| Biswo |
Posted
on 02-Jun-04 11:54 PM
Roughly sixteen years ago, Kamana published an interview with Prakash Thapa, where he said, "Ma Jasto Nirdeshak Janmekai Chhaina"[ There is not a director as good as me.]
Later, when he was embroiled in a nasty newspaper brawl with the actress Karishma Manandhar, he claimed that he would never let Karishma enter the Nepali movie industry. Karishma would , however, become one of the most prolific actress in Nepal under the disapproving gaze of Thapa.
As a young boy who had watched Santaan twice in a sardine-crowded cinema halls of Chitwan, I had found the movie very good, the actresses of the movie attractive, and the director of the movie an arrogant person as demonstrated by his interview in Kamana.
Prakash Thapa's arrogance had one-to-one relation with the quality of his movies:his creation were the movies steeped in the conviction of a director.When you watched the movie, you knew the director spent time on them, made sure he used all his capacity to produce the final output. He made movies which were similar to movies from Bombay, but those movies helped to wean Nepali audience away from the Hindi movies. Soon after Santaan, Nepali movie industry took off in a surprising celerity, often competing the movie industry of neighboring small countries of movie mad South Asia such as Pakistan in terms of annual output.
Much has been already written in Nepali press about his recurring theme: a dominant female character or/and a call for social reform.
I had tried to watch his and Tulsi Ghimire's movies whenever I could. I always regarded those two as the major pillars of our movie industry. They supported it, they provided the foundation and other moviemakers just added something in the architecture they already designed.
Hope his soul will rest in peace.
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