Black Lives Matter: a cinematic standpoint

Films have given me so much that my life would be incomplete without it. If it wouldn’t have been for movies then I would probably have a contrasting opinion regarding, gender equality, homosexuality, mid-life crisis, mental health, civil war/world war, racial inequality, and many more.

Today I have decided to give a tribute to the victims of racial discrimination through my words; I will focus on the films and documentaries that have tried to share the historic instances of racial discrimination; the theme black lives matter.

While writing this I am trying to recall my knowledge about slavery when I was in college. I believe the context of slavery probably came to my attention after watching Lincoln (2012). The reason I watched this film was due to Daniel Day-Lewis as I had recently been amazed by his performance in There Will be Blood (2007), My left Foot (1989), and Gangs of New York (2002). At that time, I found Lincoln boring and couldn’t even finish the whole film. My defense was that this slow dramatic movie was just not for me.

That same year, Django Unchained (2012) also came with a lot of hype from the potential audience. One of the reasons could be because millions of girls’ heartthrob, DiCaprio a.k.a Jack for Titanic, had played the character of really evil and racist white tradesman (Calvin Candy) with a hobby of ‘mandigo fighting’. During that time, this film provided almost everything, at least for me since it managed to capture the brutality of slave trading and the intense discrimination towards black people.

The film does show the brutal violence cast upon slaves from killings in mandingo fighting to eaten alive by hungry dogs. As an audience, I had overlooked and digested the violence cast upon black people which was also a big part of the film. Right around the mid, the centrality of the film shifts towards revenge which Django (played by Jamie Foxx) finally gets it, that, I couldn’t take ownership of.

The film that really hit me hard was 12 years of Slave (2013). The cinematic experience this film takes you through the one part of slavery’s history is just painfully exceptional. The film centres around a violinist and a farmer, Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) in 19th century. Despite being a freeman, he is tricked into the slave trade as a slave. The violence is the core part of this film which gives the audience the reference to understand how slaves were treated.

According to Steve McQueen, he wanted to emphasis on the story of a free black man whose title of a free man is stripped out, rather than a black man born as a slave. This is where violence played a key role to grab viewers’ attention.

Solomon is captivated and beaten to the point where he is forced to say he is a ‘slave’, not a free man (this scene last for more than a minute).

Platt (Slave name of Solomon) is hang for four straight minutes which is shown from different vintage with couple of black slaves not able to help.

Not only physical the mental toll that slavery had in black folks is shown in the film where Solomon breaks his violin, the sign of losing hope when he finally gave up his hope as the most important thing, his music, is also taken away by slavery. The director has also used the power of silence in few instances like this scene here.

70 seconds of silence which made me think about what the protagonist went through.

The film excels at many levels by telling the situation of slavery in 1841 in the best possible way through violence and silence.

Like Lincoln, I also had ignored The Help (2011); perceived it was just some feel-good film. Not finishing the whole film couple of times, one night I finally watched it. Well, I was completely blown away by the stories it told and a perspective it gave to me.

The Help shared many untold stories about black maid serving the white family in 20th century where they had their won battle with racism. While 12 Years of Slave used the tool of violence to tell the harshness of slavery, this film (based on book: The Help by Kathryn Stockett) showed the power of voicelessness, circumstantial abuse, and poverty of black families and how everyday a black maid had to suffer to provide for their family, to send their children to school.

The theme of these stories centres around a black maid who is not only told to cook food, wash dishes, and clean the house, they were also told to take care of the baby. Why? just so the mother could go for charity dinner, women’s group, and be social with other white mothers who also had the maid do the same. The humiliation these black maids faced was so much worst that they were not even allowed to use the bathroom in the house they cook food and clean.

There is this quote from the film.

God Say, “We need to love our enemies.” It hard to do. But it can stop by telling the truth.

Another thing I loved about this film’s representation is the passion of cooking among women which are beautifully portrayed by the character Celia. From the perspective of black maid, cooking is more than just about eating food (during 20th century). Cooking is a big part of their culture that only few white women have realized and accepted.

Overall, this film has beautifully represented the presence of relationship between a white child and a black maid who has done more than cooking, feeding, and cleaning up.

All my recollection about films’ portrayal of racial inequality led me Fruitvale Station (2013). This film slowly squeezed my heart to the point where all I could do was tear up.

A story of a young black man, Oscar Grant played by Michael B. Jordan who is struggling with life’s reality; fired from the job, recently bailed out, and girl friend’s questioning on life’s choices creates a situation of distress on Oscar. Majority of the film has elegantly portrayed the desperate hunger of  opportunity to find out ways to earn money; the only way to meet ends need. Despite being a slow burn, the relationship between a father and his daughter adds more weight to the meaningful journey towards Oscar’s final destination, Fruitvale Station, only to add more pain and grudge against the system we live in. This film does make you question about police’s racial violence.

Following Fruitvale Station, I watched Detroit (2017) which was witnessing 140 minutes of the devastating violence of white racist police faced by black people. I don’t think there is any better example than Detroit (2017) that shows the extent of police brutality, even on innocent people just because of another skin color.

The film is a true story which took place in Detroit in July 25-26th 1967 where 3 innocent young black men were killed and 7 people being viciously brutalized in Algiers Motel. Detroit also portrays the perspective of white cops (at that time) who are straightly thinking about the problems in Detroit due to black communities which are only in few numbers. The sequence of the incident at Algiers Motel lasts about 35 minutes with every minute hard to watch as the harassment and violence continuously forced upon with increasing intensity. This film is one of the major contributions that cinema has provided with the global concern of police brutality (even in 2020) and racial discrimination.

Films like Detroit and Fruitvale Station makes us think about the political system and justice made for the public. If you ask a person, what should be done if someone (especially) innocent is killed by another human being? We know the answer to this, right!. But the system doesn’t work that way. Even in U.S., the country that is very much proud of its democracy, the killing of black person by white cops is not properly investigated and criminalized which has created a situation when the criminals are walking free and the victims are forced to hideout for rest of there life. How does it feel to know that, even in democratic country it is not safe for people especially of different race to survive?

In actor’s round table, John Boyega (played Melvin Dismukes in the film) talks about the Detroit incident “still scenario right now” and the film is the reflection of what is happening right now in terms of racial inequality. Dismukes silence in the film also talks about many people’s circumstances where they are not able to speak and talk about the everyday issue ignored by the others.

I believe this might be one of the reasons behind John Boyega’s speech against the incident which involved the killing of George Floyd, his contribution to racial equality is really exemplary.

In order to sum up the whole incident of racial inequality and the uprising issue of ‘black lives matter’ the perfect fit is the documentary I Am Not Your Negro (2016). Even after watching all those films, reading books, and following the current racial uprising, this documentary taught me so much about racial inequality (especially in America); opening sequence of the film which starts with James Baldwin talking about the eradication of the use of word ‘Negro’ which is also relevant in the context of Nepal’s dalit issue.

The documentary is based on incomplete manuscript (Remember This House) by James Baldwin, a memoir of his personal reminiscence of three most influential leaders who raised their voice on the issue of discrimination and violence against black people. It also points out the details of the 90 seconds animated montage of Detriot (2017) where the 90 minutes is segmented into three important figures who contributed largely to the whole issue of ‘Black Lives Matter’; many parts of the film revolves around figures: Medgar (1963), Malcom (1965), and Martin (1968) (all three of them dying in span of just 6 years), and the impact they have even after their death.

I am saying that journey is called that because you cannot know what you will discover on the journey, what you will do with what you find, or what you find will do yo you.

Have we ever realized the portrayal of native and black people in films in the early and mid 20th century? This documentary also clarifies the inferior representation of black people, even in films. Black Janitor’s fear after a white girl was found in his premise in They Won’t Forget, representation of native people in King Kong, a white daughter of black women in Imitation of life, and many more. How did native people become the villains in movies?

During early 20th many films produced legends with stories of white men killing native folks and manipulated the stories with the reassurance that no crime was committed, making legends out of massacre (John Wayne killing Indians in movies); maybe addressing so-called ‘white power’ to the oppressed people. Why? I believe, one of the reasons may be the prejudice that black people are not able, intelligent, adaptable, etc. in the nation controlled by the white majority. There is scene in the film where Robert Kennedy says,

There’s no reason that they , in a near and foreseeable future, that a Negro could also be president of the United States.

We can take a moment and think about this statement.

Another issue pointed out in the film by James Baldwin,

in 1950s, United States greatly celebrated its prosperity but never acknowledged the sacrifices and price paid by the victims, especially black people. But, the nation had successfully marketed the ‘black standards’ and the ways they are slowing gaining the prosperity they hoped for. Was it the reality though?

James Baldwin has also given emphasis on the culture of black folks which could be their communities itself, their choice of music, their dialect, their clothes, etc. which could have been also the problem for white people, not only the skin color; might be way out of ‘white standards’.

Result, the nation not knowing what to do with its black population, making white people speak out by saying they have nothing against black people. However, the fact that they didn’t know anything about black people, their community, their poverty and their everyday problems of being under-privileged, greatly points out the apathy and ignorance of white folks resulting to the creation of moral standard as per white majority resulting to current racial segregation even after 1862’s Emancipation Proclamation.

All these points out towards the reason behind recent death of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor or these 7 kids’ tributed in the documentary…

Each of these teens’ death was due to police shooting.

The great concern is about the role of the citizens, the role of white people for the black folks, and ways to create proper communication, especially to white majority.

I do believe these and many other films with focus on racial inequality have the element of dramatization and many scenes shown may not have happened. That is not something we should focus at all, we need to be more aware then we are and create a room of realization and find relevancy about these issues and their impact on our roots.

Even with so much contribution and voice towards racial inequality James Baldwin feels his separation with protest, fundraising, and realization that he could have done more. What have we committed? Even before committing, have we looked through that these incidents? It’s influence in our country? Or overlooking is all we have been doing?

Past couple of months, I have been very curious about human evolution and civilization. I am fascinated by our ancient history of the nomadic generation who were still hunter-gatherers for as recent as 7500 years (5500 B.C.) as human civilization had expanded from band to tribe and tribe to chiefdom. There are so much information and data available that it is just too much. After reading two books and listen to a few interviews of historians, I decided to move to films as a means of information that led me towards the discovery: Quest of Fire (1981).

The story is about a band of nomadic settlers (in prehistoric time) who came to the discovery of fire which they have preserved in a lamp like device, protecting the fire. However, the band is attacked by Neanderthals and other sapiens which leads to the quenching of fire; the only thing that has helped the band to fight cold. So, the three men from the band go in search of fire, hence; Quest of Fire. Bluntly speaking, this movie is not for everyone as it doesn’t have language and some might even find the plot ridiculous. It is totally up to you but this movie does contain soothing background score and wide-angle shots capturing the landscape which makes you think about Sapiens’ struggle to travel and our history.

 

There isn’t a single day when I have not researched films and added to my watchlist. These couple of months, I am being too cynical due to my choice and starting to feel arrogant as well. As I had too many suggested films in my watchlist, I decided to go with High and Low (1963) as I found out the director: Akira Kurosawa.

The plot starts with a shoe company’s executive (Mr. Gondo) who is on the verge of buying the decisive stake of the company. As Gondo is about to become the leading shareholder of the company his worker’s son kidnapped (perceived to be Gondo’s son) and held of the ransom which creates a major obstacle for Gondo to buy the share of the company. With a strong plot, the film is filled with dialogs which shows the high moral of a kind person and the collective ambition of a police force. Even in this kind of plot, Kurosawa has creatively captured multiple subjects in one frame which portrays collective ambitions, also, other creative shots have created a distance in the lead’s confused self with other characters at the start of the film.

 

Do you ever feel the right time to watch certain films or films which need our full attention? I certainly feel that when I am about to watch Tom McCarthy‘s films. Being such a great writer, he is underrated as well. I came across his first film The Station Agent (2003) while I was looking at the profile of Peter Dinklage (or should I say TYRION LANNISTER). After that, I watched Spotlight (2015) which is another well-written film that really makes you depressed. Then, I stumbled upon The Visitor (2007) about 3 months back but I strongly felt the need for the right time to watch this film. So, I waited.

Plot: a middle-aged professor on is way to university conference in another city, finds out that a couple is living in his apartment. This is a feel-good film with the element of emotional struggle, the voyage for passion, and a beautiful portrayal of romance which goes beyond the dimensions of many mainstream romantic movies.

 

From animes to foreign films, even in the early phase, I watched them in their own language reading English subtitles. I strongly believed in the importance of watching films in their own language. When doing so, I feel the respect I am passing to the director, writer, and actors’ craft by faithfully witnessing the essence of the foreign films. One such is Kar-Wai Wong, a director from Hong Kong who is known for highly stylized and unique visual director; known for films like In the Mood for Love (2000), Chungking Express (1994), and my recent watch: Fallen Angels (1995).

“Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” – Bong Joon Ho

Bong Joon Ho making that speech must have opened doors for many audiences to try foreign films in its native language. I have also been recommending people to do so because quality foreign films will definitely give you experience like none before.

 

‘Fallen Angels’ is one of those films, the story revolves around three characters (a hitman, hitman’s intermediate, and a love-obsessed mute). As the story starts, the film is dominated by artistic visual, nocturnal locations, streets of Hong Kong, and really cool and chill songs which just makes you let go; happening while the three characters decide the path of their lives.

 

Character development is such a powerful aspect many films and TV show focuses on. There is a reason why almost everyone hates Joffrey from Game of Thrones or loves Ned Stark; the true representation of quality writing. The Conversation (1974) is one of such films where I was fascinated by the development of character done by the passive observation of plot which itself was asking for the character to reveal his secretive self to the world of surveillance (his line of work). The story: a surveillance specialist takes on a task to spy on a couple and soon finds out that they are going to be killed. This leads to many turn of events in his life which slowly starts to impact his life in unexpected ways.

 

The world of cinema is filled with so many fruits that you won’t be able to eat in your lifetime. So, I strongly feel it is important to choose your kind of taste. Many people start with Top 250 in IMDb which can a clever starting point. However, you do need to go beyond that list as it only signifies a small boat in the ocean; many big boats can carry you to the parts of the ocean only a few can reach. One such act can be to keep following and reading my previous blog.

 

First 5 to Cinema

We all have our reasons to watch movies, which we may still be willing to discover. I believe our personalities are reflected quite well from the types of films we watch. Movies have become one of the most accepted forms of entertainment. However, for many film enthusiasts like myself, movies are more than just entertainment. Well, I will definitely love to talk more about this particular topic and there is a way to do so, by sharing every five movies that I have watched.

Films have made me more observational and it has made me see more through the lens of the photographer. Every story that we come across, the cinematic experience adds depth and syncs our understanding of the situation through the lens of the director and cinematographer.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) is one of such movies, through the whole movie, Top Ripley tries to sync with the personality, body language, fashion sense, etc. of Dickie Greenleaf and numerous scenes are presented in the film which divides these two characters in their subjectivity in one frame.

So, watching this movie think of what I just said and try to be more observant. If you do, then you will appreciate each frame of this film and appreciate the power of cinematography. This will take you in towards the roller coaster of thriller and mysterious change of character which you get to experience on rare occasions.

One of the reason, I am starting to write this blog is because of my holistic view towards different aspects of films that I am starting to appreciate in different phases of 8 years of film enthusiasm; when I realized the element of story, the element of acting, the element of music, and now, the element of framing. Akira Kurosawa always gives that treat, a treat you witness with your vision, connect with your instinct, and cherish with your passion.

Seven Samurai (1954), the story is set in the era of Japan where a samurai profession was heavily practiced as you could always find a man carrying a samurai sword, just wondering in the streets. A great plot: a poor village which feels the sense of danger from bandits, hires seven samurai to protect the village that might be attacked in the future.

I am always fascinated by the farming technique to Kurosawa. These two frames clearly explain the message it is trying to convy which you can only understand after watching the film. ‘Seven Samurai’ has portrayed the poverty of the village with a scene where villagers are not even able to afford rice (categorized as high-class crop at that time) for themselves as they have promised cooked rice to the samurais. It really takes passion to give your 4 hours to a single film which was made in 1954 and understand these hidden symbolism.

Talk about another movie with 4-hour length, Lawrence of Arabia (1962) which I came across almost a year ago but the length always stopped me from watching it; breaking that barrier was like passing through the tunnel of stereotypical, witnessing the landscape of filmography. Quite metaphorical!!

Plot: a British lieutenant is sent to Arabia to support Prince Faisal to fight the Turkish force. Throughout the story, the character development of the lieutenant is a journey that takes the audience towards the aftermath of colonial times. The film is filled with the dry landscaping beauty of Arabia which expresses its harsh weather and climate, untouched by British colonization. When watching classical movies we need to sidestep the technical aspects and quality of the picture, then only we will truly understand the perspective of filmmakers of the 90s.

Have you ever felt the reason behind you coming across a particular film at that particular time? Well, I always do and I feel there is a far greater reason behind certain things happening for certain reasons. The meaning is hard to derive, is it necessary though? That is for you to decide.

Solaris (1972) is one of such films. I came across this movie in a comment on facebook’s post. At the time I was rereading Sapiens, just after finishing Guns, Germs, and Steel (Jared by Diamond). Both these books explore the human existence throughout history and the evolution of human, influenced by agricultural revolution, industrial revolution, and then digital revolution.

We are so much curious about gods, aliens, another planet, and another universe that we might have missed out understanding ourselves and our conscious; Yuval Noah Harari said that there is so much still to explore about human conscious but without understand it completely we have already started to manipulate human conscious. This movie has one clear answer about the existence of god, alien, and this so-called boundary which we claim as our world. This masterpiece does test your patience but it comes with the prize of our inner spirituality.

After hearing Mira Nair in The Hollywood report (director’s roundtable), I became fond of listening to her insight towards making films. Having said that, I was so upset that I came across The Namesake (2006) just a few weeks back and I just couldn’t watch it due to death of Irrfan Khan. Out of respect and deep appreciation for his contribution to the cinema I had to watch the film.

The film reflects the aspects of cross-culture which can deeply affect a married couple and their children who are born in the so-called dreamland “United States of America”. The story starts with two traditional families joining ties with the wedding knot of their son and daughter. After marriage, the couple moves to abroad for a new journey far away from their culture and tradition. ‘The Namesake’ is so delicate and sensitive that one needs to give attention to every second of it to witness the character development and essence of the film.

The world of cinema is full of such mentioned films that take you to the subjective journey of emotion, empathy, and spirituality. Why ruin our valuable time with just entertainment when movies can be much more with the exploration of our inner-self and our world. If you knew exactly how much time you had, then would you still be selecting that particular movie to watch?

In any economy that comprises several markets with numerous transactions, there are four major driving forces i.e. productivity growth, short term debt cycle, long term debt cycle, and politics. Productivity growth is a long term process led by hard work and innovation. The debt cycles are the result of an influx of credit into the economy. In this regard, short-term debt cycle lasts for about 10 years whereas long-term debt cycle happens once every 50-75 years leading to a change in the financial and monetary system. Politics means how countries deal with each other and their people regarding various internal and external issues. These forces on their own create several varieties of economic movements and subsequent trends creating one whole stable economic system. However, the recent COVID-19 outbreak, with its widespread impact on the economy, led to disruptions on these driving forces of the economy.

Many economists had predicted the current recession before the outbreak of this virus; Neil Irwin, senior economics correspondent for The New York Times, even mentioned the global recession happening in 2020 in his article “How the Recession of 2020 Could Happen” (written on August 17, 2019). Also, economists widely believe that this pandemic has just sped-up the process and has put the current global economy in a never seen situation as the economic activities have fallen to historically low levels due to travel restrictions, disruption in the supply chain and restricted lifestyle as a precaution against this pandemic which has temporarily frozen the global economy. 

While the financial crisis of 2008 was something that took its time to develop into something severe, the financial crisis that we are going to be facing now shall be worse since it will be affecting multiple aspects of the economy from consumption to investment, production, retail sales, and capital expenditure. This is in contrast to the previous crisis of 2008 and even the Great Depression that took the time of about 1-2 years to gradually unravel to a worse situation. This time around, things are going to unravel suddenly without providing much of response time or even options due to the multidimensional impact of the closure of the economies all around the world.  

Investors were already worried when President Donald Trump tossed trade wars with China. Many economists predicted the global recession due to advanced technologies killing many jobs, increase in borrowing and the trade war between China and US; the most discussed matter. However, the major cause of this recession being pandemic was the massive blow to the investors and the entire world. The major aspect of this crisis shall be that it will not just impact one economy or two or just affect the big economies and spare the smaller ones. The global lockdown shall affect each and every economy of the world in an independent as well as interconnected manner. Economists predict that we will most probably face a severe global recession in the first three quarters of 2020 which might even take more than three quarters for recovery. JP Morgan claims that this outbreak shall contract the global economy by 12% within the first 3 months of 2020. This is further aggravated by the 60% slump in oil prices. Many countries and experts have already announced the current economic situation as the global recession. The USA stock market has already seen the largest single-day point decline. The largest decline while “the dot-com bubble” was 49% but it took 2 years to reach there. This time, the scenario is very different as the S&P 500 index (stock index of 500 large companies) saw its largest one week decline of 36% since the financial crash of 2008. 

 

As the outbreak started in China, the first economic impact it made was the fall in Chinese exports. With China being the top exporter in the world, the downfall of exports from China due to the pandemic directly impacted its trading partners that include economies like the USA, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and India. As the overseas demand sores due to spread of the virus in major importers, the running capacity of factories has decreased by more than 50%. To fight this, the Chinese economy started to run the factories and business after 6 weeks of shutdown but still millions of migrant workers have not been able to return to their job due to fear of getting infected. Thus, due to the break in the supply chain China, like the rest of the world, might not be able to make a quick recovery from an economic standpoint even if it recovers from the virus successfully.

With travel restrictions in over 100 countries, the airline industry has faced a massive drop in the number of commercial flights per day. According to Airlines for America, at the beginning of 2020, about 111 thousand commercial flights were being operated while the most recent week shows the drop of the daily commercial flights to 31 thousand due to the COVID-19 outbreak. .In regards to the hospitality industry, there has been a sharp decline in the hotel occupancy rate globally as compared to 2019 figures. Countries like Italy, China, United Kingdom, United States, and Singapore have observed decline in the occupancy by 96%, 68%, 67%, 59%, and 48% respectively. Also, due to the less occupancy rate, hotels are forced to accept lower prices during this time. This has caused fall in the RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room) in a way that is worse than it had been during the September 11 terror attacks and financial crisis of 2008.

In terms of the oil industry, the decline in production of oil due to less consumption has collapsed the per barrel price of oil in the last four months from rising $64.58 (on January 5) to $20 (on April 1). Iran is affected largely by the collapse of oil prices as economists are estimating this impact to shrink Iran’s GDP by a third and create at least a $10 billion budget deficit in 2020; the economy of Iran was already tangling due to US’s trade sanction and the pandemic has made the situation even more sensitive. Besides Iran, Saudi Arabia (the largest exporter of petroleum) is also massively affected by this pandemic as oil prices have been decreasing and the supply will decrease by million barrels since the global storage tanks are already beginning to fill up. Another hard-hit sector in the manufacturing industry is auto production as the global auto product is estimated to decrease by 16% (1.4 million vehicles). 

As the pandemic continues to progress from nation to nation, many companies including bigger businesses are getting to the brink of bankruptcy. With travel restrictions and closure of economies, businesses are already struggling to cover their fixed costs. The impact of this is immediately seen in the hospitality and aviation industry. Consequently, businesses are forced to layoff employees or grant furlough. The pressure is even more for start-ups. As mass joblessness has already started to take place, more than 16 million Americans have already claimed for unemployment benefits in just two weeks. To decrease unemployment, the French government is trying to protect as many companies as possible by sheltering every worker. In response, the government has allocated €45 billion as employment protection and €300 billion as state-guaranteed loans; the idea of no layoffs which the French government claims as a lesson learned from the crash of 2008. A similar approach has been applied by Germany, Austria, Denmark, and Britain to provide employers with short-time work and furlough in many cases.

Post this global health crisis, it is obvious that there will be a great increase in government borrowing from many smaller as well as bigger economies. While the global economy had already been facing the challenge of ever-increasing debt as compared to the global GDP, the most anticipated debt crisis has now become imminent. As the economic impact of the virus is severe especially in poor countries. Countries like Iran whose economy is largely dependent on oil, the only option to save the economy is to start borrowing and the Iranian government has already requested $5 billion loans from IMF; EU and Japan have donated a few millions as humanitarian aid to Iran. However, the fatality of the virus has been severe mostly in developed nations like Italy, Spain and the USA. The next great impact of the virus is assumed to be in the US as the number of infected has already crossed 500,000. Like Iran, other developing and struggling developed countries (Italy and Spain) will also be desperate to borrow money to recover their economies. 

According to Institute of International Finance, the global debt at the end of September 2019 surged to $253 trillion which is a lot given the total economic output of the entire world is $84 trillion (3 times less). Post the pandemic, the global debt is expected to further increase. This has resulted in a situation where even stronger economies like the US, European Union, China or Japan, and international financial organizations will hesitate or delay providing loans to developing countries who will be heavily in need of relief funds. However, there will be massive borrowing to fight this recession. While the coronavirus has forced the whole world to halt, the impact of the virus, which has not even exceeded a month, will definitely go beyond the death tolls and infection rate creating a significant and long-lasting impact on the global economy.

 

Written by:

Rushma Gadtaula and Kushal Achhami

Every plague has killed many people which can be easily agreed by looking at the present fatality rate of COVID-19 coronavirus. Due to globalization, densely populated cities, and people traveling frequently, the spread of this virus has been very contagious as more than one million people have been infected in just two months; killing more than 60000 people. For anybody, this could easily pass as a plot for some apocalyptic end-of-the-world kind of movie but today it has become a living reality of the ill-fated early 2020s. The year will surely be remembered as the year of “COVID-19”- the virus of the century. We have no idea about the extent of this virus, the number of lives it will take and the ways it might change the course of history. One of the ways to have perspective on the COVID19 pandemic is to dig deeper into history.

Long before the COVID-19, the Antonine Plague that occurred between 160 AD – 190 AD in the then Roman empire is believed to be one of the first known pandemics to humans. While the disease spread from ancient Greece to all over the world killing about 5 million people, this wiped 1/3rd of the entire Roman population. The plague didn’t just kill a huge population of the time, but also led to a massive fallback of the Roman power hold during the time. As people succumbed to the plague, the Roman powerhouse started to fall short of enough human resources to campaign for their ambitious expansion. The mining industry suffered thereby leading to a shortage of enough silver to mint coins. The emergence of the disease led to the halt of the ever-increasing Roman power. This was also a time when people didn’t use to realize the medical/scientific aspect of the occurrence of epidemics and plague. It created a massive doubt in the belief system of the people as they started to believe the disease of being god’s wrath. While some people had restored faiths believing the god had given his judgments, other people started to doubt their faith.

Another major pandemic that has affected the world is the Great Bubonic Plague (1347- 1351 AD), popularly known as the Black Death that wiped about 25 million people worldwide. If we review the consequences of the Black Death, we can see how pandemics like these not just kill people but also bring about major changes in society. One of the major impacts is how the land prices decreased in Europe post the plague which eventually led to a massive restructuring of the social class during the time. While the significant depopulation caused by the plague helped the peasant class to grow due to increased wages and the ability to access remaining unclaimed land for cheap, the merchant class faced problems of the labor shortage. Also, the Black Death contributed greatly to eradicating famine that was rampant during the time in Europe. Another change brought about by the plague was the mechanization of several labor oriented tasks such as mills and printing. Since it took Europe about 200 years to reach back to its previous population, mechanization became a need to replace labor oriented tasks with machines. Apart from this, the major impact the plague has had was on the psychosocial aspects of the survivors. The children surviving the plague lived an era where they had closely encountered death. This changed the way people perceived life, religion, and faith. It would not be wrong to believe that the European renaissance got fueled up due to the new wave of thinking and need for psychological and social rejuvenation post the plague.

One interesting instance of how a pandemic changed the course of global politics is the Yellow fever of the 18th century and how it did not just put the halt on Napoleon’s ambitions to colonize the world but also contributed to the USA being able to grow its territory in a significant manner.  Arguably, to invade North America through New Orleans and to establish a major holding in the Mississippi valley, Napoleon initially dispatched nearly 30,000 soldiers and sailors to the island of Saint Dominique (present-day Haiti). Nevertheless, during the time Yellow fever was widespread in the Caribbean and much lethal in Saint-Dominique and this proved fatal to Napoleon’s forces. The troops were not as immune to the Yellow fever as the natives of the land were. In 1802, the disease became so fatal that 50 men per day were dying. The French troops started to realize the matter slipping out of their hands. To make the conquest successful, 20,000 additional troops were sent as a reinforcement but they still couldn’t deal with the fatality of the disease. Consequently, this shattered Napoleon’s secret ambition to colonize the French and returned with only 3000 survivors. Later, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the USA for $15 million in 1803 which doubled the size of the USA by twice at the period of time. It is notable how the port city of Louisiana today is one of the most important trading states of the USA. Later in 1804, Haiti got its independence and became the first independent nation in the Caribbean.

Several other pandemics like Cholera, Influenza of several types, HIV/AIDS, SARS, etc. have also caused great harm to the human population. As the world has opened itself to the opportunities of cross border transactions of different types, the pandemics have also got access to every nook and corner of the earth that is discovered by mankind. The domestication of humans followed by technological developments has made its ways for new world problems like this where a pandemic like COVID-19 can, in matter of a few months, challenge even the global powerhouses for survival. But human beings have always surpassed previous pandemics and become successful in the development of the modern state thereby increasing the general standard of people. The significant improvements in science, medicine, and technology along with increased understanding of the concepts of sanitation, immunization, and healthcare have led humans to shield themselves from plagues and flu that were fatal to previous generations. Nevertheless, if we compare COVID-19 with other known pandemics of the past, it has become obvious that the biggest threat from the virus is not the mortality rate but the rate by which it has been able to spread and the extent of our preparedness against such outbreaks.

The virus has taken no more than 2-3 months to spread from China to different parts of the world infecting over 1.2 million people worldwide and causing a global death toll of more than 60 thousand. But we can always look at the bigger picture as 250 thousand people have already recovered by the process of isolation. The identification of a cure is just a matter of time and the recovery rate will increase by great numbers. Like other pandemics, this will surely change the course of history and create heavy pressure in the global economy. Due to the COVID19 pandemic, what sort of changes human beings might have to go through in this modern century? What are your thoughts?

 

Written by:

Kushal Achhami and Rushma Gadtaula

Huge moment of realization: Why I didn’t have that expectation?

 

 

I remember watching Milk (2008) which is about a gay activist in America and it had a couple of intimate scenes between two men. I knew about this movie from a random conversation with a friend who was 5-6 years older than me and I was probably 19. His experience was that he couldn’t continue watching two men in an intimate scene; felt as if he was getting too much into the movie. It was a funny story at that time because I also had a similar experience after watching it. Besides, it gave two straight men a funny topic to talk about. Now it has made me contemplate why we made fun of that experience and why most of my male friends rarely talk about these sorts of movies.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

I was in my period of life where I used to watch 3-4 movies per day, at least. There were many good films I watched which makes “Life of Pi (2012)”, directed by Ang Lee, one of them. The way I search for movies is by going through director’s profile (mostly through IMDB site). I did the same with Ang Lee’s profile and stumbled upon Brokeback Mountain starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. After watching Heath’s performance in The Dark Knight (2008) as Joker, I felt this movie was worth watching. I completed the movie but I had to binge-watch it as there was a scene that made me uncomfortable. I guess I was not ready for two men passionately kissing and never really perceived two men as two-person who fell in love in the judgemental society of America at that time.

Philadelphia (1993): A sauna scene where 4 four guys make homosexual jokes and the protagonist (Andrew Backket) on the right tries to fake laugh.

Thinking back, I did watch Philadelphia where the protagonist is a homosexual lawyer with AIDS. The movie had many dramatically strong elements which made me love it, also I was a huge fan of Tom Hanks at that time. I remember a scene from Philadelphia, where men in sauna joke about homosexual, transgender, etc. in the presence of the protagonist. That specific scene made me realize the sort of perception I had about homosexual or transgender people as jokes about them were very normal to me. There were many incidents in my Uni days where we used to have similar jokes in our conversation. I still couldn’t watch movies where LGBT culture was strongly portrayed but this was the start of a phase where I had established huge respect for LGBT movies, actors, filmmakers and writers who are involved in them.

All these experiences made me realize that deep down I may not have been okay with people being gay or lesbian. For me, movies were the means of realization that I  wasn’t able to digest the LGBT culture in movies.

The Danish Girl (2015)

The major reason, I was still not ready for these sort of movies was due to one particular scene from The Danish Girl where the lead character finds his way to womanhood which was really disturbing for me; felt I had to skip it to finish the movie. However, I found my way through this genre and it was the movie Call Me by Your Name. This movie, at least for me, breaks all the length of gay romance in a screen and it is portrayed in such a way that the viewers are in for a cinematic journey only to realize the beauty of this film; the visual journey of streets of Italy is very colorful and mesmerizing.

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Call Me by Your Name made me open up more about my preview experience with gay romance. I remember having a conversation about watching Milk and Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013); turns out it can be weird for female as well in case of intimate lesbian scenes which is obvious. I guess I just thought from a male point of view as I kind of was okay with a lesbian romance. This made me realize, I continuously referring the movie to a friend (female) and joking about intimate scenes between two women. While writing this I am regretting that as well.

All these experiences made me matured enough to enjoy movie of all sorts. So, I started to explore movies with gay/lesbian elements and there were many movies added to my watch list.

Moonlight (2016)

Being a movie geek, I like to know about actors/actresses’ perceptions and thoughts about a variety of topics in real life. For this, I continuously follow Roundtable discussions where actors, filmmakers, writers, producers, etc. talk about different topics regarding film making and acting. There is one particular episode from THR Full Oscar Actor’s Roundtable (2017) where Dev Patel and Andrew Garfield talk about their only disappointment from Moonlight was the two homosexual men not kissing in the final sequence of the movie. I wonder now,  why didn’t I notice it as well; in spite of how much I love Moonlight.

One day I felt rewatching Brokeback Mountain; watched the whole movie. I eventually realized the depth of the two characters who fall in love. Finally, I felt like I was a complete movie lover who can actually be open about many things. For instance, I always believed that I was okay with people being gay or lesbian but my experience with movies like Brokeback Mountain or Milk always made me question that.

After Brokeback Mountain I watched Carol and this movie actually made me tear up. There are many sad scenes in the movie but I was touched by two particular sequences.

 

In left sequence, Therese watches Carol go with a man as she watches her through a misty car window and this similar sequence is shown (on the right) where Carol is in the car watching  Therese in some streets, moving on with her life.

This is just artistic film making and I was hugely touched by it. The major point here is the fact that the movie Carol became the entry point for me to the universe of movies where I love and respect every genre there are and there will be made.

Now, I have listed out a bunch of movies where LGBT culture is strongly portrayed and I may again rewatch a few movies that I have talked about here. Finally, I feel like I am out of my comfort zone which makes me ask, Which phase are you in?

 

Movies have become one of the major forms of entertainment that successfully grabs audiences’ attention; so much that we feel happy, sad, frustrated, confused and even angry.  I sometimes feel that movies control our emotions.

Over the years the film making has changed quite a bit. From direction to acting to script writing, everything is different now. I guess the advancement of technology has played a major part. This has led to stretch more focus towards character development in today’s film making.

Most of the movie is centered on one story, one lead character, and a few other supporting characters. I guess this is a widespread point of view. So, how important is the development of character? Is writing a character so important for today’s audiences?

I believe focusing on strong character development is very essential. At least for me. Let’s analyze a few of the characters from movies and TV-series that are my personal favorites.

Troy from Fences

Troy Maxson (played by Denzel Washinton) from Fences is one strong character. Not due to his manliness or aggressive attitude towards life but the way a typical man is portrayed in a patriarchal society. The protagonist from Fences is a man with honor and responsibility whose one and only duty is to look after his family. For that, the family members need to do as he says because he thinks of himself as a boss. Due to this attitude, he is not able to see the changing world. In fact, he seems to believe he is not that harsh for his sons compared to his violent father.

The movie revolves around being a man and his responsibility and building a fence which is great symbolism in this case. However, a man with honor is actually having an affair. What hypocrisy!! However, after this, he slowly starts to realize about wrong things he did. Even after this, he seeks respect from his family. This character is written so well by August Wilson that I felt intimated by Troy Maxson; the influence of character.

Gandhi

A historical figure is a difficult character to portray in any movie. Ben Kingsley has played a powerful figure in the movie Gandhi (1982). This is one of my favorite biographical movie where the lead is such an amazing character with huge significance for India and Pakistan’s independence. Being a historical figure, writing it is difficult as one needs to rely on readings and people who have met Gandhi. I would like to believe that Gandhi was a man of patience and wisdom.

Writing a character whose development is huge in the later part of the movie is just an amazingly challenging task. In the movie, I would like to see the development of characters having different phases. The initial phase was the realization of being an Indian which happened after Gandhi was thrown off the train in South Africa. Another phase was witnessing real India and its poverty and meeting the poor farmers slaved by imperialism. Another important phase was realizing the extent of British activities towards violence after the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre where more than 1500 Sikhs were killed.

The consistency of the character’s development is amazingly shown through these phases and the way it has made Gandhi even more stronger. The non-violent nature of Gandhi is written in a proper manner by John Briley where justice is done by Ben Kingsley.

Faizal Khan from Gangs of Wasseypur Part 2

If you are a huge Nawazuddin Siddiqui fan then you must have watched Gangs of Wasseypur. Just by looking at Part 1 of Gangs of Wasseypur I was quite certain about Faizal Khan having no room to become a lead character. Such a weak person whose entire world was just about smoking cannabis could never enter the world of Gangs. However, the Akhilesh Jaiswal, Anurag Kashyap made is possible for Faizal Khan to become a man with attitude to lead and grasp power when one needs to do so.

The movie has a strong background story with many interesting characters. Out of them; Faizal Khan leads to the top;  becoming romantic in his own weird way to becoming surprisingly fearless character.

Faizal is one of the most interesting characters I have seen in a movie. First thing, he doesn’t speak much in the movies. There are just a few lines the sequences where he is present. At first, this makes him a confused person who lacked initiation. When he finally speaks his rise into power can be felt. The mysterious nature of Faizal makes him unpredictable which is the major reason people of Wasseypur started to fear him.

The introduction of characters like Perpendicular and Definite who follow Faizal was also a part of the character development of Faizal Khan. It was a way of showing audiences how powerful Faizal has become and this happens in the mid part of the movie.

Theon Greyjoy from Game of Thrones

One of the best TV series (Game of Thrones) ended this year. Obviously, TV series are filled with interesting characters and Game of Thrones is no different. Here, I particularly like to talk about Theon Greyjoy.

For me Theon is one of the best character in a TV series. The build-up is just consistently surprising and amazing to watch. Observing this character in every season of the series, you will find a change which is remarkably well written. From being loyal to traitor to dishonoured to slave to courageous and finally a leader who got absolution, the character goes to the journey of hell where he finally gets the freedom he wanted. The journey of Theon takes audiences to the roller coaster of emotions without even realizing it.

Walter White a.k.a Heisenberg

My fascination towards great film characters started after watching TV series Breaking Bad where the lead is played by Bryan Cranston as Walter White a.k.a Heisenberg. At the end season of the series, I had already started to hate Walter White and pity Jesse Pinkman (played by Aaron Paul). Walter White was a perfect character who is successfully able to show the audience what greed of money and power does to a man and how low can a person go for it.

The story is so well written that the development of character like Walter White seems to be a request by audience and writers were obliged to slowly develop a decent family man to this greedy and selfish person who seeks more power and money than he ever needed.

The world of cinema is filled with a lot of interesting, powerful and hateful characters. They are just so well written that they stand out and audiences remember them for quite some time.

The five characters that I have picked are just my personal favorites which I was thinking while writing about the development of characters. The reason, however, is just to explain the significance of character development in writing a movie and the huge responsibility it carries towards given a different meaning to the story of the movie.

The development of characters totally depends towards its writing at initial phase then comes to the direction. This will only be worth if the actor who plays it gives justice to it. Throughout the years, the combination of these three roles has given audiences many characters that are worth to remember. The world of cinema and characters are just inseparable.

Genre: Documentary

Director: Ron Fricke

“Samasara” is a word originated from Sanskrit which expresses the concept of rebirth only to find the world bounded by materialistic values; this cycle is the completion of the word’s significance. Directed/written by Ron Fricke, the movie was filmed in 25 countries from 5 continents which took almost 5 years. The non-narrative documentary (Samsara) is sequenced in about 6-7 parts where each part reflects on ways physicality of objects have influenced us.

This is the first documentary that I have watched where there is no narration at all. However, it was so captivating that I was speechless. Why so?

Let’s talk about the different sequences in the movie.

The first sequence shows the creation of “Mandala” by a few Buddhists in a monastery. The mandala itself is giving reference to creation and representing the cycle of life. Then, another sequence expresses many beautiful natural structures, monasteries, landscape views, and others. Even destructed property is shown, silently informing the power of nature. There are few time-lapse scenes as well which just adds more to this particular sequence.

Then comes the baptizing scene of a child. This scene is very powerful where the child’s adoption to religion is just involuntary. This sequence is followed by portrait shots of many African tribes which is visually rich. Throughout these sequences, slow soothing background music is used which effortlessly grabs the viewer’s attention. The consistency of it even increases in further parts of the documentary.

The third sequence contains slow aerial shots of developed cities followed by aerial time-lapse of cities’ nightlife where the movement of vehicles is just unimaginable; made me question myself, Is that ours’ doing? After this, the fast-paced human life is revealed.

Starting from the office setting, it further captures the lives of humans in trains, theatres, golf-course, manufacturing factories, meat industries, food packing, supermarkets and then restaurants. All these parts of human life are captured in a form of time-lapse supported by fast music; strongly referring to modern lifestyle. Opposite to this, poverty is also covered where low-paid jobs like collecting/managing waste are captured.

Ron Fricke’s film editing and cinematic experience are supported by powerful background music, credit entirely towards Marcello De Francisci, Lisa Gerrad and Michael Stearns. Being a keen observant about any movies’ background music, I was hugely touched by one particular music: Kothbiro by Ayub Ogada. For me, the sequence of war was just amazingly apprehended with reference of disfigured soldier, funerals and gun manufacturing with support of the beautiful tune; Kothbiro (Rain is coming).

Finally, comes faith. Faith has been one of the most important parts of human life. This share of life has taken the form of religion in this documentary. Judaism is the final segment of the movie where time-lapse of people praying in Synagogue; a place where Jews meet to worship and pray to God. The number of people this particular time-lapse capture is gigantic.

Samsara covers many important aspects of human life and every viewer can relate to at least one of the aspects shown in the movie. Even though the movie doesn’t contain narration, it screams loudly to its viewers about outlooked realities of modern life. The documentary is made in a way that it is open to interpretation leading viewers to talk about where modern life is taking us.

 

Every now and then a person sees a waste collecting truck or rickshaw in Kathmandu. Most of the time, it is so full that the waste falls from the vehicle. This particular incident is not a rare event in Kathmandu or other developed cities of Nepal. It can be a simple way of assuming the problem of solid waste management (SWM) which Kathmandu Metropolitan City has been facing for a long period of time.

The capital city of Nepal is, in fact, the most developed district in Nepal due to three major development factors: education, health, and transportation. The population of Kathmandu is about 2 million excluding people who are temporarily staying here for education, job opportunities and other facilities. Due to the unbalanced development of Nepal, millions of people have migrated to Kathmandu. The total number of people staying in Kathmandu in a busy season would be around 4 million which is very large given the size of Kathmandu (395 km²). This existing scenario has massively contributed to urbanization and also upsurge in the number of restaurants which are the major factors for the increase in tons of solid waste in Kathmandu.

Every day 70,000 tons of waste is produced inside Kathmandu valley (Khaalisisi.com). According to a study conducted by Asian Development Bank (2013), it was estimated that household waste, in general, contributes to about 50% – 75% of the total municipal solid waste (MSW) generated. Other major contributors were restaurants, industries, schools and different organizations. After the collection of waste, it is transferred to Teku dumping site. Teku dumping site is the only dumping site in Kathmandu where wastes from Bouddha, Chabahil, Koteshwor, Baneshwor, Maithighar, Kalimati, Basantapur and Kalanki are collected. The waste from Teku dumping site then goes to Sisdole landfill site in Nuwakot which is about 24km away from Teku dumping site. Some of the waste is sent back to Kathmandu in reusable form whereas most of the waste is buried in Sisdole.

About 15 trucks (average) operates around Kathmandu on a daily basis to collect waste which is very less given the size of Kathmandu’s population. Due to insufficient transportation, tons of waste gets uncollected. Talking about Sisdole landfill site, it is also not managed properly. From workers getting fewer wages to, the maximum amount of both degradable as well as non-degradable waste being buried, it is just the tip of an iceberg. The dumping site produces a lot of leachates that straightly flows to the river which people depend upon. Before selection of Sisdole landfill site, the villagers were promised fresh drinking water, hospital, schools with free education and a lot of other things by Nepal Government which have not been fulfilled at all. Currently, SWM in Kathmandu is in so bad state that Sisdole landfill site is on the verge of filling up.

Nepal still has been following old waste management policies which have not been amended. Solid Waste Management Act of 2011 is very weak as it has not been able to implement the acts which have only been limited on papers. Also, the laws regarding waste management are not strict at all. Due to this, general citizens worry less about polluting the vacant places; mainly streets. Polluting vacant places has actually become a trend in Kathmandu where places like Asan, Balaju, Tukucha, Chabahil, etc. frequently faces the problem of SWM. One of the causes behind this sort of situation is due to Nepal Govt.’s inability to place dustbins in public places.

According to Environment Audit Report (2015), 19^th municipal council decided to distribute compost bin for the local resident at 50% subsided rate. As per the decision, the KMC has distributed 1 thousand 500 compost bin in fiscal year 2011/12. The policy didn’t continue in 2012/13 but as per the 22nd municipal council in 2013/14, 1 thousand 739 compost bin has distributed. During 3 years, only 3 thousand 239 compost bin has been distributed which seems insufficient as compared to 1.12 million populations as per 2011 census. There was also a case where thousands of bins were kept in stock rather than being distributed.

Another reason is lack of awareness programs regarding waste management. From lack of capacity building training for staff working in the field of SWM to lack of awareness-raising activities for the general public, all these factors contribute highly to the problem of SWM in Kathmandu. SWM policies of Nepal is mostly guided by the Solid Waste Management Act (2011) and Local Self Governance act (1999). Besides these policies, there are others like Environment Protection Act (2053, 2054), 13^th Periodic Plan (FY 2013/14 – 2015/16) which have also prioritized SWM but Nepal Govt. have not been able to implement the policies as per the paper. Therefore, focusing on recycling is out of the question.

Looking for examples, in Thailand, there is a massive use of plastics due to a large number of street food markets. Even with that, the government has been able to manage solid waste. The reason behind this is first: there are garbage bins in a distance of 200-300 meters even in rural places of Thailand. Second, people have been made aware of the consequences of throwing plastics in the streets. I have seen people carrying their waste in personal bags which shows commitment to manage waste even from the personal side which disappointingly lacks among the general public of Nepal.

According to the study by ADB (2015), municipalities spend an average of 10% of their total budget on SWM, of which about 60% – 70% is used for street sweeping and collection, 20% – 30% for transport, and the rest for final disposal. We can clearly see the problem here. Spending just 20%-30% on transportation is not enough at all. This is the reason behind the lack of efficiency that results in tons of waste being uncollected on a daily basis. It is estimated that 10-12 tons of waste per day are left uncollected due to lack of transporting trucks. This kind of situation further increases the problem of SWM.

According to Khaalisisi.com, out of the collected waste from household, 75% can be recycled. However, only 25% of it is recycled. Since households are the major contributor towards the generation of solid waste, this existing household behavior just can’t be ignored. We have to accept that both Nepal Govt. and the general public have done very less to promote proper solid waste management. Lack of transport truck for waste collection, unmanaged Sisdole Landfill which is on verge of filling up, insufficient garbage bins in public places, lack of awareness campaigns and many other problems are there which Nepal Govt.  needs to focus on deeply.

 

 

Genre: Sports, Drama, Romance

Writer/Director: Diwakar Bhattarai

Main Cast: Anmol KC, Upasana Singh Thakuri, Saroj Khanal, Wilson Bikram Rai

Captain, a Nepali movie, is a football drama about a son (Ishan) of an unsuccessful footballer who tries to fight his way towards National Football Team of Nepal. The lead is played by Anmol KC who is supported by debut actress Upasana Singh Thakuri who plays the role of a childhood friend of Ishan. Role of Unsuccessful footballer/father of Ishan is played by veteran Nepali actor Saroj Khanna.

Talking about the script, it is just below average due lack of connecting dots which could have been better if the director had given any justice to the script. The movie starts with rushed emotional journey about a family of underachieving footballer which is presented in such a way that it is not realistic to the general audience as his past is not focused at all. For initial 20-25 minutes, the lead played by Anmol KC doesn’t speak at all which just creates a big question about the quality of the script.

As the movie goes on, there are factors such as useless drone shot of football field, only a few minutes of footage regarding football game with the focus on only Anmol KC and many other scenes which just shows the inability of a director to make a movie about football sports. Due to this, the focus and consistency in direction and script writing are not seen at all. The only consistency that I saw in the movie was hairstyle of Anmol KC backed by make-up and nice clothes which is not relevant at all in case of a family who is struggling to meet the end needs.

From the acting perspective, Wilson Bikram Rai has given some justice to character followed by debut actress Upasana Singh Thakuri and Saroj Khanna. Like many other movies, Anmol KC has not been able to give strong performance due to lack of facial expression and dialog delivery. The movie gets even worst when the football scenes begins. Being a movie about football, there is not even one sequence regarding an entire football match.

One of the major lacking factors in the script is the realistic perspective. This has created an environment where the general audience may not believe at all what is happening in the movie. Given the fact that the movie is a sports drama, realistic perspective is necessary. However, it is not in case of Captain. Overall, the movie is another downfall of Nepali film industry. For the new audience, the movie will just bring huge disappointment.

Rating: (3.5/10)