“If found guilty, the offence would be graded a fourth degree felony, and the men will also be liable to pay compensation to the husband.”
I cannot believe I just read this line in Kuensel. This was stated by the newspaper’s sources (the police) and I cross-checked the Penal Code to ensure that this was true. The men are to be charged with, “Rape of a married woman”.
I went to watch “Gazoom” today. No expectations. At all. At the end of almost 150 minutes, I left the hall with a warm and happy heart. The film did not disappoint. At all.
It annoys me that young Bhutanese kids watch a lot of cartoons dubbed in Hindi or in Hindi. I get annoyed not because I believe that the ideal situation is where Bhutanese kids only watch cartoons in Dzongkha, I get annoyed because they do not have a choice.
Or so it seems. Continue reading You are what you eat…from your TV platter
The “Sherubtse film industry” has produced about 14 films, so far. This is a group that is constantly changing. Constantly growing. Members have no real experience in filmmaking and no professional equipment. They have, in fact, been sharing/passing down a Nikon and Canon camera (over the years).
Are there enough youth-friendly spaces in Bhutan? A straightforward question which, unfortunately, did not elicit a straightforward response from me. Instead, the question turned into my shadow and finally into this: Continue reading Bhutan’s Youth-Friendliness
Finding Me
In the woods
sky above and ground below
feet on a dying tree.
Thirsty leaves drenched
in the wetness of the sky’s love.
Fingers trace a throbbing vein,
brown, green, and the space in between
filled with lines and letters
words and pictures-
characters of a film.
Breaths of time
Sighs of decay
in the moment
trapped…
between here and there.
Stillness between heartbeats
punctuating fleeting permanence.
Have I found the face of Life
Or the soul of Death?
I think of her
and she laughs at me
from among those sunflowers.
Her hair blows across her face,
her moles are tickled.
It’s in those freckles.
Or the twinkle in her eye.
Her heart is simple.
Honest. Open.
Free.
I wonder
when I’m gone
If
You will think of Me?
*After my last experience with some people of the Bhutanese film fraternity, I thought it would be some time before I would be inspired to write about any other Bhutanese film. I was wrong. So, here is a REVIEW.*
Karma, the film, is a journey, both within and without. Karma is also the name of the protagonist, and by the end of the film, even a pun on the Buddhist notion of Karma itself.
This morning I woke up thinking about the kind of Losar message I would I like to share on my Facebook page at the start of the new Lunar year: what am I thankful for? What am I looking forward to?
My mind has been fully occupied for the last twelve hours in a monologue as a result of those questions. Feeling a little like Calvino’s, ‘Mr.Palomar’, I have been pondering the meaning of being a Bhutanese: it is only natural that I do so because when I give thanks for the year gone by, the first thing I am grateful for is being Bhutanese. But why am I grateful for being a Bhutanese? Continue reading Why this Losar, I am grateful to be a Bhutanese!
“Gyalsey- The legacy of a Prince”, is in a league of its own. The film is quietly brilliant. My husband summed it up pretty well: Jamyang (actor/director) understands, and has successfully shown us that less is more. No annoying songs that just explode onto the screen, no slapstick jokes, no dramatised deaths, in short, all farcical elements that are usually common to mainstream Bhutanese films are absent. Gratitude was what I felt towards this very intelligent young actor/director from the beginning to the end of the film. Not even once does the script slip; the flow of the frames was as natural as the sequence of the sun rising and setting. Subtle acting by the male and female leads was a huge plus, actually, the entire cast did a fine job. But I was so angry by the end of the film. Continue reading Bhutanese Films: Interrupted
namgay zam 