The reels of the first Nepali film “Aama” however is kept safely in the storeroom itself. But if the reels work, is unknown.
“I only registered the reels of the film by looking at their labels when we shifted to this new building from Singha Durbar,” says Hari Singh Raikhola, senior assistant at NFDB.
The doors and windows of both the storerooms are open. “It was the storm yesterday that left the windows open. The doors have been opened to let in some light,” he explains.
Stacked perfectly in neat rows is Nepal’s cinematic history. In blue, red and grey plastic and metallic cases, they have survived the test of time. But will they run is an unanswered question.
“No one has come and verified their use. We have no technician to check their usability,” says Geeta Pokharel, in charge of the library and archive section at NFDB. Shuffling through the register of the archive, Pokharel and Raikhola read out the names of the reels that are in the storeroom. “Aama, Hijo Aja Ra Bholi, Kumari, Paribartan…we have them all,” they speak in unison.
The register labels hundreds of reels, mostly mentioning the names of kings, prime ministers and state visits. Serial number 230, reel number 042 reads “Queen Elizabeth’s state visit to Nepal”. Serial number 505, reel number 66 displays “King Gyanendra’s marriage” and a bulk of footage on the state visits of foreign prime ministers and other dignitaries are mentioned in the register. Besides Aama, Hijo Aja Ra Bholi and Paribartan, Kumari and Adi Kabi Bhanubhakta are also listed in the register.
The unknown category shows a list of reels which goes through pages. “I interacted with D.B Pariyar about the prints of his film and he told me that he had made two prints of them. One I believe is with his son and the other he submitted to the then Royal Nepal Film Corporation (RNFC) for archiving,” says film researcher Dr Pradeep Bhattarai.
Filmmaker Yadav Kharel was then the president of the Corporation. He agrees with Bhattarai and says that it was during his tenure (1972-1975) that a film archive was created by the Corporation. “We archived a large quantity of films. I remember Satya Harischandra was among them,” he says.
Dr Bhattarai however mentions that Kharel is said to have given the film to the late King Birendra for his personal viewing on request. And the reels were lost after the Royal Massacre. Kharel does not mention this but says that after his tenure was over at the Corporation, he has no clue of what happened to the archived reels.
After the Corporation was made private and turned into Nepal Film Development Company, Bhattarai assumes that some of the reels were stocked and most of them got lost.
Later, in 2000, the Nepal Film Development Board was formed by the government and Kharel was elected its first president. He revived the archive. “We cleaned the neglected reels stored in the office of Nepal Television and sorted them out,” he says.
These same reels now wait to be screened. Stored with negligence, whether these reels will function is doubtful. The last page of the NFDB archive register shows a six-point directive to be followed for the storage of reels: Centigrade and Fahrenheit thermometer required, maintain 18 degree centigrade, minimum 16 degree centigrade, maximum 20 degree centigrade for 24 hours, length of the thermometer to be 10” 12”.
The directives have not been followed.
“It’s a shame on our part. In this age of digital technology, all the reels should be digitized and stored properly in an air-conditioned room,” says Kharel. “Whatever the quality of the films, it’s a part of history; it’s the development of our cinema.”
Bhattarai analyzes the lack of film archiving culture in Nepal in a different light.
“What started as a way to preserve the legacy of the monarchy by archiving the footage of kings and their ceremonies was implemented in films too. When the RNFC was in operation, one film was produced in three years, and it was feasible to archive them.”
He mentions the increase in number of film production as a major hurdle. “Even in Hollywood, only 64% of the total films released from 2004 to 2007 were termed as deserving to be archived. Here, maybe six out of the 67 released every year could be of archival value.”
Nepal might not have a good film archive but at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in California, there is a good stock of Nepali films.
“I was able to archive 36 Nepali films at AMPAS when I was researching at the institution. Most of the archived ones are Nepal’s nominations for the Oscars like Mukundo, Basain, and Muna Madan,” shares Bhattarai.
His is a small individual effort. Nepal needs more than personal initiatives if it is to preserve its cinematic history. Digitizing the stacked reels at NFDB should not be a Herculean task. The first Nepali film, Aama, can easily be watched on youtube and at blog.xnepali.com.
The short videos of the 1964 film have been digitized by Gauri Shankar Manandhar, son of the first Nepali actor Shiva Shankar Manandhar. “I had a VHS copy of the film televised by NTV many years ago. I digitized and edited the film myself and uploaded it in shivashakar.org,” he says.
NFDB needs to learn from these small personal initiatives. It cannot keep playing the blame game. Political appointments and power wrangling has crumbled the institution. As a government body that works for the Nepali film industry, it must have a functioning film archive. The abandoned reels in its storeroom should be sorted out immediately, if not for their aesthetic essence, but at least for their historical value.
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