Highway, A Mile Stone To Nepali Film Fraternity -Dhirendra Premarshi

Highway has created ripple effects in the Nepali film fraternity these days. Movie lovers were impatiently waiting for this movie before it was released in the movie theatres. Almost everywhere there were responses that Nepali film fraternity is being endowed with a best ever film ‘Highway’. Generally, a film receives good, bad or average responses from its viewers. However, this principle didn’t apply with Highway. As soon as the film got screenings into different movie theaters, the reviewers of this film clearly divided into two factions.  A group of critics are doing their best to portray the movie as the best Nepali movie that have been made ever whereas another group of commentators are hell-bent to label this movie as a worst Nepali movie.
But, between these two diametrically opposite lines of thought, there is really a genuine review of the movie Highway is being lacking. Either the movie Highway will be able to lead the whole Nepali movie sector into a broader Highway or it is going to deteriorating the existing pathway of the Nepali movie industry. None of the movie critics has been able to critically assess from this angle. There hasn’t been much attention paid regarding the positive aspect that the movie has been able to carry or about the contribution that this movie has been able to push the movie industry upwards which is on the verge of collapse. As a consequence, the uniqueness and distinctive things the movie has been able to convey have come under shadow. So, those, who have been enjoying the Hollywood movies and see this movie as the Mount Everest and those who have been enjoying the Bollywood carbon-copy Nepali movie and see this movie nothing other than noise and hullabaloo, should look this movie from afresh, different and new perspective.
Objectively, it is a sincere effort of a filmmaker of Highway to look into from different dimension of society which is completely different from traditional stream. It would not be a false judgment if we would say it a daring and a distinctive experiment of the filmmaker in the context of Nepal. There is a trend in Nepali feature film to weave a garland at the end of the story from different flowers. However, the Highway has made the attempts to look each character differently that are in a same garland and split each flower from the garland. This is the special characteristic of this movie. 
Here, we have got a totally formulae film and film mentality. Film means a total package of four/five songs, dance within the trees and jungles on those songs, hero symbolizing some witty man, heroine symbolizing a beauty, some dull dialogues of ideal love, some nakedness at any pretext. The mix of these all components makes a good movie to our film makers. It is obvious that some people who think that the film recipe of all mixed ingredients into same place. To those who have been habituated of listening, watching and telling the tale in traditional way like ‘Once upon a time…’, it is not strange that they might feel that the film Highway is a farce. I cant say exactly how much renowned is the name of director of Highway Deepak Rauniyar amid recognized people in the film sector. But the person is obviously a respected and renowned among the meaningful cinema making. He isn’t a person who reached in the top suddenly. He have gained the fame and arrived to this place of excellence by passing one by one step. He begun with journalism and arrived to the level of editing. He worked in the field of editing for long period of time. Meanwhile, he was also involved in BBC Radio where he worked for producing the radio drama. When he gained skills in every nature of technical works, he entered into film making. Deepak made short movie Chaukath as his first independent creation. It looks like he made his film to test his feeling, imagination and technical skills by himself. The creativity, he exhibited in Chaukath, was widely appreciated. Later he again made a movie Pooja for BBC. Pooja is a movie made in traditional trend that Nepali viewers have long been watching. In this movie, Deepak’s direction has been reflected in the simple and natural flow of the film. It is ample clear that Deepak Rauniyar didn’t make this film because he couldn’t make other stereotype of movies. Highway was made to give Nepali film a new direction with magnificent plot, script, dialogue and acting. There is creativity in the direction and camera and editing works are in a paramount level of excellence. Above all, the important aspect has been left in the viewer’s instinct. A viewer gets the full chance to absorb, conclude and explain the stories of the movie on his/her own once getting out from the theatres after watching movie.  And, this must be done by a viewer because a type of turbulence arises after watching the movie.
Movie is all about the creativity of a director. A director invites the viewers to let them taste his/her creativity. And the director should serve his creativity for the taste of the viewers, this is the general principle of creation of a creators.  It is a duty of the directors not only to serve according to the taste of viewers but also to make an honest attempt towards pleasing them.
Perhaps, Highway team might have thought that it would be a magic just by making the movie by breaking the traditional format of movie making. They made the estimation that the viewers who don’t much go to theaters would thronged into the theatres expecting the typical, quality and distinct flavor. However, in the backdrop where so called civilized and educated leaders of the society are feeling uneasiness with the latest political changes, how the team estimated that these people, would easily accept the changing path that the Highway is supposed to catch. Amid the thinking that Nepali literature is all about novels of Yudhir Thapa and Prakash Kowid, it is good to an extent of sowing the seed of change by serving the story and drama of Gopal Parajuli. However, it is hard to create a plenty of space in Nepal’s film market. Even knowing this bitter truth, the film was screened in theatres from Kathmandu to Birjung and Janakpur where the film couldn’t garner upbeat responses from the public viewers. By saying this, it doesn’t mean that the movie Highway has missed the target. The film is a genius creation that came at a time when the viewer’s mentality is yet to be broader. The film weighs far more than the Nepali viewers ability to grasp. The team of meaningful film Highway should have made the viewers exercises of lifting this weight gradually. This is a main weakness of the Highway. There can be other small flaws too. But the way the campaign has been spearheaded to denigrate the movie is really disgusting. It was even told somewhere that the film reached to Berlin Film Festival because the bus used in the movie was made in German. This sort of thinking will lead us nowhere. I would like to put a remarks by an independent viewer Swotantra Kumar Karna- “The film that come just for the sake of entertainment is the byproduct of Bollywood. If it was the reality than Hollywood film couldn’t have been considered of such high level.”
Likewise, I would also like to quote an acclaimed Indian Journalist Chandrakant who is very much interested in watching and reviewing the movies, “In the coming days while talking about the history of Nepali film, the period will be said as after and before the period Highway.”  
Anyway, Highway has become a milestone in Nepali film society. Deepak has become a hero to salute for a daring initiative by taking risk and draw a line for the Nepali highway.
Highway has definitely given a chance to the viewers to look each layer of the flowers of each in the garland and take a good smell from it.