Karma - Nepali movie in SAARC Film Festival

Reviewed by Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa

The film has uniquely powerful ambiguity, within human culture. In 2009, across major territories, there were over 6.8 billion cinema admissions (compared to a world population of roughly the same number) creating a global box-office revenue of over US$ 30 billion.

Vikas Shah

In a 1963 report for UNESCO, looking at Indian cinema and culture, the author Baldoon Dhingra quoted a speech by Prime Minister Nehru who said ... "the influence in India of films, is greater than newspapers and books combined."

In its steady progress, the SAARC Film Day series, conducted by the SAARC Cultural Centre, Colombo, has traversed the SAARC lands from A to N. At N, we meet the Nepali film Karma.

The selected films, presented to the filmgoers, a 'feel' of the human flavour and the cultural essence, peculiar to that specific tradition of film-making.

Pleasant shock

But, in this instance, SAARC has done much more than that while administering a telling but pleasant shock and surprise, by revealing the world of Karma, SAARC has opened for us a vast vista, on a highly significant landscape of film-making, that is little known outside Nepal.

If we spoke about a "Nepali film industry" the response would mostly be disbelief. But, the stark truth is an indigenous film - Industry has flourished in Nepal for sometime now. Its products, though, had been largely for domestic consumption.

According to history, the first Nepali - language film was D.B. Pariyar's Satya Harischandra, released in September 1951.Though living under the giant shadow of Bollywood, the indigenous Nepali films have been able to retain a character of their own.

Karma is the most eloquent testimony to it.

Director Tsering Rhitar Sherpa's Karma possessed a gripping freshness, in terms of the theme, location, characters and its narrative progress.

The initial visuals, introduce the viewer to a forbidding hillside, scorched and parched by the sun.

Constipation

Rocky slopes are dotted with little openings, giving the illusion, that it could be the habitat of some wild animals. We see some nuns gathering the dry dung of yak-cows. As night falls, they rush to the nunnery. The closeted lives of the 44 nuns residing there documented by a rigid moral discipline, impose an an austerity to the backdrop of the narration. The old abbess, questions the young ones about the scarcity of dung. Young and mischievous Ani (Nun) Karma, has an explanation. "The cows suffer constipation."

The central character of this spiritually choreographed drama is the young nun Ani Karma.The nunnery faces a crisis. The old Abbess has passed away. To ensure her proper re-incarnation elaborate rites and rituals have to be performed. But, the nunnery cannot, raise the funds needed for the performance of these rituals. The nuns have an option. The money that had been lent to a shrewd businessman has to be acquired back. But who will trace this elusive villain Tashi?

Ani Karma volunteers to take over the mission - with another as assistant.

From this point on Karma takes on the guise of an absorbing odyssey.

Harsh terrain

The film is located in the rugged and harsh terrain of the Himalayan foothills. The mission of these two young nuns, quickly arrest the attention of the viewers. Their vulnerable innocence, wins empathy.

The title of one film - Karma is the name of its central character Ani Karma. By extension Karma also implies unavoidable fate - a relentless resting.

In a culture like ours, the portrayal of nuns in this manner, may arouse susceptibilities.

Challenges

But, the style in which Director Tsering Rhitar Sherpa goes about this business, allows a sense of humanity to take centre - stage. The viewers, eventually begin to see an intense human effort, bereft of questionable religious nuances.

The money - hunting expedition is a painful ordeal to the duo of nuns. Their, entry into the world of intense worldly routines, poses challenges, that their cloistered life did nor prepare them for.

The situation worsens, when Karma's companion falls ill. Undaunted Ani Karma, keeps on going.She succeeds in confronting the quarry. But, enlightenment has dawned upon her. The surface appearance of sin, may be an illusion. It may mask deep virtue.

The Nepali film Karma as a total film experience, leads to enlightenment. It enables the spectators to identify drama, even in austere cloisters. The sense of humour can subdue, an entrenched attitude, leading to an enlightened transformation.

At the end of the film, one may very well ask, whether the search for moral and spiritual truth cannot be pursued even outside restricted walls.

Deep inner awareness, akin to liberation, can drawn even in the hum and buzz of an urban turmoil. Ani Karma's surprising generosity stems from that deeper view of the ways of men and women.