Teen Ghumti

Genre: Social

Director: Babu Ram Dhakal

Cast: Garima Panta, Dhruba Dutta, Sushant Karki, Madan Das Shrestha, Laxmi Giri, et cetera

Being screened at QFX Cinemas

Kathmandu

Based on BP Koirala’s novel Teen Ghumti, the new Nepali movie of the same name lacks adequate charm to captivate the audience. Poor direction, not-so-good acting, slow pace, bad animation make Teen Ghumti a boring watch.

Set during the Panchayat regime, it is the story of a Newar girl of Kathmandu Indramaya (Garima Panta), who falls in love with Pitambar (Dhruba Dutta), from a Brahmin family. Though inter-caste marriage was not socially and culturally acceptable then, the duo get married. Also a political activist, Pitambar is then jailed for going against the Panchayat System and the king. During Pitambar’s absence, his friend Ramesh (Sushant Karki) and Indramaya end up having sex, and Indramaya gets pregnant.

The film that has some political context in the first half gets focused on love-hate relationship of the husband and wife after the interval.

A love triangle, Teen Ghumti is a boring watch. Rather than talking, the characters seem more like they are reading lines from books. And their dialogue delivery is too slow.

Panta is okay as a daughter, wife, mother and lover, but there is room for improvement in her acting. For instance, she is shown cutting vegetables with much difficulty using chulesi (an equipment to cut vegetables). She seems like someone who has never touched the tool, she could have at least learnt it properly — after all it is an actor’s responsibility to research and learn the skills required for their roles.

Karki is appealing. With eyes filled with lust, he justifies his part. And he is charming as a loving man. Dutta, however, should have been more powerful in the role of a political activist.

Certain scenes are unnecessary and seem forced — just because the film is based on BP’s novel, there is no point in showing the BP Koirala Museum in Sundarijal without context. The story moves ahead and is understandable without an introductory and a concluding narration. Though the cinematography is eye catching, use of animation to depict the vehicles and monuments like Dharahara of the then time is not appealing.