambler who’s feigning madness to save himself from creditors. Shanti Giri plays his double-crossing girlfriend and is one of the few actors that fit into their characters. Maotse Gurung continues his comic appearances playing “Tanke Dada”, a cricket-loving gangster. Although a bit stereotypical of the Sherpa community as it mocks their Nepali accent, his character is not offensive and provides hilarious comic relieve whenever he’s on screen. Known for more serious roles in Nepali films, Gurung’s back-to-back stints in comedy has been well appreciated. Namrata Shrestha (no, not that one) makes a debut as Rashmi but has so little screen space that she will have to find another film to actually make a serious debut.
The best part of the movie is the background score by Rajan Shrestha, which is sonorously satisfying. It is fresh for a Nepali movie and creatively surprising. Shrestha uses various genres of music to keep the pace of the film rolling despite the tardy bits of screenwriting dragging it down. Taking influence from the Western country music, Nepali folk, blues and jazz, Shrestha tries to give each character its own introductory theme. Sound-wise, the use of blues harp, slide guitars and the double bass lends the movie a Quentin Tarantino touch.
Who should watch it?
Macha Macha is a film worth watching if you love comedies. It gets sloppy at times but the background music and cinematography keep you entertained.
Rating: 2.5 stars
Run time: 2hrs 5 mins
Actors: Saugat Malla, Bijay Baral, Anoj Pandey
Director: Sunil Gurung
Genre: Comedy
