SEP 23 - Mero Euta Saathi Cha (MESC) is the result of a year's blood, sweat, and glycerine. When it began 18 months ago, there was little hope that director Sudarshan Thapa's idea would be accepted. He had only a vague idea of what he wanted to do when he approached producer Prabhu SJB Rana. He was not sure he could convince Rana: he was just a beginner in the industry and barely knew the trade.
That was 18 months ago. Today, Thapa's project is a hit. The halls are packed; even reporters who wanted to be the first to see the result Thapa's year of hard work had a hard time getting unreserved seats in the first week. Don't listen to the critics: MESC has been, more or less, a resounding success.
The very completion of MESC was a great achievement. It was difficult to find someone to produce the film, as well as to find a team that would have faith in the novice director. A good story was hard to find—the first few drafts of the screenplay were unacceptable because they sounded like dubbed versions of a foreign film. After the filming began, unfavourable weather in Ilam and Pokhara delayed shooting by months. To add to the chaos, Thapa also lost a close friend in an accident, and was jailed for three weeks for being involved.
Despite the difficulties, Thapa would not leave the film unfinished. The cinematographer, the choreographer, musicians, and the cast had put into a lot of hard work and dedication in the project, and he would not let it go wasted. His faith towards his team shows in the results: MESC is remarkably different from other Nepali films, because the crew worked hard to make it different.
The distinct bluish tint of the film makes it a visual pleasure, but the cinematography team was not without its ups and downs: the core team was reshuffled during mid-filming, but the end result is flawless. Cinematographer Rajesh Singh, despite being a later addition to the film, bonded really well with the original team.
Sugam Pokharel and Bipin Acharya's music compositions for the film have set a new bar for background music and film songs for Nepali cinema. Renasha Rai's choreography makes a point that dances need not always be painfully blatant. The actors' believable portrayal of characters shows the improving standards of Nepali acting. The film lags behind in editing, though: it is obvious that frames have been stretched almost in two dozen scenes. Editors will remember for their next project that frames from video-processing softwares are not replacements for shot frames.
Mero Euta Saathi Cha may be, as the critics say, an adapted version of a Korean movie, but that is not the point. Director Thapa says, “It has been adapted from a Korean film, not because we did not have original ideas, but because we wanted to show that we can make a film that is comparable to foreign films. The audience now knows that we do not lack the resources or the talent to make a good movie. Now they will be expecting greater things from Nepali films, and filmmakers will have to work harder to meet expectations.”
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