मैले आजसम्म सुनेका उत्कृष्ट र गहनतम व्यंगहरु मध्येको एक । यो सुन्दासुन्दै वा सुनिसकेपछि एकबाजी हाम्रो आधुनिकताको खोक्रो विशालता, फटाहा अतिरञ्जना र मुक्तिविहिन चक्रव्युहको दैत्याकार चित्रले निसास्सिने गरी थिचिएको महसुस नगरीरहन सक्नुहुनेछैन ।
एकदम दर्शनीय, श्रवणीय, पठनीय र चिन्तनीय प्रस्तुती !
Enjoy !
Nepe
“I am a modern man”
by George Carin (recipient of the Mark Twain prize 2008)
(Featured in the EleventhAnnualKennedyCenter Mark Twain Prize on Feb 4, 2009)
कार्लिन बाजेको र यताका अरु पनि बाजेबज्यै नातीनातिनाका उठी-ठट्टा सुनेपछि मलाई हाम्रो नेपालाँ नि यस्तै अलि वयस्क र गम्भिर ठट्याई गर्नेहरु भए क्या गजब हुनेथियो भन्ने लागिरहन्छ । हाम्रामा त ठट्टा विद्ये खाली क्यारिकेचरमा सिमित छ भन्या ।
नेपाली ठट्टा विधामा हाम्रो आशु, जो Seinfeld का विशेष प्रशंसक हुन्, ले केही फरक शैली भित्र्याउन भित्र्याउन खोज्या हो, तर त्यसलाई स्थापित गर्नतिर भने मरिमेटेनन् उनी ।
अलि स्तरीय, वयस्क र गम्भीर ठट्ठाशास्त्रको स्थान रिक्तै छ भन्ठान्छु म ।
I think that is a pretty serious topic on the subject of humor.
The intellectual maturity to absorb such humor and the audience that we have back home. Not only in Nepal, even India lacks that audience in masses. While India has progressed from just crude humors, funny caricatures, a guy-being-a-lady humor into some notable standups like Shekhar Suman etc, the mass still tilts towards absurd humorism than the intellect one. Well, I guess you can make that point about US also (aka American pie, Euro Trip etc). But the point is, is Nepal ready for such a mundane yet “intellectual†stand up humor.
MaHa’s name comes to mind and other political satirists of our era. They sure had a good following back in those days when they did stage comedies and the level of humor was way above what even they are practicing right now. A good humor/Comic doesn’t have to be a highly intellectual one. Case in point, Narad Khatiwada of Nepal, Paresh Rawal of India, Sarah Silverman of US who are immense talent and deliver the simplest form of comedy, yet poignant in many ways. But, there has to be a variety and we certainly need the Colberts and Stewarts type of comedy. Question is do we have the audience for it? Mind you, they need a constant pool of audience to survive.
Thank you for bringing up the critical aspect of the issue, the audience, and for your observatory notes.
Regarding the issue of intellectual maturity, particularly it’s interpretation, I might have a slightly different view. I think often time, we confuse the richness of lexicon in communication as a higher intellectual level. Lexicon certainly helps the communication; it makes it short and crisp. However, I tend to believe that any intellectual concept, particularly those related to humor, can be communicated in any level of language. It is just a matter of skill rather than the limitation of language itself.
In fact, the failure of many imitation (of the west) that does not succeed in the east can be traced back to the failure of the proper translation (my own theory, re kya). And this applies to any genre of art.
To make it short, I think that Nepali audience is capable of absorbing much higher level of humor than that is available in Nepali market. It’s simply that there are not such product, in abundance and access, in the market and so the audience is forced to consume whatever is available.
And the tragedy is that the producers fall in the wrong impression that the consumers are not ready for the artistically higher products yet.
Take Nepali cinema, for example. From my communication with some of the workers and from what they share publicly, it seems that almost every single producer believes that Nepali viewers are not ready for quality art yet.
They give example of the failure of a few so-presumed good cinema. So they keep producing and reproducing the same old khattam cinema, interestingly, even when Nepali viewers reject them one after another.
The number of khattam cinema that flopped is much higher than the number of the “good” cinema that flopped. Yet, they keep producing the same old khattam cinema for the fear of failure. This is so ironical and tragic. But that’s the way it is.
Now about the failure of good cinema, or any art, for that matter. I have meditated on it quite a bit. I also have some experience to relate to it.
The experience is related to a time which many critic and players call it a golden age of Nepali theater. Sometime in early eighties, Nepali theater was vibrant with several dedicated groups and their quality production and a good following. A following that went to see the play for the joy of it and not out of any intellectual obligation- like with a small following that frequents Gurukul these days.
Over the time, the theater lost it’s following. And there were three reasons. One was the invasion of sub-quality plays from newly mushroomed groups. The second was what I call extreme art work (those dry and boring high art) from some groups. And the third was the introduction of TV. The former two confused the following and the later distracted them. And that was the beginning of the end.
Anyway, my point is that, there was a viewership, at least the evidence for it’s potential presence, that could absorb quality art, not the boring one, but the enjoyable one.
On a related note, the failure of the mega cinema industry of Bollywood to produce quality work has always intrigued me. Once again, I have thought about the audience. But the audience (the presumed intellectual level or such factors) alone does not explain it fully. First of all, even the dumbest one, if he/she is a frequent cinema goer, must be tired to see the same stuff again and again and again. It is a simple reasoning. But they watch it anyway. So the back explanation is that they do because there is no option.
If we take specific group, I think, India and the worldwide consumer of Indian cinema has sufficient critical mass, at least theoretically (educated middle class) and practically too (the mass that loves quality foreign language movies) for quality cinema. So the question is what is preventing the produces to identify and tap this market ?
There could be some inherent things (inertia, lower creativity ?), but one thought that keeps bugging me is what I call the missing link- a transitional art. This is basically what helps to make a smooth transition from low quality to high quality art. I think the critical criteria for such art is it’s smoothness and enjoybility (not those dry and rigid imitation of other people’s art).
There are societies which have successfully completed such transition. A friend of mine who had a chance to view some old comedy movies of Israel was exclaiming to me: their old movies are pretty similar to our contemporary movies ! So it could be just a matter of time, we might move forward !
I think so. And I believe how fast it will happen will depend on how lucky we are to have some talents to give us the “transition art” for that.
Now, it looks that it’s me who is digressing.
Anyway, thank you DWI for creating a context for me to share these sometimes unsettling thoughts.
Our literary humor department of is indeed rich. But here we are talking about performance art. So forgetting Bhairab Aryal must be forgiven, re kya.
And just to add to DWI’s earlier comment on Maha, I agree with his observation that Maha used to produce more quality political satire than they do now. Yet, I have never been able to make peace with my frustrating observation/reading that Maha and almost all section of Nepali intelligentsia and whatever civil society was there then worked with and served this faulty notion: King is good, Panche is bad !
So all the satire used to be directed at poor Panche, and never at the real power holder.
I know the limitation of freedom that was there then. But that should not have been the excuse for missing the bull’s eyes and targeting only the tail. It should have been quite the contrary.
Nepe and DWI ji If you guys don't mind..let me spill some of my non sense. I think most factors has to do with how evolved are we compared to the rest of the world. We, including Indians, are taught NOT to question and hence we do not think outside of the box regarding the social issues. We think it is working fine, so we don't have to bother to change. Now the people in the West are always encouraged to question authority and follow their dream ( we follow our brain). Hence this creates antisocial (good or bad), they think outside the box in every issue, many becomes anti religion,rebellious and speaking and doing against authorities. This foster creativity, good and bad too. Let's take examples of movies like Matrix, The Terminator, Star Wars, which are nothing but a bunch of fantasy (to us, honestly, it is a bunch of pagal who has too much time in their hand). Companies like DC Comic, Marvel who makes Superheroes are now making movies that are phenomenon. Why does all our/Indian always has to be about family,social,good-bad story? To me it's simply we do not have the “frontier/explorer†spirit. Have you seen any Sci-Fi,abstract movies from Bollywood that are original? I bet not. It's not that we cannot make comic, we do not value the creativity in general, we might in the future. Sure there were Nagraj and Betal long time ago, but it was supposed to be for kids, yeas---are you a kid? is the question when a grown up is seen reading comic.
Things are becoming more different in the West. Video games....should we say any more. A grown up CEO of a company has all the XBox 360 collection. Well I was raised to think video games are for kids. Apparently it seems there is nothing wrong with adult playing video games.So no wonder Indians copy Hollywood cause they cannot think to write original material that is different from their Formula 44 scripts. Not that they cannot, but they won't and there is no need or the demand for it, all social related factors.Not saying the West has all the best, they have crap too, but most people do not take it seriously like The Dark Knight. When it comes to comedy, as Nepe said, it has to be interrupted correctly to suite the people. I also believe the Nepali we speak and the formal written are 2 different language. Street speaking Nepali tends to do better with comedy, but if it sound too much like a Bhasan from a leader, we try to avoid and forget it soon. Our language not keeping up with time and inventing new words has limited people's vocabulary in Nepali. Let's talk about Music. Why do we only like tragedy songs? If you look back ,most good song (when I say songs, I mean in terms of lyrics) were tragedy related. Men and women of different cast, separated cause they cannot marry and now one of them is writing about it. Things are changing bit these days with rock and hip hop coming up. Even though in terms of music, it is a Western copy, if we can write lyrics that reflects reality, creativity, I think we should be fine. Those “tragedy liking†guys think songs has to be written with precious grammar, philosophical and everything else is just a crap. Well, then what about ordinary people? Can't they sing? That is the whole reason i respect hip hop people. They can barely write a sentence, but they're happy to sing and write about what they have to say, even if it means less than high school education. What part of society says that songs have to be written preciously? What part of society says everybody has to have a Lata Mageshkar type of voice? Let everybody sing....what is your problem?
The western society is certainly more advanced than us. However, it does not apply in all areas. There are areas where we have comparable level of advancement and there are areas where universal human consciousness is a decisive factor. The field of art could be one such area.
As for the culture of questioning that you said is prevalent in the western society, I have a slightly different reading. My observation is that this great quality is mostly limited in the academic field. Otherwise, you can find many sections of the society, and in some cases, the whole society, living in a deep shit of the conservatism, hatred, denial and other negativism. I often find myself taking pride in the progressive desire and steps, no matter how small, of our people.
Having said that, our problem with low quality cinema is not really about the lack of creativity or sense of independence and quest. Indian cinema has an impressive list of creative minds.
The genre we call “art cinema†or “parallel cinema†is a testimony to that.
Alright this genre as a whole could not attract the mass. And we are trying to figure out why. My belief is that it is not because of the unevolved mind of the viewers; it is rather because of the not properly evolved cinema. My earlier theorization about ‘missing link’ and “transitional art†was for making this point.
I consider movies like “Ardhsatyaâ€, “Masoomâ€, “Arth†which enjoyed popularity to a degree as “transitional art†for what the trend indicated.
When I try to look for factors (for the popular unacceptance of “art†movies), the most important clue (from my speculation) was that they [probably] were unaccepted for their PRESENTATION STYLE rather than their CONTENT.
The flopped “art†movies have boring style. There are “art†movies that seems almost lifeless and robotic. Why the hell should such movies be popular?
So, I wouldn’t condemn the viewers for not appreciating the boring “style†and thereby missing the “substanceâ€. I would condemn the producer for not being creative enough to find an enjoyable style.
If there is any evidence to show that the viewer rejected “art movies†for their “substance†and not for their boring “styleâ€, then we can blame them.
Until then the viewer gets at least a benefit of doubt, re kya.
There is also some inference to draw from the quality and popular Chinese movies. The local popular acceptance of the quality Chinese movies, if not false, is a proof that there is a common universal human sense for art. The west is not necessarily more evolved than the east in this particular sense.
Rewire, I agree with most of your points and if I am not wrong (as I am not 100% sure I got your gist right) we have similar conclusion.
Nepe, I read your posting twice to analyze how I agreed with every sentence you made and yet our conclusion was slightly different, albeit opposite.
Your theory of relativity, a comical punch is relative to the interpretation of the imitation, is a true statement; but my point was not limited to imitation. I think a standup can discuss things beyond that is already covered in the west: everyday’s nothing (Seinfeld), Euphemism (eg Carlin), racism (Silverman, Rock) etc and etc. Without imitating the subject matter, style or approach there could be “higher†level of comedy than what we are served back home.
I think you have a point about the availability of the “capable†audience. A society that has given birth to such literary icons as Devkota, Sama and, ofcourse, Aryal cannot be that incapable. Your example of the theater crowd in those days and some good cinemas that have been created in the history are the testament to the literal creativity in Nepali media.
Then why is it that our conclusion differs? I think it is all in the number game and the percentage. We have lesser number of those capable intellects than is required to sustain the standard of the media products in masses.
An underdeveloped country like ours obviously have a lower literacy rates when compared to the western civilization. This, no doubt, would have a direct correlation to what the mass expects when they go to a media outlet. Sure we might have tens of thousands of those “capable†minds that would appreciate a quality product; but we have millions who would rather follow a “masala†show, regardless of the quality (I don’t think they are mutually exclusive). It is hard to keep making quality products for a smaller mass, while the larger mass appreciates an “easy†product. Coming back to our original point, we might be able to bring up a George Carlin of Nepal in Nepali stage and there would be a good following for a while, but to keep bringing more Carlins in this small society is an arduous challenge, and to expect a good crowd from that select pool is a daunting task compared to the relative ease in the west.
PS: Many times producers blame it on the low quality of the audience when their “arts movie†tanks. You don’t have to compromise a good presentation just to make a serious movie; and many such producers do that. The films you listed, Arth, Masoom are such examples which serve you a quality product with a slight bit of commercialism without making it too boring. Giddha, Shatranj are other such examples (as they say let’s give a shout out to Amol Palekar, Naseruddin Shah, Om puri and the likes). But there are few which are plain boring and forced; I totally agree with you on that.
Thanks for the article on parallel cinema, it was very informative. I grew up with black/white Indian cinema too, though not too many. My whole argument of Us Vs Them was from a South Asian point of view. I consider the East Asian much more advanced compared to us.Their field of arts has always been as competitive as the West.
For example Japanese. When Akira Kurosawa was the biggest director on the earth, people like George Lukas, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood were nobody, eventually these big Hollywood directors grew up as a huge fan of the Japanese director. George Luka's Star War has so many reference to Kurosawas's movie, even the character were an abstract version of many of the Japanese movies. Martin Scorsese even played a role in the movie “Dreamsâ€. “Magnificent Sevenâ€, “A Fistful of Dollars (played by Clint)†were all remake of Kuroshwas's movies. During the 60s, the hay day of Japanese movie industry, the concept of art, story and human emotion were explored to the peak by many Japanese directors, they are all now a part of Sony's Criterion Collection. I compare b/w Indian cinema and b/w Japanese cinema made way earlier than the Indians, the quality and the effectiveness of Japanese is way superior,most importantly universal theme. I bet they were the best export of Asian movie to the West. Nowadays, Koreans and Chinese are coming up as powerhouse in terms of artistic movies. Ang Lee already has an Oscar, if that's how things are measured. Zang Yimou is fascinating and creative. There are many brilliant new age directors in Korea who are getting popular in the West and there will be a huge number of remix in the coming year of those Korean movies. By the way I do not consider "SlumDog Millionaire" as a Indian movie like the rest of the people who are so excited about, you see them going on and on as if we, Nepali acieved the glory.
Not just regular movies, Japanese are the founder of Anime/animation/cartoon. Their quality and character of abstract superheros are the best even by the Western standard. Godzilla paved the way for King Kong and Jurassic Park.
“conservatism, hatred, denial and other negativism†are universal. Look who's talking? We have more disease of these kind than the West, to my understanding. Having progressive “desire†is different than living a progressive “lifeâ€. I firmly believe that we are NOT as progressive as you've implied. Not even remotely as a matter of fact.
“Patience is a virtue†-- we say it all the time, just don't practice it. It is boring because the story line calls for that silence, camera angle, the drone music of a story that is boring to begin with. I don't think the director can do a whole lot there unless he make a Matrix type of high flying, gun shooting and blazing music to get the attention of those bored audience. Well, then it won't be the genre. People simply do not have the “patienceâ€. Isn't it the same concept that we cannot display affection in public while our temples are carved with sexual images. Hello Kamasutra people, waaaaaas up?
मलाई पनि त्यस्तै लाग्छ, we share a similar view when it comes to details. However, somehow, our summaries are different !
May be we are looking at different regions of the same graph. Or we are interpreting the borderline somewhat differently.
>An underdeveloped country like ours obviously have a lower literacy
>rates when compared to the western civilization. This, no doubt,
>would have a direct correlation to what the mass expects when they
>go to a media outlet. Sure we might have tens of thousands of those
>“capable” minds that would appreciate a quality product; but we have
>millions who would rather follow a “masala” show, regardless of the
>quality.
The case I am trying to make is rather humbler than this. All I am saying is that the contemporary Nepali viewers are capable of absorbing, and in fact wishes to see, much higher quality comedy than the vulgar caricature being served. I have seen many housewives नाक खुम्च्याउदै गरेको when they watch those kind of comedy shows on TV.
I don’t think the currently abundant vulgar caricature is what Nepali viewers like to see. They simply watch it because they have nothing else to watch and nothing else to doपनि ।
त्यही ठानेर मैले नेपाली कार्लिनहरुले कम्तीमा आफ्नो भाग्य आजमाउनुपर्यो भनेको हुँ । यत्ति हो, नेपाली कार्लिनहरुले अम्रिगने कार्लिनको भाषावलीको ठाडो नक्कल गर्ने होईन, गोर्खे मनले बुझ्ने गोर्खे भाषावली र शैली रचना गर्न सक्नुपर्यो । होईन भने तपाईले भन्या जस्तै सिमित दर्शकले मात्र पचाउन सक्नेछन् त्यो । कुरा त्यत्ति हो ।
नेपाली कार्लिनले नेपाली दर्शकलाई “म त आधुनिक मान्छे” प्रस्तुत गर्यो भने पक्कै बुझ्ने छैनन् । तर उसले “म त आन्दोलनकारी मान्छे” भनेर समकालिन नेपाली जीवन प्रस्तुत गर्यो भने नबुझ्ने को होला ?
*** *** *** ***
Rewire Ji,
जापानी सिनेमाको सिने-योगदानको परीचयको लागि धन्यवाद । जापानी दर्शक दक्षिण एशियाली दर्शक भन्दा अलि भिन्दै छन् भन्ने मानेर नै मैले तीनको नाम नलिएको हो । मैले चिनियाँ दर्शकको मात्र चाही सन्दर्भ किन उठाएको भन्दा चिनियाँ दर्शकहरुको स्वाद मोटामोटी रुपमा दक्षिण एशियाली दर्शकहरुको स्वादसंग मिल्दोजुल्दो छ कि भनेर । र त्यसै हो भने, कलात्मक चिनियाँ सिनेमाहरु चिनियाँ दर्शकले मन पराउने तर कलात्मक दक्षिण एशोयाली सिनेमा दक्षिण एशियाली दर्शकले चाही मन नपराउने कसरी भयो भनेर प्रश्न उठाएको हुँ ।
दक्षिण एशियाली सिनेश्रष्टाहरुले चिनियाँ सिनेश्रष्टाहरुसंग सिक्न पर्ने केही कुराहरु पो छन् कि भन्ने मेरो आसय हो ।
Again, दक्षिण एशोयाली दर्शकहरु खास किसिमको सिनेमासंग अभ्यस्त भएको कुरा स्वीकार गर्दै त्यस्तो सिनेमाबाट बानी छुटाउँदै लगेर (बजारतन्त्रको sense मा है, मैले परोपकारतन्त्रको sense मा भनेको होईन) कलात्मक मुल्य भएका सिनेमा बजारको बारेमा सोच्नुपर्यो कसैले भनेको नि ।
दक्षिण एशियाली उद्यमीहरुले high risk भएका कैयौं गैर-बौद्धिक उद्यममा लगानी गरेको देख्न सकिन्छ । त्यही कुरा बौद्धिक उद्यममा किन हुँदैन ? यो चाही नेपाली र अन्य दक्षिण एशियाली उद्यमीहरुलाई मेरो प्रश्न ।
एकजना सिनेश्रष्टासंग मेरो कुरा भएको थियो । उनी नेपाली सिनेमा अहिले एकदम high risk व्यवसाय भएको छ, सिनेमाहरु एकपछि अर्को गरेर flop भएका भए छन् । उनी सकेसम्म थोरै लगानीमा एउटा सिनेमा बनाउने धुनमा थिए ।
सकेसम्म थोरै लगानीमा त्यो पनि नेपाली दर्शकको लागि भनेर बनाईने सिनेमा कस्तो हुनेछ र त्यसको के हालत हुनेछ भनेर अनुमान लगाउँदै मैले भने – अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय दर्शकको लागि (award सेवार्ड जित्न सक्ने खालको) किन नबनाउने ?
मैले ईरानी निर्देशक Abbas Kiarostamiको चलचित्र‘The Taste of Cherry’ को उदाहरण दिदै भने, बजेट ठूलै हुनुपर्छ भन्ने छैन, कलात्मक सोच हो खास चाहिने कुरा । अहिले नेपाली समाज यावत कुराहरुबाट गुज्रिरहेको छ, कलात्मक सिनेमाको लागि अनन्त खजाना छ यहाँ ।
उनले टाउको हल्लाए । कुरा सिद्धियो । उनी संभवत: उही कलिउडे सिनेमा बनाउने प्रोजेक्टमा छन् ।
Nepe Ji It took me a while to read through Nepali fonts. The jokes that I tell my friends in the US does NOT make them laugh, similarly you tell a western joke, it barely will make us laugh. I think it has to do with the nature and the perspective of the surrounding , the culture that we grow up. I grew up with rude, crude and filthy jokes from fart, shit, penis. I don't know how it has changed in the new Nepal. No wonder it took me some time for me to understand a regular American joke in the beginning. This reflects the movie and the comedy we have right now, the generation that are making it. There might be few elite, educated who are ready to digest quality comedy/movies, the overall population might NOT be ready. That is my belief, you do not have to agree with it. When it comes to Chinese, I think they have a head start than the Indians. Besides making Kung-Fu/Action movies, they also make quality arts movies. The difference between Indian and the Chinese in that respect, Chinese value those artistic movies and promote it throughout the world. Probably the only Asian movie that the West really envied and made a remake and was successful to win an Oscar was "The Departed" which is an exact copy of a Hong Kong movie "The Infernal Affairs". Few years back I saw Amitab on an American TV channel after he was named "Least Known Actor...." who should be more than famous...something like that. He was furious against the West and ranted some big time BS, implying that 1+ billion Indians audience who watch his movies is better than the Hollywood's acknowledgment. By his explanation, Jackie Chan and Jet Lee are way popular than any of the Bollywood actors (1+ billion + most of the Westerners know these martial artist). It does not make Jackie and Jet as good actors, population count is simply a dumb excuse. I do agree with you on the budget issue. Creativity and presentation can make it if you're in short in cash. I've not seen the Israeli movies you've mention, will soon. But I would recommend a Phillipino movie called "Cavite" for your director friends, which shows that NOT just budget, you can get away without any actor to make a successful movie. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428303/ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1162654-cavite/?critic=columns&sortby=fresh&name_order=asc&view= Read the review at the bottom of the page on the second link what other people has to say about this movie. It is a man on a cell phone, no other actor, walking through the street of phillipino city. It does not even show who the other guy is on the cell phone. This movie has bagged some serious critic and awards. You'll be surprised how human being is capable to processing things without even seeing anything. All the money in the world cannot make a good movies if the director has no good story. Yea! Indians spend more money on their movies than most Indie/Independent movies, but come on...who on their right mind will take it seriously of a movie with synchronized dance, music, comedy,action, drama all in one movie, 3 hrs long.
Sorry for using Nepali. My general impression is that postings in Nepali are most read ones (by most visitors and fully), hence I tend to write in Nepali (to reach out to the larger reader :-) )
You mentioned Bachchan. I have a feeling for that guy, not favorable one. Okay, he is a good actor. But is he a good man, too ? I mean has he used his celebrity to serve some social cause ?
I was talking about this issue in a thread last year. We have also talked about some of the cinema issues we are discussing here.
My postings are in Nepali. So sorry again for the inconvenience. But you might enjoy some of the discussion.
Being a great fan of Carlin and his style of comedy in general, I was really happy to see all valuable insights from some of Sajha's great minds. I felt like pouring some of my thoughts about this very American form of performing art in context of our culture.
Stand up comedy is probably one of the most difficult form of performance art. When I first discovered that people actually go on the stage with nothing but a mike and make the whole audience crying with laughter, I thought that is just amazing.
Virtuoso comedians like George Carlin make the act look very natural and easy. But, in their interviews and books, they tell about how hard they work in their bits and how they hone their material up performing in small clubs and touring all over the country and selecting the bits that worked and finally presenting in front of large audience or in HBO. We generally get to see the recording of the one of those big shows or the HBO telecast. So, all great comedians put years of hard work before they become famous and there a lot of comedians who never make it.
So, the point I am trying to make here is that American culture of night clubs, small performance spaces and love for the live performance provides a great venue for aspiring comedians to try out their luck. We don't have that in Nepal. I think this equally applies to other areas of performing art as well.
I agree with DWI that stand up doesn't have to be a copy. Actually I think it can not be a copy. An artform like stand up which is so dependent on the subtlity of the language, it would be impossible to translate effectivity of the jokes. Though we don't have as rich pool of the material as the western culture (religion, politics, racism, dating, ethinicity) but that's what the good comedians do. If there is talent I think there are enough idiosyncrasies in our society as well.
At last I just want to add, Jai Bundhi is my the most favorite nepali literature ever... Bhairav Aryal was a true genius.. If he had gotten chance to perform, we would have had our Carlin way before U.S. did.
Thank you for your inputs. Talent, hard work and practice are indeed what great arts are all about. Although sometimes one can compensate for the other.
And the lack of practice (self-practice and editing included) is indeed a major inadequacy of Nepali artists (including writers).
In fact, Samrat Upadhyay, who credits his success to the arduous and no-holds-barred editing of his manuscript by his editors, identifies Nepali writer’s ego (they feel offended if editing is suggested to their work) as one major problem for Nepali literature to do well in the market.
Nepali comedians are probably less egoist than Nepali literateur. However, lack of opportunity (and insentive) for practices is clearly there.
Now I would like to comment on Rewire’s earlier remarks about the unavoidable “boring†art elements in art cinema and also about the alleged unprogressive nature of Nepali mind.
Rewire wrote:
>“conservatism, hatred, denial and other negativism†are universal.
>Look who's talking? We have more disease of these kind than the
>West, to my understanding. Having progressive “desire†is different
>than living a progressive “lifeâ€. I firmly believe that we are NOT
>as progressive as you've implied. Not even remotely as a matter of fact
>“…….Patience is a virtue†-- we say it all the time, just don't practice it.
>It is boring because the story line calls for that silence, camera angle, the
>drone music of a story that is boring to begin with. I don't think the director
>can do a whole lot there unless he make a Matrix type of high flying, gun
>shooting and blazing music to get the attention of those bored audience.
On the art elements, I have partially and in some way explained my view with the example of the local popularity of the artistic Chinese cinema. My point is that art does not necessarily have to be boring. The “boring†art elements can be assembled in a way to produce a constantly enjoyable final product.
I like to compare some of the boring and flopped “art†movies to the pure “classical music†and the enjoyable and successful “art†movies to the light classical or derivative music.
On progressive (potential or existing) Nepali minds, my conclusion is based, not just on the political dimension of our history (if you are suspecting), but on the social changes that I have observed. Among the few things that have influenced my view is the local women social/NGO workers in villages. Most of them are minimally literate and some are even illiterate. But oh boy ! talk to them and see for yourself how easily they have adopted in their mind the progressive thoughts and agendas. Of course you can find villages still living in the darkness and still unhappy to see Dalits entering their temples. But those who have been exposed to the ideas do show the sign of a surprising unrigidity for Nepali minds. The same can not be said to several certain sections of the Western society bhanne mero bichaar ho.
I was surfing and found this hilarious, in fact thought-provoking, suggestion for switching people's taste from the commercial movies to the art movies. Enjoy !
"..But I have a solution. What’s the one kind of film that all audiences will watch regardless of where they’re coming from? R rated ones. I propose that this is where theaters should begin: screen classics with nudity. The Canterbury Tales, Last Tango in Paris, and Y Tu Mama Tambien, will all find an audience. Then steadily, wean them away and simply show them good films. Women will come too, coaxed by their husbands and boyfriends: this is not porn, this is cinema.."
I'll definetly write more later. But in the mean while, I just found this piece on youtube, a reason why I have so much respect to the old Japanese movies. The best from the Asian continent. Enjoy!
Friends, I am closing this thread for now. Feel free to revive whenever you have some “stuff†to share.
I thank all readers and participates, particularly Rewire and DWI for enriching this otherwise a directionless thread with some valuable “stuff†from their side.
I would like to conclude this thread with an honorable mention to a Nepali film that comes first in our mind when we think of the genre we were talking here.
“Paraal Ko Aagoâ€, despite it’s humbleness, rather perhaps DUE TO it’s humbleness and certainly due to it’s sincerity stands out and remains the best Nepali film ever made to many critics and serious artists (Madan Krishna and Haribansh hold this opinion).
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सुत्नु अघि साझा छिरेर सरसर्ती एक नजर लगाए l पाना सार्दै जाने क्रममा यहा पुगे पछि औला रोकीञ्छन ! सुरु गरे पछि अन्त्य नगरी छोड्न मन लागेन , नेपालीमा लेखिएका हरु चै पढन सकिएन! Thank you for sharing your thoughtful views.
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