"Shambhala"

"Shambhala", which entered Nepal after gaining name and fame in the international film festival, is being screened in Nepali cinemas. The movie 'Shambhala' directed by Meen Bahadur Bham, who gained a lot of buzz from the movie 'Kalopothi', has tried to show the Himalayan culture, people's life and stories.

The film revolves around polygamy in Dolpa, traditional trade with Lhasa, customs and culture, Buddhism and myths. The story of how Pema, who enters Tasi's house, attains Nirvana as Shambhala, is presented in a lively style. The film revolves around the story of the struggle of a pregnant Pema who went to Lhasa on business in search of her husband Tasi. A rebirth and myth in the Himalayan culture is shown in the movie.

The story of the movie begins with the Sherpa community living in the Himalayas where the main character of the movie is Pema (Thinle Lhamo). At the beginning of the movie, Pema gets married to three men Tasi (Tenjin Dalh), Karma (Sonam Topden) and Dawa (Karma Wangyal Gurung) at the same time. The practice of polygamy is reflected in the movie at this time, after which the story of Pema's biography begins. Pema, who is living with three men, is very close to the elder Tasi. She loves Tasi more than the other two. Both of them spend the wedding night together and she becomes pregnant. Tasi reaches Lhasa for business and disappears there. The other husband is engaged in the service of Milo Karma Rimpoche in the monastery. The younger husband is equal to the son of Dawa Pema. Paying for the younger husband, the wife is seen more in the role of mother.

Due to her reading of Da'wa and her unruly habits, Pema reaches out to Ram Sir (Karma Shakya) of the village to ask for help and that help turns into not biting her or biting her. The society starts saying many bad things about Pema. There are many speculations that the child growing in her womb is not Tasi's but Ram Sir's. On the other hand, the childish brain of Dawa also starts to consider this as truth. Tasi, who is returning home, takes the village's rumor as true and changes his way. He does not have the ability to fight with the society and he turns his way from Nangla Pass. After knowing this, Pema, pregnant, goes in search of her husband. After this, Pema's life begins to take many surprising turns.

In the movie, the actors spoke in Dolpo language. Somewhere only Nepali language is used. The dialogue has been 'subtitled' in English and Nepali.

One of director Bham's specialties is to cast non-actors in his films. Where he has been successful.

Seeing the beautiful scenery of the mountains feels like watching a movie. Meen has done more acting in the scenes than in the story of the movie. He has tried to introduce many things through visuals. The most beautiful part of 'Shambhala' is its view. Also, the director did not skimp on the color and lighting of the movie. The colors and lighting according to the scenes have made the movie more elevated.

Be it the scene with the younger husband or the scene with Karma to find Tasi. It cannot be said that most of the scenes and their dialogues do not compel the audience to sigh. Another weak point of the movie is that Pema walks to find her husband, but where is her destination? This is not clearly disclosed. Similarly, the Namkha (horse) that was walking with Pema is found dead in the snow. If it had been made clear how the horse was brought to the snow, wouldn't there have been many doubts in the minds of the audience? 'Shambhala' may not be a suitable movie for the viewers who watch Deepak Raj Giri's cheesy movies or Bollywood actors Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar, but it is a must watch movie for those who are looking for Nepali originality in movies.