Submit your Article

Action Thriller

RACE 3

CAST: Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Bobby Deol

DIRECTION: Remo D’Souza

1 and half stars

‘Race 3’ has got it all. A multi-star cast, big car chases, exotic locations and explo­sive daredevil stunts. But despite all this the film still feels like a poor man’s ‘Fast and Furious’. With a below average screenplay dishing up clichés of old Bollywood masala films, and an equally incapable cast of actors who just stand stupidly and mouth eye-rolling dialogues, the third installment of the ‘Race’ series isn’t an improvement but more a parody of the previous two films. And superstar Salman Khan doesn’t come close to being India’s answer to Vin Diesel. He looks tired, as if he forgot to bring his usual charisma to the sets while shooting. The plot goes like this. Shamsher (Anil Kapoor) is a Middle East-based international arms dealer. He runs his empire like a family business, helped by his nephew Sikander (Salman Khan) and his twin chil­dren Sanjana (Daisy Shah) and Suraj (Saqib Saleem). Shamsher’s affec­tion towards Sikander creates jeal­ousy in Sanjana and Suraj, and in due course that jealousy develops into bitter animosity between them and Sikander. So they connive to use people close to Sikander, like his business associate Yash (Bobby Deol) and a shape-shifting femme fatale by the name of Jessica (Jac­queline Fernandez), to destroy him.

There’s also a B plot involving a heist where Shamsher deploys his children and Sikander to rob a hard-disk from a bank’s safety locker. The hard-disk contains something that’s valuable to Shamsher, who intends to use its contents to clear his name and go back to his native hometown, where he’s still a fugitive.

‘Race 3’ is directed by Remo D’Souza whose track record in churning out mediocre movies is unbeatable. During this decade the choreographer-turned-director has treated us with such classic duds as ‘FALTU’, ‘Any Body Can Dance’ and ‘A Flying Jatt’. With each movie he’s distanced himself far from sto­rytelling and utilized the produc­er’s money in crafting lavishly cho­reographed dance sequences and action scenes. D’Souza is a gifted choreographer, but his overindul­gence in the song-and-dance routine pulls down the entertainment value. For a film that wants us to take it as a thriller, ‘Race 3’ has too many club songs and far few roller-coaster moments. (Picture Jacqueline Fer­nandez spinning endlessly on a dance pole.)

Much money has gone into mak­ing the actors look good but there is no effort to give the characters a clear direction. This is the kind of movie where we see the rich blokes wear tight tuxedoes even in their house. They will not leave any opportunity to say that they are businessmen even if you’re not ask­ing. They spend their days in gym and nights at clubs, but are never seen doing the actual business to support their lifestyle. They are con­flicted, arrogant and easily irritated. No actor does anything remarkable. Salman Khan’s films are known for their catchy dialogues but the best that this film could come up with is, “Our business is our business, none of your business”.

‘Race 3’ is a long drag to the fin­ishing line. Even for diehard fans of Salman Khan, it’s worrisome to see their icon offering such a misfire. This is a movie that both he and his fans would surely want to forget as soon as possible.

According to news reports, Prime Minister KP Oli will seek Chinese assistance to develop physical connectivity during his upcoming China visit. While one may or may not like the idea of railways and highways connecting the two countries, depending on one’s (geo)politi­cal leanings, one thing is certain: unless there is an emotional bond between the peoples of China and Nepal neither side will be able to take full advantage of the expensive infrastructures. So far, at the people’s level, we feel emo­tionally detached when dealing with the Chinese and vice-versa because we have only focused on the obvious differences between the two countries. For some strange reason, we have completely overlooked the role of culture in our rela­tions. Culture shapes our think­ing and worldview, and hence cultural understanding can be an important tool to promote people-to-people ties and to fur­ther strengthen political relations between the two countries.

Contrary to the widely-held belief, Nepal and China are not distant culturally. There are many similarities between us. For exam­ple, the traditional Chinese cul­ture, like our own, emphasizes filial piety, and it even has the Stove God, akin to our family dei­ty. The guardian deity of Beijing is yamantak, or vajrabhairava—a manifestation of the lord Shiva. Avalokiteswara is worshipped in China as the Guanshiyin—the one who sees and hears.

Just as in Nepal, red is the color of happiness and white is the color of mourning. Like us, the Chinese view srivatsa (endless knot) and fish as auspicious symbols. Even the Chinese creation myth (‘pangu kai tiandi’) is similar to the Hindu creation myth of purusha sukta in the Rig Veda.

And just like us, for the major­ity of Chinese, family still mat­ters and an individual’s identi­ty is closely tied that to his/her family, unlike in the “individu­alistic” west. Hence, like Nepali and unlike the English lan­guage, the Chinese language has different kinship terminologies for all relations.

It’s a pity that Nepal has failed to explore ways to use the cultur­al similarities to its advantage in dealing with China. Our north­er neighbor has for long been doing its bit by offering academic degrees in Nepali language and basic classes on Nepali society in one of the universities in Beijing. Starting this fall, Nepali will be offered as an academic course in two more universities in Yunnan and Tibet.

We talk about good relation with China, but are yet to offer academic degrees on Chinese studies. The Chinese language curriculum offered, even at the Chinese-government funded Con­fucius Institute at the Kathmandu University (CIKU), is pathetic. All it does is disseminate “China is great” propaganda and produce tour guides with rudimentary Chinese. Although many Nepali students and professionals are keen to learn about China, sadly, there is no place to satisfy their academic urge.

PM Oli, maybe you can talk to your hosts about jointly estab­lishing an autonomous “real” China-Nepal Studies Center in Nepal. It will academically train Nepalis on China, and offer class­es to the interested Chinese schol­ars on Nepal. It can be modeled after the Johns Hopkins Nanjing Center, China.

To make the Nepal center cred­ible and serve real academic purpose, it should be allowed to design the curriculum on its own, without pressure from either government. It should be free to teach classes on the current political, economic, ethnic and social problems in both China and Nepal, so that the students gain a real insight into the coun­tries they are studying. It should produce Nepali sinologists who can fluently recite the lines from gu wen (classical literature) to the poems of Gu Cheng, and the Chi­nese Nepal experts who can quote from the works of Bhanubhakta to Bhupi Sherrchan.

Today’s students are tomor­row’s leaders. National inter­ests and differing priorities will eventually lead to various problems/misunderstandings between the two countries in the future. Then, who knows, the graduates of the Nepal Center could be the ones representing their respective governments to solve the issues. Unlike the present leaders, they will know exactly how each other’s minds operate and they will thus be able to find mutually acceptable solu­tions, no matter how serious the underlying problems.

A good idea, isn’t it PM Oli?

Singapore is a no-nonsense coun­try. I know that because I lived there for three years. It has also been called a ‘fine’ country: you get a fine if you drop litter, jaywalk, bring in chewing gum, and a host of other, seemingly petty things.So what was everyone thinking in Singapore this past week as it hosted the Kim-Trump summit? I watched some of the scenes of Kim Jong-un’s first meeting with the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong. A lot of genuine smiles, handshakes and the definite sense of brotherhood and equality. It may take some time yet for the full implications of the later Kim-Trump summit to be clear, but it certainly got me thinking.

I was also thinking of a friend of mine, Pinocchio, that little wooden puppet who came to life. Pinoc­chio was a naughty little boy and, like other little boys, a bit hard to handle. And, as we all know, Pinocchio had a nose that would grow and grow when he told a lie. Pinocchio was Italian, but what if he lived in Wonderland, aka, no, not Singapore (although you are forgiven for thinking that this week), but Kathmandu…

Once upon a time, after a partic­ularly bad beating from his father, Pinocchio decided to run away from his village to Wonderland where he heard the streets were paved. Not with gold. Just paved. Sneaking onto the roof of a bus, Pinocchio encountered a group of older boys. Where are you heading and how old are you, they asked? Fifteen, replied Pinocchio, and his nose grew. So Pinocchio found his way into the company of youths who lived in Wonderland and showed him around. Pinocchio was impressed with the tall buildings and the fact that everyone looked like they were hurrying towards important busi­ness. And look at all these shiny cars and motorbikes—why, everyone must be rich! That night Pinocchio slept in a shop doorway in Thamel. Next morning he was shown how to approach those strange people known as ‘tourists’; who he took for that magical being, an ‘American’. Hungry, said Pinocchio to the ‘Amer­ican’. His nose grew, but just a little.

As time went on, Pinocchio won­dered how people did business in Wonderland when it seemed quite obvious that all parties had growing noses. How was anything achieved? How did contracts get drawn up and kept, given the number of large noses in the room? Wandering into a bank one day, Pinocchio noticed loans being handed out on the condition of being repaid. No one seemed to notice the large noses in the room. Later he stopped to listen to a politician, standing on a raised platform, making promises that made Pinocchio think that maybe he was not such a naughty boy after all. Perhaps at the time of speaking the nose was just a little larger than normal, thought Pinocchio, but two or three years down the road when the promise was still not fulfilled, he noticed the nose dominated the conversation. Pinocchio shopped where he saw shopkeepers with small noses, ate in restaurants run by small nosed people, and tried to be friends only with people who also had small noses.

But then, a strange thing hap­pened: Pinocchio became aware that his nose no longer grew as much. He noticed that people who came to the city from overseas (those ‘Amer­icans’) or from other parts of the country, now had noses bigger than his! Somehow they had become part of Wonderland and accepting of all Wonderland had to offer. They had forgotten what it was like not to have a long nose and were mistrusting of those who did not have noses similar to theirs. They had simply become Romans, while in Rome.

The constitution, the main law of this country, sets out rules and standards to run our gov­ernment. Any law or decision that contradicts the constitution should technically be immediately rejected. In democracies, broadly speaking, we are taught that no one is above the constitution. Depending on public demand and sentiments, the constitution may be amended but any government which tries to undermine the con­stitutional spirit without amend­ment raises serious questions. If we minutely examine the working style of Oli government, the constitu­tion is seemingly being undermined time and again. However, this gov­ernment has been enjoying public confidence and will continue to do so for at least a few more months, in the hope that it will begin to rectify its mistakes and reaffirm its commitment to our constitu­tional values and spirit.

We are in a crucial phase of consti­tution implementation and it is now or never insofar as implementation of the core tenets of the constitu­tion are concerned. Federalism is one of the major achievements of this constitution. The mecha­nism to distribute resources is the backbone of federalism, deter­mining the rise or fall of our federal structure. No doubt, in tune with the aspirations of KP Sharma Oli and his government, we want to see a prosperous Nepal. We want to ensure the success of federalism. But, ironi­cally, the Oli government is already breaching the constitution in run­ning the government.

For instance, the government’s budget and policies and programs for the fiscal year 2018/19 completely undermine the potential role of the National Natural Resources and Fis­cal Commission (NNRFC, Part 26, and The Constitution of Nepal), a constitutional body that is central to shaping the budget, policies and programs. Without giving the com­mission full shape, the government does not have the constitutional mandate to announce the federal government’s budget, policies and programs. The government sneakily took a short cut by declaring the formation of the commission, but without full membership, impor­tantly without apolitical appointed expert members.

A government which is appar­ently determined to transform the country’s destiny must first learn to abide by the constitution and set higher standards for its own working style. We see two faces of this government. On the one hand, this government is not respectful of the constitution, and on the other, it’s engaged in an aggressive cam­paign to prove it’s the only gov­ernment we have had working for prosperity and equity. It’s unclear which facet of the administration represents its true color.

The issue of the fiscal commission may seem trivial but let’s exam­ine what the commission actu­ally is and the implications of not having a fully functional one before the budget. In the absence of the House of Representatives Reg­ulations, the government made excuses for not forming the com­mission. In fact, the regulations were endorsed after the budget was announced, which is also not in line with the constitution.

Now, with the endorsement of the regulations for both the National Assembly and the House of Repre­sentatives, the first moral task of this government is to form the fiscal commission and start rectifying the mistake it made by first announcing the budget.

The fiscal commission is instru­mental in shaping the future of federalism. While appointing its chairperson and members, the government must rise above party interests. Otherwise, we can already predict the failure of federalism due to fiscal imbalances.

In fact, the majority of fiscal tasks in the federal set up are guided by the commission and we know well that the success—or failure—of fed­eralism lies in how resources are allocated. The work of the com­mission includes important roles such as determining the detailed basis and modality for the distri­bution of revenues between fed­eral, state and local governments from the federal consolidated fund; making recommendations about equalization grants to the state and local governments out of the federal consolidated fund; determining a detailed basis and modality for the distribution of revenues between the state and the local governments; recommending measures to meet expenditures of the federal, state and local governments; reforming revenue collection; and more (For detailed work list, please see Part 26 of the Constitution).

It’s strange why such an important commission is still in the shadows. Even opposition parties did not bother to raise this issue in parlia­ment and sat quietly and obediently as the budget was passed. Even if it is water under the bridge, the formation of this commission must be this government’s priority in line with its constitutional, procedural and moral obligations.