Perhaps in the hopes of improving cinematography, finer editing, a comprehensive script, better direction and acting, or perhaps just to see how exactly our film industry is doing. [break]
With this in mind, having gone to watch Simosh Sunuwar’s new film First Love, I was certainly not expecting a life changing experience. However, without beginning to immediately point out all its faults and glitches, it is clear that Nepali cinema is certainly changing. Themes that have never been explored previously, characters that audiences may at least on some level be able to relate to, are no longer that distant a dream. All in all, it’s a good effort to engage a Nepali audience with characters, themes and camera work that have been all too rare in our movie industry.
Likewise, the music and camera work are certainly worth a mention. The ability to make a place like Kathmandu look so picturesque every now and then, and a couple of musical numbers that in fact, are very catchy make at least the first half of the film rather fun. Satya, Sworop, responsible for the music, have done a relatively good job. And as for director Sunuwar, First Love,is a good notch better directed than his last Mission Paisa, a box office blooper.
Nonetheless, the movie is not exactly worthy of praise. The five lead characters, Abha (Nisha Adhikary), Gaurav (Karma), Rohan (Vinay Shrestha), and Nitu (Richa Sharma) are a group of young, hip college-goers facing what appear to be the same trails and tribulations of any youngster in any part of the world, though the audience soon realizes this is not the case. Complimenting the film title, the narrative revolves around the love stories that develop between this group of friends. However, the only character who really manages to hold the respect and admiration of the audience to some degree is Gaurav. Sadly though, the film reinforces the nice guys finish last reality, and this is about the only reality the film manages to convince to its audience. But, this begs one to question, if the film is carrying a host of social messages already, then why make the one decent character in the film the loser?
While prevalent issues of eve teasing, parental relationships and new-age romance are addressed, they are not without the usual over-dramatization and masala mania that is all too familiar in movies coming out of this sub-continent. So if you are really expecting something different, which would actually be too much to ask from our movie industry at the moment, you won’t, as expected find it in First Love either.
What strikes most apparently are the completely unnecessary and superbly long fight sequences (with their appalling sound effects) that just prop up out of nowhere every now and then. They go on for so long that one forgets what exactly the fighting is all about (often seemingly not a lot), and takes away from the otherwise sincere attempt at a social message carrying romcom.
But this is not where the true fault of the film lies. For any woman that comes out of a cinema hall after having spent a rather taxing two hours and 25 minutes pondering over the notion of First Love, one scene towards the end forces her to lose almost all respect for all the apparent hard work and dedication that was directed towards the film by the actors, producers and the whole gang. The scene attempts to handle the very controversial issue of rape, but without actually addressing it. It is almost as though it is swept under the rug, and the scene used simply to push the plot further along, without any message against rape, or penalization for the character that performs the vicious act. This is simply unacceptable. Nepali film or not, with all concessions taken, and even having watched the film “with love,” as the actors had asked, it seems incomprehensible why such a sensitive issue is so terribly neglected in its handling.
Thus, while the film does have its quirks, funny moments, sincere dialogues and is worthy of praise for some of the social messages it carries, this massive overpowering shadow of rape is so awfully addressed, or rather un-addressed that it is almost impossible to come out of the cinema hall with a sense of appreciation or love.
(Screening at Jainepal Cinema Hall, Naxal.)
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