From Aama To Caravan

-By Pradeep Bhattarai

14 September 1951
Premier of the First film in Nepali language 'Satya Harishchandra' made in India.

7th October 1964
Premier of 'Aama', the First Nepali film made in Nepal.

The two above dates are of great significance in the 50-year-long history of the Nepali cinema. With the beginning of the 21st century yet another date has been added to the above list and that was 15th February, 2000. This was the day when a Nepali Film ÒCaravanÓ was nominated for the world's most prestigious Academy Awards as the best foreign language film.

This marked not only the outward journey of the Nepali films for the first time in the 50-year of its cinematic history, but also has encouraged film makers of the outside world.

Still, the journey of the 50-year-old Nepali cinema has not been an easy one. The film Caravan, though co-produced and filmed in Nepal in an ethnic language with real life characters, the important aspects of the production of the film were external.

This indicates that we are not yet in a position to claim that we can produce good films which can compete internationally both in terms of market or reputation . Meanwhile, what we can not forget and should not overlook is that we are slowly creeping ahead.

It is realised that insufficient investment, lack of advanced technologies and a relatively small market have deterred the development of Nepali film industry. In addition to this there also is the lack of infrastructures like electricity, transport and communication.

However, there goes a myth behind the success of caravan that we had not expected the way it developed. Questions are raised regarding the origin of Caravan. The question is justified to some extent by the fact that the director of the film, Eric Valli hails from France and so do the technological and financial aspects of the film. Yet, because the film is made with a Nepali co-producer and Nepali artists in Nepalese language, there should be no arbitration regarding the origin of the film. More than that the Oscar Academy itself, while nominating the film as one of the chosen best foreign films, has called it a Nepali film.

Today (Sunday) may add one more significant date to the Nepalese film industry if the film wins Oscar for the best foreign language film. This will be a fitting tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Nepalese film industry.

The world's cinema industry is always looking for new areas, possibly virgin ones, for location and shooting. In this aspect Nepal may lure the world with its largely unexplored areas, like the Caravan did. Moreover it might be the culture and the rituals too, which could give the world cinema a new dimension.

A three-member Nepalese delegation, led by Neer Shah, co-producer of the Caravan, has gone to participate in the 72nd Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles.

Though, the history of cinema in Nepal is new, it has produced nearly 300 cinemas. It is still at its very infancy. Hardly any of them has broken new grounds with new story, script, cinematography and other aspects of movie-making.