‘Flames of the Snow’ on silver screen

- Sudeshna Sarkar/ (Courtesy: IANS)

(This is probably for the first time in Asia, when a documentary film has got a big commercial release with 42 screens.)

Kathmandu, Feb 17 (IANS) It was an unusual scene in Kathmandu Thursday with two top leaders of Nepal's Maoist party - chairman and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and his deputy Baburam Bhattarai - heading for a posh cinema early in the morning when the party remained in consultations to name its new ministers.
'It is especially important to us,' Prachanda told IANS at the premiere of 'Flames of the snow', a nearly two-hour documentary chronicling the rise of the pro-democracy movement in Nepal from the 19th century and culminating in the abolition of monarchy in 2008.
'This documentary is based on the People's War fought by our party.'
For the first time in Nepal, a documentary will be screened commercially across 42 theatres, marking a landmark in the republic's celluloid history.
It is the brainchild of Indian journalist Anand Swaroop Verma, who is associated with the leftist political movement in India, and directed by Ashish Srivastav, a New Delhi-based commercial film maker.
'The People's War of Nepal does not belong to Nepal alone,' said Verma. 'It belongs to every country where there is repression and struggle against it. The Maoist movement in Nepal was never truly represented. There was a calculated misinformation campaign against it. So we felt this was a story that needed to be told.'
The documentary, produced by India's Third World Media in collaboration with Nepal's GRINSO, traces the long and blood-drenched pro-democracy struggle against three regimes: the Shah kings of Nepal who ruled the country for 240 years, the repressive Rana prime ministers who reduced the kings to puppets for 104 years, and a succession of 12 governments in 13 years who sought to put down people's protests by force.
The revolt that started with peasant leader Lakhan Thapa in 1876 did not end with his hanging but continued in 1950 and 1990, finally becoming the Maoists' People's War that raged on for 10 years from 1996.

Starting with the fateful Friday night when a family dinner in Nepal's royal palace in June 2001 turned into a massacre, leading to the death of the king, queen and eight more royals, the documentary ends with the sun setting on the Shah dynasty May 28, 2008 when an elected parliament formally abolished monarchy and ordered the deposed king to vacate the palace so that it could become a national museum.
Weaving in interviews with Prachanda, Bhattarai, deputy commanders of the Maoists' People's Liberation Army and its fighters, 'Flames of the Snow' offers a rare insight into the reason that made Dahal, a poor farmer's son, become the mighty Prachanda, whose name is now an inspiration to communist movements worldwide.
'Prachanda was born near a stream in the field we used to farm,' says his father Mukti Ram Dahal, a farmer on southern Chitwan district. 'That will tell you how poor we were.'
As a young boy, Prachanda remembers following his father to the Narayangarh market and there, watching in helpless anger his father being abused and beaten up by landlords.
The impulse to avenge it shaped him as a rebel, though, as the movement snowballed, he says the individual emotion became an ideology.
'I realised (the repression of the poor by the rich) was not an isolated incident,' he says. 'It was everywhere in society. We have to change society...'
Though an uncritical praise of the Maoist movement, that had its dark side too, the film highlights one undoubted achievement: the emancipation of women from the villages and Dalit community, who were given a voice and treated as equals.
'If thousands of women had not joined the movement from the villages, it would not be where it is now,' Prachanda admits.
In the three years since then, Nepal has undergone further changes and the Maoists are now regarded as power-mongering and growing indifferent to people's woes.
Verma defends the documentary, saying that the revolution is still on.
'Only one phase is over with the People's War,' he says. 'There are ups and downs in every movement.'

Watch theatrical trailer of 'Flames of the snow '

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rcyjGAmRng

Censor Board denies certificate to 'Flames of the Snow'

(Says, film justifies Maoist ideology)




- NDFS Desk



New Delhi, June 22: Indian Censor Board has refused to certify ‘Flames of the Snow’, a documentary on Nepal, for public screening. The Board feels that the film ‘tells about Maoist movement in Nepal and justifies its ideology.’ It feels that ‘keeping in view the recent Maoist violence in some parts of the country’, the permission of its public screening can not be given. Produced under the joint banner of ‘GRINSO’ and ‘Third World Media’, the 125 minute film has been produced by Anand Swaroop Verma, a senior journalist and expert on Nepalese affairs. He has also written the script for the film. The film has been directed by Ashish Srivastava.
Reacting to the decision of the Board, Mr. Verma said it is quite surprising as the film does not have any reference at all to the current Maoist movement in India. The film is only about the struggle of the people of Nepal against the despotic Monarchy and the anarchic reign of Ranas. With the formation of Nepal in the year 1770 by Prithvi Narayan Shah, the foundation was laid for Monarchy in Nepal which was finally given a burial in the year 2008 when Nepal was declared a Republic. Thus 238 years of Monarchy also included 105-year rule of Rana dynasty which is known as the black chapter in the history of Nepal.
Talking about the film, Mr. Verma further said that the film actually shows how in 1876 Lakhan Thapa, a young man from Gorkha district organized the peasants against the atrocities being unleashed by the rulers of Rana dynasty and was, later, put on gallows by these rulers. Even today, Lakhan Thapa is remembered as the first Nepali martyr. Exploring the movements led by ‘Praja Parishad’ and ‘Nepali Congress’ against the despotic system, the film focuses on the armed struggle carried on under the leadership of the Maoists for 10 years and unfolds the story of how the movement mobilized the Nepalese people by first attacking and dismantling the feudal system in the rural areas and subsequently taking the people’s movement to the urban areas bringing more urbanites into its fold.
The film begins with the establishment of monarchy in Nepal, further touching the developments like the elections for the constituent assembly, the emergence of Maoists as the largest party in the elections and finally ends by showing the decline and complete disappearance of Monarchy and Nepal being declared a Republic.
Taking note of the objections put forward by the Censor Board, it seems that the Board will never give its certification to any political film made on Nepal since no political film on Nepal can escape underlying the prominent role of Maoists. Maoist party was heading the government in Nepal till May 2009 and even today is the largest party in the Constituent Assembly and is the main opposition party. Moreover its president Pushp Kamal Dahal ‘Prachand’ as the Prime Minister of Nepal had visited India on the invitation of the Government of India.
Mr Verma is now submitting his film to Revising Committee of the Board.