Kathmandu

Cheap comedy, a few action scenes, a never-ending corny love story, friendship, excruciating and demeaning dialogues and songs that make your ears bleed — combine all these and Luv Sab is ready.

It is not about not liking Nepali films, you want to appreciate them (there are a few that have surprised and wowed all of us), desperately, but you end up feeling sorry for its state as it can never get out of the stereotype. A chowk in Patan binds Traffic (Samyam Puri) — a mute orphan, Bhola (Shishir Bhandari) — a cobbler, Chandan (Salon Basnet) — a rich brat and a gang leader — in a bond. They share different equations — Traffic and Bhola are best friends, whereas Chandan is the protector of Traffic from the goons. Then comes Alishma (Karishma Shrestha) to their neighbourhood; at first glance Traffic falls in love with her, so does Chandan. Unaware of all the attention, she struts the streets.

The ‘twist’ is added to the plot for unbearable melodrama, though director Dev Kumar Shrestha’s intention must have been to make it heart wrenching. But he has tried too hard and added too much of everything. Let’s refer to a scene — Chandan is fighting another gang member’s leader KK (KK Adhikari) for Traffic. Chandan is about to hit KK with a rod, when a drunk Traffic stops him and manages to give an emotional-sign-language-speech. KK is spared.

On other days understanding Traffic required a translator, but now everything is understood and the feud ends. It cannot get more melodramatic than this you think? This is just the tip of the Luv Sub iceberg.

Acting thankfully is not ghastly, but neither is it commendable. Noteworthy performances do exist like Bhandari’s. His character Bhola comes to the City from Tarai to become a doctor, promised to be helped by his alcoholic brother, but ends up being a cobbler and is often beaten up. He is a natural, so is his accent.

Puri, as a mute and lovable person, is believable for he has an innocent look, but there are times when he becomes annoying trying to be gain too much sympathy. Basnet’s character is supposedly the cool dude, which he is, but only on the roads. He makes it to the list of bad dialogue delivery actors in the industry. Karishma, on the other hand, makes it difficult to review her work. She has barely acted, she is allegedly the pretty face in the film. Perhaps beauty does lie in the eyes of the beholder.

If you have all the patience in the world, this movie is for you.

Luv Sab

Genre: Romantic comedy

Director: Dev Kumar Shrestha

Cast: Samyam Puri, Salon Basnet, Shishir Bhandari, Karishma Shrestha, KK Adhikari

Being screened at QFX Cinemas