The Nepali movie industry has gone from bad to worse. The recent slew of movies seem to be downright disgusting with sleazy trailers and promos being broadcast on TV/ internet sites and equally appalling posters being plastered everywhere.
It is a well known fact that for a long time, Nepali movies had been following the Bollywood format i.e. boy-meets-girl + song-and-dance-sequence formula, which obviously failed to draw audiences. (Our Indian counterparts broke out of that cycle and have come a long way since then. On the other hand, we were stuck in a rut for decades.) As if that wasn’t bad enough, now there is a new formula that comprises of vulgar scenes, incredibly outlandish dialogues, “actors” who don’t know the first thing about acting, cheap and trashy clothing with actresses dressed up like hookers, a big dose of cuss words, disgusting kissing and sex scenes and to top it off “item numbers”. For instance the “item song” from the movie “Luck” has lyrics which go like this “Dekhai dinchhu sabai kura paisa tirey pachhi.” (Translation: I’ll show you everything after you pay me.) The lyrics only get worse as the song continues. I wonder who comes up with such lyrics that literally make our ears bleed.
It is one thing for filmmakers to be broad minded and experiment with new styles of movies, but it is a completely different matter when they cross the line and turn it into complete trash (trash is an understatement but I can’t think of a better word). Artistry, talent, originality and wholesomeness are totally lacking in the industry today.
We can only hope that our filmmakers realize that making such garish movies is not doing any good to the image of the Nepali movie industry, nor does it have a positive impact on the viewers and especially on young and impressionable minds. Lets hope they realize this sooner than later and start coming up with more wholesome and entertaining movies in the near future. In the mean time, we’ll just have to deal with seeing those tacky posters plastered all over the city as the “who-can-make-the-trashiest-movie” contest continues.