LUST : An Appreciable Effort of Young Film Makers #Review

By Anjali Timalshina,

“LUST” as a title for movie- the first time I heard about it, I thought it was something related to a sensual relationship between a guy and a girl -- obviously, the title gave it away. Nevertheless it was not quite the story that matched my prophecy. Having the opportunity to watch the premier show of the “BUDS Best Film” award winner movie, I could say that I had raised expectations from the enthusiastic team of the filmmakers. On the other hand, what added my prospects was the fact that the movie was releasing on one of the prospective and active youth blogger “Aakar’s” blog Aakar Post that promoted the movie utilizing every possible resource.

Getting to the story- the protagonist (or the con protagonist) portrayed by Pawan Jha and Manisha Bista as the lead lady in the movie seriously could not win my heart. I cannot exact about the conditions and time the movie was directed under, neither would I say that the director could not find the right person to play the lead character. Nonetheless, as much as I would have expected from a group of potential youths to improve the quality of our entertainment industry, the actors did not meet my expectations at all.

For instance, the lead male character has many expressions to express; firstly, when he welcomes the girl and he is supposed to be stunned by her beauty, we don’t see any expression covered by long hair of Pawan Jha. Even when he explains his rage regarding the chase he had with the girl, he says his dialogue as if a parrot has mugged the lines up. On the other hand, Manisha Bista too fails to relate with her audiences via her expressions that should have moved along with her lines. If I had to talk about their acting, I’d say director Rajan Kathet could have used the idea of auditions before choosing his leads.

The script is finely written and carved with creativity which keeps the audiences guessing about what’s coming next-Abhimanyu Dixit surely has put his imaginative heart out into the story. Adding to the note, Dixit has introduced an experimental yet original story line in Nepali Entertainment Industry, where the ongoing ruling trend is production of stagnantly replicated stories from Bollywood. It sure is a pleasant risk, I must say—and a note of appreciation to Dixit for a brave move to drop a fresh droplet into an immobile lake of stale water.

The cinematographer (Shail Shrestha) has done an appraisable job, which surely swept me away with the skills used in the movie. Director Rajan Kathet, I expect much more from you as an upcoming director full of enthusiasm who would be able to contribute in lifting the standards of Nepali movies. The team of the movie-makers have done a remarkable job of bringing out something new to audiences; however, the ones who were supposed to portray the characters lively, failed to understand the significance of vivacity that expressions bring into the characters.

On the contrary, considering that it is the first attempt of the creative team to put together their efforts and present it to the audiences, their attempt is surely appealing. Nevertheless, it is obvious that we’d expect more in the near future from the team of Kathet with improvements on the loopholes in his previous attempts.

Movie name: LUST
Run time: 22 minutes 15 seconds
Actors: Manisha Bista & Pawan Jha
Director: Rajan Kathet
Producer: Praveen Samuel Thapa
Script/ screenplay: Abhimanyu Mani Acharya Dixit
Cinematographer: Shail Shrestha
Editor: Bijen Shrestha

Watch/Download Movie LUST from here.