Its Prakash Thapa : the topic and words are being damped about him, I have this privilege to speak on his craft through my blog. This is my private thoughts on the legendary filmmaker and it has to be taken theyou may like or dislike.
A man is known not just by the body of his work, but by the people he creates or help create;
BishowanBasnet , Kristi Mainali , Karishma Manandhar, Gauri malla,are all products of, or started their careers with Prakash Thapa !
I can’t even begin to imagine the discussions on the sets or the amount of genius and creativity flowing on the sets when all these names were there together ! Each one of them a genius in their own right, but each of them had one catalyst, one person they learn’t their art from, Prakash Thapa !
And That is not even the beginning of the genius of Prakash Thapa
Not a single director in the history of Nepali Cinema has made exceptionally commecial masala movie , except for Prakash Thapa . Think JEEVAN REKHA, SINDOOR, SANTAAN, KANYADAAN,NATA RAGAT KO and thik Prakash Thapa . For JEEVAN REKHA Prakash launched SHIVA SHRESTHA and MINAKSHI ANAND and the story goes when BHUBAN K.C saw the film he said ‘ how I wish I’d done this film’ ! which was supposedly to do by BHUBAN K.C, at first.
The reason I mentioned Prakash T hapawas to start that never ending debate of GOOD cinema v/s BAD cinema ! Whenever that debate comes up I wait for everyone to make their point of the GOOD cinema movement v/s BAD cinema and then all I have to do is ask so where do you put prakash thapa ! That’s the end of the discussion because Prakash Thapa is the only filmmaker I can think of who is till today an inspiration to every kind of filmmaker. Before or after him there hasn’t been a single filmmaker who has ridden both boats of glamour and content with panache . In and within the realm of GOOD/BAD cinema Prakash Thapa picked up subjects that people would term as ‘commercial’ or ‘masala’ or whatever other name you wanna call it, but with those subjects be it caste prejudice or the plight of a widow, he made delightful cinema. With those so called off beat subjects he received commercial success, super hit music, rave reviews, all kinds of appreciations , every kind of recognition in NEPAL and the world over where NEPALI viewers rules large ! Filmmakers for generations have been inspired by and will continue to be inspired by Prakash Thapa
Testimony to that is the fact that KANYADAAN and SINDOOR have already been remade, god knows how many times in how many ways. But the mood and tone of Nepali cinema is still the same.Every Nepali second director is happy and content rehashing his school of hard core masala movie.Difference: Prakash Thapa cared with his narrative these today's directors don't.
I recently watched a few of his films again after Suraj bhai (Film college student ) called me and asked me to speak on his work, not that I needed to see his films to speak about him, but the one thing I realized after seeing his films again, every time you watch a Prakash Thapa it means something else to you. Every time you take away something different, something new, there will always be something happening in your life which you’ll be able to relate with his characters or their situations. It might be the words of a song, a dialogue, anything, something in a Prakash Thapa film will always go straight to your heart, and every time it’ll be something different, there’s so much to explore in a Prakash Thapa film.
KANYADAAN was the first Prakash Thapa film I ever saw and as a child I remember the character of Gauri Malla being so strong that as a CHILD I felt a protective love for her ! Before I finished watching the film I was so mesmerized by it, that I knew at that age, watching that film on a Sunday evening on NEP[AL T.V on a black white screen that I want to be a filmmaker one day. The emotions that Prakash dai could stir up in a small boy of 6 or 7 with a subject like caste prejudice, child-widow is something I realized much later, is what the impact or hallmark of a great filmmaker is !
When I watched his films again as I grew up, the intensity of his characters is something I’ll never forget. Bhuvan K.C was not Bhuvan K.C in KANAYADAAN, he was a doctor trying to earese the doom fate of widow herione GAURI MALLA living in a village , that famous scene where he SINGS in his birthday ,the song 'DUNIYA LAI TADA CHODA' still gives me goose-bumps just thinking about it ! KANAYADAAN, was truly one of Bhuvan K.C and GAURI MALLA'S best performances and ofcourse Prakash dai was the director behind that inspired performance. I would give anything to be on the set watching one genius direct another !
Today anyone who wants to become an actor heads straight for the gym. That’s so sad and so wrong, if you want to be an actor, go watch a few PRAKASH THAPA films, see what it takes to be an actor, see the performances he brought out from Gauri Malla or Bhuvan K.C, if you can even do 25% of that it’ll be great, instead of wasting time in a gym if young aspiring actors watched PRAKASH THAPA films there chances of making it as actors would be so high. PRAKASH THAPA’s films are like instruction manuals or guidelines for anyone who has anything to do with films, actors, music directors, cinematographers, sound, editing, lyrics, there’s not one department of filmmaking which didn’t excel under PRAKASH THAPA, you can watch a PRAKASH THAPA film and learn about every single nuance of filmmaking.
One of the most brilliant things of PRAKASH THAPA was, he did not have a fixed genre, or style. You can’t put his films in any one genre. He attempted all different genres with as much brilliance, whether it’s the plight of a CHILD WIDOW in KANYADAAN, the story of an extra-marital affair ADHIKAR , a woman turned AANI for love in ADHIKAR, romance in the time of Panchayat in JEEVAN REKHA, JUNI, SANTAAN, every film totally different from the other, every film requiring a different palette, a different background, a different setting, be it in writing, music, cinematography. By picking up such diverse subjects and films PRAKASH THAPA showed not just his versatility but also the ease with which he moved from genre to genre. The only common thread in all his films was that every actor, every technician gave his best to a PRAKASH THAPA film ! This more than any other is such an inspiration to all us filmmakers, we need to learn from PRAKASH THAPA not to get typecast, not to repeat ourselves, to keep attempting different genres, to keep pushing the envelope, to keep taking chances without thinking of box office or awards.
Feel free to comment
JAI CINEMA
No comments:
Post a Comment