| torilaure |
Posted
on 28-Oct-03 09:28 PM
If you are in Kathmandu for this weekend, check this out. Since the films are shown in a 100 seater hall, do book your tickets soon if you are interested:
The 15 best films of the just-concluded Film South Asia 03 in
Travelling Film South Asia
Friday, 31 October-2 Sunday, November 2003, at Baggikhana, Patan Dhoka
Friday, 31st October 2003
Shei Rater Kotha Bolte Eshechi
(Tale of the Darkest Night) (43') 3:00 pm
Pakistani army begins attack on East Pakistan
Vikas Bandook Ki Naal Se
(Development Flows from
the Barrel of the Gun) (54') 3:45 pm
For the sake of a larger good
A Night of Prophecy (77') 4:40 pm
Poets in times and places of conflict
Itihass Jitneharuka Laagi
(History for Winners) (47') 6:00 pm
A singer who refuses to fight
Saturday, 1st November 2003
Swara A Bridge over
Troubled Water (40') 2:00 pm
Girl sacrifice in tribal Pakistan
The Unconscious (19')
A different kind of sexual identity
Resilient Rhythms (64') 3:00 pm
Dalits and the odds
Sand and Water (105') 4:15 pm
Life along the Jamuna
Bheda Ko Oon Jasto
In Search of a Song ... (55') 6:00 pm
Following a tune to the mountains
Sunday, 2nd November 2003
Hunting Down Water (32') 2:00 pm
The shortage and surplus of water
Made in India (39')
Visual culture in contemporary India
Buru Sengal
(The Fire Within) (57') 3:15 pm
Extracting coal, but at what cost?
Naata (The Bond) (45') 4:15 pm
Crisis of identity in modern India
Godhra Tak: The
Terror Trail (60') 5:00 pm
Reconstruction of the train incident
The 18th Elephant
3 Monologues (62') 6:00 pm
Elephants speak up against human atrocities
Tickets (Rs 20 per screening) are available at
Himal Association
Patan Dhoka (5537408) from
Monday, 28 October, 2003
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| ashu |
Posted
on 28-Oct-03 09:41 PM
Thanks TL for posting this.
I urge all in Kathmandu not to miss any of these films, especially "History for Winners", made by Pranay Limbu, and produced by RBA Films.
Meantime, I don't know, what follows may be relevant here. This piece was originally published in The Nepali Times.
Enjoy,
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
****************************
Agents for winners
by Ashutosh Tiwari
One of the most memorable documentary films shown at the recently concluded Film South Asia 03 in Kathmandu was History For Winners by the first-time documentary-maker Pranay Limbu.
The film profiles two singers impartially: Kuber Rai and Dhiraj Rai, both of whom talk about achieving success as singers. In the late 1980s and the early 90s, while Kuber was being hailed as a successor to Narayan Gopal and feted in Kathmandus modern music competitions, Dhiraj from Khotang was eking out an existence as a struggling artist, something he did for 12 long years. These days, however, Kuber bides his time, taking care of his farm in his village in Ilam (pic, top), with almost no hope of re-launching his musical career, while Dhiraj has established himself as a nationally recognised commercially successful pop icon.
Talking with some members of the audience after the show, I found that most were sympathetic to Kuber, and were quite dismissive of Dhirajs success. To some extent, this was understandable.
With an earnest face and early-morning practice sessions with his son at the harmonium, Kuber comes across as a hardworking, poor and serious singer, somehow deserving of commercial success. This image contrasts sharply with Dhirajs who, with his hip-swaying song-and-dance routines, cheerful personality and willingness to talk to the press at all times, strikes any relatively elite documentary audience as, well, just fooling around and not making serious music. Even his success is somehow suspect. Yet I found Dhiraj quite intriguing for two business reasons.
First, his success says that gone are the days when raw talent aloneas in the case of late Narayan Gopalcarried an artist to the top of his profession in Nepal. With competition everywhere and the music industry coming up as a profitable business, success today needs talent to be packaged, managed, branded and sold to the marketplace, in the same way that a firm markets, say, detergent to customers. In this respect, Dhirajs success provides a window to see the nature of rapidly changing, financially driven yet mutually lucrative intersections between commerce and the arts in Nepal.
And second, most of the times, Nepali artists themselvesno matter how supremely talentedare simply not able to play the marketing game. Their talent lies in singing and composing music in isolation, and not in marketing. They should not even have to play the management game anymore, as Kubers failed attempts in the course of the film demonstrate.
In todays changed times, Kuber and his cohorts now require the services of a new breed of opportunity-seeking professionals who, as agents, can help, for a fee, such talents to make strategic career decisions that have higher chances of leading to both critical and commercial success.
Else, in the absence of such agents, singers such as Kuber in spite of their stunning talent, are destined to slide into obscurity and despair, always blaming others of unhealthy competition and so on. But the main reason why Dhirajs career is doing well is that he exhibits an uncanny ability to double up as his own agent, always pushing himself and his music in the marketplace. Yes, one may argue that Dhiraj is a better salesman than a singer, but that point is moot in front of his raging commercial success in Kathmandu, while his potential rival Kuber is back to herding goats in Ilam.
Many years ago, poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota wrote something to the effect that only in Nepal might Byron remain a farmer, while Shakespeare does manual labour and Shelly becomes a shopkeeper. What Devkota could not have foreseen was that to succeed commercially in 2003, even Byron, Shakespeare and Shelly, not to mention Kuber Rai, need agents who value their talent enough to help them navigate the channels of business so that they can be pushed to the marketplace for success. THE END.
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