A lot has happened since the release of  Kagbeni, the movie.  Political loggerheads have signed peace treatise, elections came through with the removal of royalty and the germination of a new system of government. Then Why oh why am I still writing a stale stiff story about Kagbeni ( when wishes come true)? Probably because wishes did come true and misconstrued a different plot, not just for those of us who were involved in the movie but for those who watched it as well.

Two years ago when I hatched from the embryo of Actor’s Studio , I was ready to test the waters or rather the cesspool of Nepali celluloid. A reliable rumor was traveling around us actors that a promising film was in the casting process. Eager and enthusiastic, we auditioned for the parts without being intimidated by a que of actors who walked the walk and a row of gentlemen under the banner of Quest Entertainment, who talked the talk. A week later when the conformation call came, I was overjoyed , I was to do my very first film.

It was a film of the first timers. Even the director who after stamping every music video of his with a logo of ‘Bhushan Dahal Films ‘was finally directing a full length feature. The cast was crisp. Saugat Malla, an intense and disciplined theatre actor was going to prove his mettle in the movies. Diya Maskey and I have batted our eyelashes in several music videos but this was a different ball game all together. Hanif Tamut was fresh out of Film school and Asha Magrathi wanted to break away from the clichéd pattern of acting. When Nima Rumba, the pop star jumped into the band wagon, unsure of his acting skills, all of us felt as if we were on the same boat.  The only one with substantial experience in movie making was Prashant Rasaily , the script writer and the undesignated assistant director.
When we landed at the Jomsom Airport, we stood in front of a towering landscape with the mountains almost in front of our noses. From Jomsom we had to trek to Marpha where we were to be stationed to start filming immediately. I confess, I fell in love with Marpha as fast as you can say ‘apple’. The stone laid paths, tiny clustered houses, narrow alleys from which bell slung donkeys followed the howl of the wind was etching a new romance with me. It’s ironic that for a  film named Kagbeni, most of the shooting was done at Marpha. Nobody complained though , especially not me and Nima Rumba who frequented every bhatte at the drop of an invitation. As an excuse to research for my role I had sampled every alcoholic beverage and acquired quite a taste for Marpha Brandy. Nima didn’t need an excuse, all he needed was a guitar and an audience. He struck quite a chord at Marpha.
The shooting had started in a slow pace primarily because of the new HD camera which needed a different procedure for set up and it often perplexed the director of photography, Bidur Pandey. The director had a chair , a portable folding contraption with his signature on the back. He would sit and read a thick book on the Glory of The Gurkhas as the crew set up for a scene. Sometimes he would smoke his cigar and grow pensive just like a Hollywood dream merchant. Even when we traveled a bumpy ride to kagbeni on a tractor full of equipment , Mr Bhushan Dahal sat tight on his chair.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie was shot in Khanga, where Hanif, Saugat and Nima run down a slope streaked with autumn leaves and sit on a rock talking about Malaysian women and money. It is absolutely true when they say that if your co-actors are good acting becomes effortless. I discovered that playing Pema, the coy bhatti sauni serving rakshi and sukuti to a pair of friends tugging at the same cord of love for the female lead. I had only levered a small amount of effort on my accent and had deliberately sharpened the timbre of my voice to match that of a Sherpini. A great deal of the scene was improvised coquetry and an unscripted peck was to be planted by Nima on my cheeks. I almost shriveled and died when I watched that scene on the big screen, not embarrassed by the innocent indecency of the kiss but by the sleazy subtitles. The other controversial kiss between Saugat and Diya had the producers all excited because it was to be a proper lip- lock never depicted before in Nepali cinema. They gathered their reason that it could entice and excite the audience all the more about the movie; and excited they became because of the buzz that was created for the ambitious scale of production around a simple story.

Path breaking it may have been on several levels but it sure did puzzle the audience as they came out of the theatres with the lingering footnote of the film. “Be careful of what you wish for “it warned us in English , because apparently when it comes to superstition, Nepalis don’t need subtitles. The Film was first screened in India to a test audience that included Bollywood star Govinda. Months back it was nominated for several some things at a film festival in the Szechwan province where the egos boiled and toppled over trophies.

Prashant Rasaily never got his due for ghost directing and writing the film but at least scraped a credit for his stunts as Nima’s body double that falls off the cliff. His projects with Quest Ent. were shelved and he quietly went back to Sikkim to take part in a TV talent hunt for film makers. I am happy to report that he is now filming the movie ‘Kite’ with Anurag Kashyap in L.A. Hanif went on to write the script for the now ready to be released Sano Sansar, which he honestly scraps off as a hotch potch of  ‘My Sassy Girl’ and other block busters. Escaping from mediocrity and compromised goods he is in the Philippines.  Saugat and Asha are still faithful to their love for theatre, as for others I can’t say.I didn’t dream or wish big from the movie but with the commercial success of Kagbeni I had  hoped that the billboard in front of Singha Durbar that says ‘make it large’ would be replaced by a centre spread of Marpha Brandy with a catch phrase that would say ‘when wishes come true’.

" This Article was written between 2008- 2009. No comments presented in the blogs at Docskool.org are that of Docskool."

" Docskool sincerely thanks Pooja Gurung for sharing this article. Pooja has worked as a television producer with leading channels like Kantipur TV and Image Channel for many years. Currently Pooja acts as her main interest and directs films apart from working with theatre and on music video projects. Pooja can be found on mail through Docskool. Pooja Gurung is one of the three directors currently working on the Docskool's SFF Project 2010 "