Gothic thriller with comic twist
‘Hellboy’ is an action thriller based on the graphic novels of Mike Mignola and the movie franchise of the same name. Directed by Neil Marshall, the 2019 reboot revolves around the lead protagonist, Hellboy, who finds himself caught between the supernatural and human worlds.
After watching an hour of ‘Game of Thrones’ gore in the morning, I had assumed Hellboy would make for a fresh change of mood. Turns out, I had completely missed the ‘R’ rating on the movie and the fact that the director also has some Game of Thrones work under his belt. So, boy, was I in for a surprise!
The movie starts with a husky male voice narrating the plot background, with the camera slowly moving towards the top of a hill. The color isolation in the first scene highlighting the red in Nimue (Milla Jovovich), a sorceress, with a pitch dark background, is simply fantastic. The first scene is really about how King Arthur has the body of Nimue dismembered and scattered in little chests.
Then you’re taken to the present, in Colorado, where we get the first look at Hellboy (David Harbour) clad in a maroon hoodie with rock music blaring from his earbuds; we’re taken to a boxing match. And did I tell you our boy is a product of hell? Given his devilish look, he naturally evokes the crowd’s xenophobia. This scene caught my eye for its fantastic use of translation subtitles: When the characters speak in Spanish, a bright yellow stroke text is displayed in a very natural way.
Our friendly beast has a great sense of humor. Mid-fight, trying to calm his best friend down, he says “remember the old times, you played that acoustic crap, while I played real music?”
Shortly after we are treated to our first gore scene. A beast, seeking revenge on Hellboy, goes on a quest to resurrect Nimue. In this scene, he breaks into a church and kills the priests mercilessly. At times, the thriller feels like a horror movie. When the beast takes out and eats the brain of a priest in order to chant the holy verse I knew how mistaken I was about the movie’s nature.
When the beast brings back the sorceress to life the trio of Hellboy, Alice (Sasha Lane) and Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim) go on an adventure to hunt down the sorceress, with the support of the protagonist’s father Trevor (Ian McShame). Kim, in his character of a martial Japanese-American, gives a wonder performance too.
The movie also has a fair share of ‘fourth wall breaking’, not a new thing since the advent of Deadpool, but Hellboy has it even in serious scenes. Hesitant to kill, Hellboy keeps asking Alice why he should really kill the sorceress. The answer: “To make sure she doesn’t come back for the sequel”. There’s also a fair share of pop culture reference here and there with an old wizard being referred to as Gandalf.
It is a spectacular movie in the first half. Really. It had me with the dark visuals, the gore, the funky rock music, and a clever plot. The second half felt underwhelming though. In this half, character development was poor, the emotional scenes failed to connect with the audience, and the movie just felt bland. I feel that is not the fault of the comic characters but the director.
Movie: Hellboy
Genre: Fantasy/Action
Cast: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim
Direction: Neil Marshall
Rating: 3/5
Superman, make some room for Shazam
‘Shazam!’ is not just a superhero movie, but a creative blend of effortless humor, family drama and suspense, all packed into a compact action film. Based on DC Comics character of the same name, this movie is the seventh installment of the DC Extended Universe.x
In the wake of such successes like ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Aquaman’, expectations from DC movies have risen and this film doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it raises the bar higher for upcoming DC films.
The movie revolves around the 14-year-old foster kid Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who can turn into a superhero, Shazam (Zachary Levi), by shouting ‘Shazam!’
In his life before his superstardom, this pure-of-heart boy is desperately searching for his birth mother from whom he had been accidentally separated during childhood. Away from his parents, he finds real home with a foster family.
By and by, Billy gets chosen as ‘the one’ by an old wizard who is keen to transfer all his superpowers on to a decent human being.
The wizard wants to give his powers to Billy so that the young man can fight the super-villain Dr Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), the embodiment of the seven deadly sins.
In the first half, Billy as Shazam is shown trying to discover his superpowers—Can he fly? Can he produce electricity with his bare hands?—which gives us some hilarious moments.
The second half is more action-oriented as Shazam finds himself locked in a pitched battle against the evil Dr Sivana.
The casting does justice to a strong script. Levi is a perfect fit for Shazam, as he ably channels the innocence of the 14-year-old Billy into a muscular adult body with multiple superpowers. Levi is hilarious, heartwarming and, above all, believable as an ‘adult child’.
The brilliant use of VFX in this 3D film completely transports you into the DC Universe
The character development of Billy, and Levi’s comic chemistry with his ‘sidekick’ foster brother Freddie (Zack Dylan Grazer) are also interesting. Freddie, a sickly boy in a crutch, helps keep Shazam grounded, reminding him that “with great power comes great responsibility”. Mark Strong as Dr Sivana is scary as hell, and the perfect embodiment of a comic super-villain.
The brilliant use of VFX in this 3D film completely transports you into the DC Universe. A master of the horror genre, Director David Sandberg (‘Lights out’, ‘Annabelle: Creation’) effortlessly blends some creepy stuff—in the monstrous depictions of the seven deadly sins, for instance—into this superhero film as well, and as such will hook lovers of horror as well.
Besides this, with a sunny couple fostering five homeless children of diverse backgrounds, ‘Shazam’ offers a poignant picture of model foster families.
A complete package of action and comedy, this movie is good enough to win many new fans, appealing even to those not normally into superhero genre.
Who should watch it?
DC Comic fans will love it. Even those not into superheroes and fantasy should watch. You are sure to like big chunks of it, if not the whole thing. Go get Shazammed!
Movie: Shazam
Genre: Fantasy/ Science Fiction
Cast: Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Zack Dylan Grazer
Direction: David Sandberg
Rating: 4/5
As good as a Nepali film gets
‘Saili’ is a rom-com dealing with the social repercussions of foreign migration in rural Nepal. Based in a beautiful village in Kaski, director Ram Babu Gurung (‘Kabaddi’, ‘Kabaddi Kabaddi’, ‘Purano Dunga’) has once again aced a rural theme. Saili is exactly what cinema should be: a piece of art.
It is a feminist movie while not screaming of forced “Naari Shakti”, basically a tale of a Muna who falls in love with the wrong Madan.
The movie opens with two men and a woman inside what appears to be a ‘bhatti’. They are both husbands to women who are away on foreign employment. They go on a misogynistic rant about the soul-crushing reality of having to live at their wife’s expense, when the Sauni promptly reminds them who pays for their alcoholic life. The scene then contrasts to a face of a young woman navigating Tribhuvan Airport, cautious in her steps and innocent in her emotions.
And with a quick scene transition we travel back. The story starts with Saili (Menuka Pradhan) and Sunita (Kenipa Singh) sitting beside a river when Saili loses her slipper to a wave. Following the route of the slipper, Saili meets Pitambar (Gaurav Pahari) and his friend Birman (Dayahang Rai), who are both bathing downstream. Pite is instantly smitten by Saili. When asked for the slipper, Pite refuses, upsetting the women who then head home.
The male duo are then on a quest to woo the two women and head to Saili’s home on the pretext of giving back her slipper. After a rather awkward conversation with Saili’s father, who happens to be a lender to his own father, Pite plants a love letter inside one of Saili’s shoes. He writes of his feelings and proposes a date over ‘Jhol Momo’. Saili, with a knack for romance novels, is instantly wooed. For his part, Dayahang Rai or Bire, with his typical ‘bango humor’, keeps the tone of the movie light.
And there are plenty of other light moments. In one notable scene, Sunita can be seen taunting Saili that she might take away her lover because “Ajkal ko Madan lai Muna haina Munni chaincha” (No, we won’t even try to translate that). The entire movie hall thunders with laughter.
The romance borrows elements from Nepali rural society—indirect approaches to romance, reluctance to public display of affection, inability to express love with a straight face. The Pite-Saili affair progresses steadily until Saili’s father gets a wind of it. He senses a ploy by Pite to null out his father’s debt by marrying his daughter. Time and again, Pite is reminded to pay off his father’s debt, and even offered a job oversees by an ex-wardman.
By and by, Saili’s father fixes her marriage with someone else. Pite’s father in turn suggests he elope with Saili. “Everything is fair in love”, his father says as the audience go wild again. On a rainy evening, Pite arrives at Saili’s, with Bire in tow, to rescue his princess. The three run away.
To pay off his father’s outstanding debts, Pite then decides to go abroad. But as luck would have it, Pite is denied a passport because of the unrealistically similar looks between Pite and his father.
After the middleman (the ex-wardman) proposes Saili go abroad to work instead of Pite, the movie takes a melodramatic turn and the misogyny of the lead male character comes in full display. The proposition hurts his male ego and he is mad with anger. Nonetheless, in having to make this tough decision, Saili can be seen as representing all Nepali women working abroad to feed their family back home.
The filmmakers could have done more justice to the character of Saili by giving her more screen time and delving more into her struggles abroad. And the only problem with storytelling is towards the end, when the filmmakers try to whitewash Pite’s previous actions.
The musical score is fantastic at the start. But as the movie is filled with many renditions of the Saili song, it feels super-repetitive and loses its charm. There are also some noticeable faults in sound mixing. Of course these are little things on the grander scale. But when you’re watching a movie this good, you’re only left with breadcrumbs of criticism.
Who should watch it?
Fans of Ram Babu Gurung’s rural storytelling. You don’t need to watch ‘Saili’ just to support the Nepali film industry. First, it’s a good movie, and only then a Nepali one.
Movie: Saili
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Cast: Gaurav Pahari, Menuka Pradhan, Daya Hang Rai, Kenipa Singh
Direction: Ram Babu Gurung
Rating: 4/5
A snapshot of modern Nepali state
In ‘Essays on Nepal: Past and Present,’ Sam Cowan brings to the analysis of contemporary Nepali history and society a rare incisiveness and depth. Most of 19 essays in this volume have already been published in various outlets, and an avid follower of Nepali history and politics would have relished them. Even so, in bringing them together in one volume, Cowan helps us form a useful mosaic of the evolution of modern Nepal and Nepali nationalism, and better understand the country’s recent journey from war to peace.
Travelling to Nepal regularly after his 1994 appointment as Colonel Commandant of the Brigade of Gurkhas, the titular head of Gurkhas in the British Army, and being in regular touch with the reigning Nepali monarchs of the time, Cowan had over the years gathered an acute understanding of the functioning of the modern Nepali state, most notably the post-1990 leg of its long and painful transition from absolute monarchy to full democracy.
This gives Cowan remarkable foresight. As a battle-hardened ex-soldier, Cowan was able to predict how the government-Maoist conflict would have no clear winner and was headed for a stalemate—this, in 2005-06, when many were forecasting a decisive victory for the state following the full engagement of Royal Nepalese Army in the war.
While the Maoists were ill-equipped for an all-out war, Cowan argues, the RNA was fast losing ‘hearts and minds’
While the Maoists were ill-equipped for an all-out war, Cowan argues, the RNA was fast losing ‘hearts and minds’ with its brutal anti-insurgency tactics. Another path-breaking essay in the volume explores Maoist military tactics during the insurgency: for instance, how they prepared for, and learned from, each raid.
Another set of fascinating chapters juxtaposes Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher’s 1906 visit to Great Britain with King Mahendra’s 1960 visit. Chandra Shumsher was successful in finagling an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford from his obliging British hosts. But King Mahendra was unable to do so, much to his visible chagrin.
Cowen digs into rare Bodleian Library records and National Archives in Kew, London, to give new backgrounds to these two visits, including the doctorate debate. The subtle differences in the treatment of the two Nepali rulers in the UK was, for one, reflective of changing British interests in the pre- and post-colonial worlds.
Other chapters deal with the upshots of old geopolitical rivalries in this ‘cockpit’ of Asia—encompassing topics like Kalapani, Khampas, border firing, infiltration, etc.
Whether Cowan is writing about the Anglo-Nepal war, the civil-military relations, the systemic corruption in government agencies in Nepal, or about one of his countless treks through his beloved country, he brings great insights as an astute outside observer. Again, there is military precision in the writing, the writer’s ability to separate noise from the essential evident in each essay. Now living a retired life, Nepali watchers will be waiting for more from Cowan-the-writer.
Essays on Nepal: Past and Present
Sam Cowan
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Himal Books
Price: Rs 990, Pages: 362
