Clicking the shutter  
Making past relive in print

Pragya Rajouria

"Hold your breath, don’t move." Click! "This was how the photographer of Chakratej studio at Thaiti instructed us when I took this photo with my bride and my father way back in 1940s," says Gokarna Uprety showing the one and only photograph with his young bride. "We called such photographs pani foto since the photographer washed the negative in a trough containing water, and give it to us in less than 15 minutes." No photographer would tell us to do that these days and wedding is the most photographed occasion of one’s life.

Just like every other technology, photography also made its entry quite late in Nepal. Possibly after Rana Prime minister Junga Bahadur returned from Europe in 1850. Junga Bhadur and his entourage to that Europe trip could be the first Nepalese to have been photographed though there is a possibility of other Nepalese to have done that before. Because Nepali consuls (vakils) were deputed to Calcutta since Prithvi Narayan Shah’s time, these consuls could have had their photos taken in Calcutta where photography had come even before 1850.

According to Kiran Man Chitrakar, the grandson of late Dirga Man Chitrakar, a Court photographer of Rana prime minister Chandra Samsher, Junga Bahadur brought Bengali photographers from Calcutta to teach photography to his personal painters in Nepal. This is how Nepalese learnt the art of photography.

Common Nepalese were unaware of photography while the Ranas, the royalties and their courtiers enjoyed this privilege. It was only during the second world war that the general citizenry knew that such a technique exists. Famous photographers at that time were Dirga Man and Sardar Bishu Dhoj Joshi of the Grand Studio who took photos of royalties, courtiers, high- ranking officials and public ceremonies.

"Unlike now everyday activities were not captured on the camera at that time. The Ranas loved to take life-sized pictures wearing English clothes and fine jewellries. From the photographs that my grandfather took, you can see that they loved to take hunting photographs," says the grandson, Kiran Man Chitrakar.

The photos of that time had glass negatives and Kiran still has some of them passed from his grandfather. At that time there was a scarce thing and obviously an expensive commodity. Even Dirghaman’s studio didn’t have electricity. "At his Bhimsensthan studio my grandfather had bored a hole from where the sunlight would fall on the negative. That was how he developed negatives," says Kiran.

After the second world war when photography reached the common people, popular studios like Snap Shot Studio at Naradevi, Raj Photos at Makkhan, Chakratej studio at Thahiti were a few popular studios that took portraits of people. In the 50s there was a corner studio in Hattipati in an inn made during the Malla period. That used to be one of the busiest studios at that time. This circular inn called Hattipati, which no longer exists, stood near famous statue of Pratap Malla and his family atop a white elephant, in the south of Ranipokhari. Since the studio stood near Bhotahiti, the center of commerce and activities during those days, people coming from different corners of Nepal took their photographs there. Besides this, there was another famous corner studio in Bagbazar which catered to common people. Such corner studios mostly took ‘pani foto’ which was cheaper and easier to develop than the more expensive, chemically treated photos which the famous and established studios developed.

Today camera has become a user friendly household item. People no more frequent studios except to take special portraits and passport size photos. They prefer to capture moments of day to day activities, ceremonies, festivals, outdoor events by themselves with their own portable cameras.

A Cupid choir for coming year

Damakant Jayshi

Another Valentine’s Day went by with so many cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts passing hands, so many promises made (which have poor record of being kept, anyway, but that is another thing) and so many sweet nothings shared. Well, this is among those who have ‘someone special’.

But what about those who are still ‘free’, oops, I mean single/alone? You just had to listen to some of the FM stations on the V-Day and realise that world indeed is not a happy place for some people who still crave for some special company, oblivious of the pitfalls that lie ahead.

There was this guy speaking to the RJ of an FM station baring his heart for the one he loved. But the problem was, it turned out to be "one-sided" affair as he lamented. Soon enough, the RJ made him woo his beloved through a popular number and there was, singing his heart out in his typical Nepali accent. It remains to be seen whether the damsel was indeed impressed.

A group of young guys were dutifully wishing "Happy Valentine’s Day" to all the white women, whether they were single or in company at Thamel on evening of the Valentine’s Day. Poor chaps, seems the whole days their slate remained blank!

The question is why bother about having someone special. Easier said than done, right? In any case, Valentine’s Day has been reduced to couple’s relationship. How and when this happened is a matter of contemplation and debate. But that is not being done here.

Haven’t you guys and girls realised the virtues of being single? No, this is not a case of ‘sour grapes’.

Think of all the tension-free days if you have no ‘special’ one around. Of course, we do have good friends for company and friends hardly give you the jitters that the ‘opposite half’ gives. You wait for the all-important call, and it doesn’t come, giving you so many questions with no answers. You check your mailbox, and there is no mail from the one you want to receive. Frustration, disappointment, anger, and so forth follows.

Then of course you have to tackle your parents or other elders. In some cases, you have to lie as to where you are going and whom you are meeting. The problem is more acute for girls.

This is not enough. You have to contend with the apple of your eye coming late. There is no accurate data on who comes late more – the boy or the girl. May be a survey should be conducted to find out which side is a bigger victim. and don’t forget the the occasional whims and temper tantrums that drive you nuts.

If you thought these are the only negatives from having someone closer than others, then you are wrong. Have you ever thought of the hole in your pocket that keeps becoming bigger and bigger? After the initial euphoria, this is one constant nightmare that both have to contend with. Both the parties pay, and it is indeed a wrong notion that only men foot the bill or give gifts. Times are a changing.

Well, even after all this pre-warning, if the still singles are hell-bent on ‘losing’ your precious ‘freedom’, then what can one do. Just go ahead and plunge into the mysterious lake. All the best for it and may you be with ‘someone special’ by the next Valentine’s Day!

Return to cinema halls 

Sanchita Regmi Joshy

It is not very long ago that watching the latest James Bond movie would be in the confines of my living room. The picture quality would be horrible (referred to as "camera print"), the sound would be called good if the dialogues could be understood and the special effects would probably be clearly seen in the sleek television promos. Not anything more.

Movie halls have increased in number and so have movie buffs. These halls have graded their facilities with more comfortable seating, air-conditioning and the latest in projection and sound technology. Going to the movies has finally become an outing, an event.

There has been a shift from the private living rooms to cinema halls. Both the young and the not so young are returning to the cinema, in spite of offerings from various foreign television channels. Going out to see a film in movie hall has become fashionable.

The number of middle age people frequenting outdoor places to watch movies are also increasing dramatically, particularly in the capital. The fifty plus audiences are on the rise as people of that age group and business people rediscover the delights of an outing to the local, comfortable cinema. Helping this trend are the moviemakers who are giving more emphasis to family oriented ‘ clean, watchable’ movies.

Another reason for the "return" to the cinema seems to be the sense of having reached the saturation point, generally caused by an overdose of poor quality fiction offered by the TV soaps.

We have been noticing another aspect that demands critical reflection: that of the multiplex. Many people believe that the new multiplex movie halls are to be thanked for having attracted so many people back to the cinema. There was a time when old halls were on the verge of closure. These types of cinema halls, often a tiny place, was a meeting point within easy access for a varied audience and whose environment was characteristically urban.

The positive signs are already there and this is why it would perhaps be better not to pull down existing movie halls, but to renovate them, making them more comfortable and modernizing them, adding one or two screens and a bar and bookshop, thus accepting some of the positive innovations of the multiplex cinema halls.

People were staying inside their homes during weekends instead of going out for entertainment. People are social animals; they need to go out of the house once in a while. Movie halls provide a destination, a reason to get out of the house and have some fun.

Media also has played an important role in attracting customers to movie halls. It creates big hypes about movies convincing potential moviegoers that they should watch them on big screens, in cinema halls. All people need a break from the tedium of daily routine and get engaged in enjoyable and amusing activities.

Previously the general public used to think twice before entering movie theatres. It was a place for those who did not have any other source of entertainment. The present moviegoers have put life back to the otherwise dying theatres in Kathmandu. Watching a movie is still the most unadulterated form of visual entertainment around.

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