HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA

Growing up in the 1970s, the only doable foreign destination appeared to be Nepal , and for a   reason  other than that of affordability was  Dev Anand’s Hare Rama Hare Krishna ( HRHK) , its iconic number Dum Maro Dum with its capture of the extant hippie culture .  However, a  proper visit to Nepal was to wait till 24th December, 2024 when, with my wife, I finally took off for Kathmandu.

Amongst the places we visited included Thamel,  the bustling  maze of of streets of  shops, nightclubs,

nightclubs and whispering touts that serves as the touristy hub of Kathmandu, the UNESCO World heritage sites of the Durbars at Bhaktapur and Kathmandu, and the tourist capital of Nepal called Pokhara . One thing which was common to all these places was that they have been locales of shooting for different  Bollywood  films spanning from 1960s to present times . However , the link of Nepal and Hindi films is not just about some  places of the former being the locales for shooting, but of a much more intricate tapestry of relationships between the two.

Although Nepal’s first cinema hall was started in 1951 by converting a Town Hall into the Kathmandu Cinema Ghar  and then Janasewa  with the inaugural screening  of Ram Vivah,  symbolizing the strong cultural ties between Nepal and India. it was  only with the accession of King Mahendra,  who ushered in partyless  multi-tiered

Panchayat democracy, that the Hindi, or Bollywood , films came  to make a deep impact in Nepal . The King was an ardent lover of music and films, a photo of his with Elvis Presley adorns  the walls of quite a few cafes - we saw one in Pokhara. His  many visits to watch movies during reserved shows at Ranjana  Cinema Hall ( opened in 1956 with the screening of “Bhai Bhai” ) have been recalled by the hall owner's son Keshav Shrestha. 

A society immersed hitherto in rituals and festivals, Nepal was completely bowled over with the realism of moving picture with sound or the Talkies of the Hindi films screened ( though with a delay of upto a year),  not only in Art Deco styled (like in many places in India as well) cinema halls of Ashok Hall in Patan, Biswajyoti, Jai Nepal and Ranjana in Kathmandu but also the movie theatres in Patna  and Darbhanga which could now be accessed via Raxaul - Birganj  axis with the facility of Byroad ko Bato ( built by engineers of the Indian Army ). 

Gerd Anita Weiser , a Swiss girl  who grew up in Nepal and along with another local Meena Singh of Padma Kanya Campus played the role of two local girls close to Jasbir or Zeenat Aman in HRHK )  and an avid film goer to the screens of the Jaya Nepal Cinema Hall and Ranjana Film Hall said , “I’d see many simple women who probably worked in their fields all day and had a hard life glued to the cinema screens,” she said.  “House Full” was the dreaded signage we feared to behold whenever we went to the movies as it meant looking at ticket touts who would extract blood,” reminisces blogger Subodh Rana.

A defining moment was of course the shooting of HRHK which took the celluloid stars closer to the people. The film, whose storyline was the outcome of a meeting  by Dev Anand with an Indo -Canadian hippie Janice ,whom he had chanced to see at the  hippie hotspot Bakery,  had the blessings of King Mahendra ,who advised him to retreat to the FishTail Lodge at Pokhara ( owned by his brother Prince Basundhara)  to write the script.  As Dev Anand wrote in his memoir, ‘Romancing With Life’, the 10 weeks of the shooting was, “one huge celebration” and Kathmandu was “agog with excitement, living day and night with the phenomenon called ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna”.

The Hindi films directly and indirectly helped configure perspectives, teach the the link language

of North ( as it  did in huge swathes of non Hindi speaking parts of India and Pakistan as well) and define fashion , much like in other parts of India - the girls braided their hair like Vyjantimala and boys strutted about in  drain pipes and later in bell bottoms. Traditional Nepali men attire Daura Suruwal and Gunyo Cholo for women have evolved over time as saris and lehngas, sherwanis and turban, have influenced wedding trousseau and even festival dresses  during Dasain, Teej and Tihar. Jeans, T-shirts, and casual kurtis worn by Bollywood stars in everyday scenes have become popular staples for Nepali youth. Slowly but surely, the  transcendence of portrayal of women in Bollywood films from the periphery to the core of the narrative  in such new wave films like Chak de India ( 2007), Kahaani (2012), English Vinglish ( 2012), Queen ( 2013), Pink ( 2016), Neerja ( 2016), Gangubhai Kathiwadi ( 2023)  have helped the female audience in Nepal find release from the immurement of submissiveness. 

One of the effects of Indian movies and its large body of actors, musicians, technicians and production facilities, was their catalysing nature in the development of Nepalese Indigenous film industry. An invite by King Mahendra to showcase Nepal’s early experience of the Panchayat System he had introduced,  made Bombay based director Hira Singh Khatri direct  (for Nepal’s publicity department),   its first homemade movie Aama with post production formalities done in Kolkata - he directed two more .The King was at it again to facilitate Nepal’s first homemade movie with private capital Maitighar ( with lead role by Mala Sinha  and her husband CP Lohani and guest appearances by Sunil Dutt and Rajinder Nath and songs composed by Jaidev and sung by Manna Dey, Geeta Dutt and the three Mangeshkar’s sisters  ) - he even wrote lyrics for a song sung  by Lata Mangeshkar in the film.

The musicscape of Nepal has had many borrowings from Indian- the Hindustani classical of which the Ranas were a big patron of, Modern Indian ghazals , the Hindi film songs from 1960s influenced  locally originating Nepal adhunik and lok geet  and finally to the end of the spectrum where Nepali Pop, in addition to western pop, has borrowed from developments of Indian pop and of the pop musics of the Indian diaspora, such as bhangra. 

Nepali music and musicians of Nepali  stock have also contributed significantly to the songs of

Indian film industry. Ranjit Gazmer  ( fondly called Kancha) was a key member of the trend-setting musical team of composers R D Burman and S D Burman during the 70s as his madaal ( a percussion and rhythm instrument that oozed of the sounds associated with mountainous landscape , hilly terrain and serpentine ghats of the Himalayan region)  playing lent a special tang to the compositions of Ravindra Jain, Bappi Lahiri, and Ram Laxman as well.. The legendary Nepali Band Himalayan Band’s ‘Musu Musu Haasi Deu’ inspired the song sung by Shaan in Pyaar Mei Kabhi Kabhi , the Nepali song Aage aage topaika Gola by Danny and Asha Bhonsle was adapted by RD B as Sang Mere Nikle Thhe Saajan in 1980 film Phir Wahi Raat song by Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar  while the  1992 Bollywood film Bandhu was remake of Nepali Blockbuster Saino ( 1989) and even all the songs in the remake were inspired from the original . 

However, the contact of Indian films  and music with Nepal has not always been one of steady and happy relationship. 

There has been much insensitive and unedifying portrayal of Nepalis in many Hindi movies. The Gurkha , otherwise one of the most courageous soldier s in the world, is in a large number of  Indian films , a watchman who is either  dumb witted like Pran in Kasauti (1974) , funny, suspicious and loyal like Paresh Rawal  in Haseena Maan Jayegi ( 1999) , comical props like the aides of Mohan ( Pran in Johnny Mera Naam ) or  he is the blockhead Chunky Pandey and his henchmen in Apna Sapna Apna Money ( 2007).

But what adds salt to the wound is that his bodily markers are : national dress of Nepal ( the daura surval and dhaka topi which I saw so smartly  worn by the mandarins of Jhapa, Meiti and Elam during my coordination meetings as Superintendent of Police, Darjeeling , and also by my late friend Hemadri Shumsher Jung  Rana, grandson of the reformist Rana and a former Finance Minister Sir Major General Subarna Shamsher  Rana ) ; and the khukuri or knife which. is a symbol of legendary Nepali combat courage.

If these indignities were not enough, there have been unflattering  or controversial references by some  Indian actors on Nepal or Nepalese,  though quite a few could be on account of dubious media reporting. Manoj Kumar, Nanda , Hrithik Roshan and Dharmendra all got it between the eye, and for all its success Sholay (1975) could not be shown in Kathmandu and other hill towns – because Dharmendra was one of the three male leads.

The vicissitudes of political relationship between India and Nepal (although this shall be the

subject matter of another writing) have also informed the hiccups surrounding Indian movies in Nepal. First is the issue of unresolved border disputes- especially those relating to Kalapani and Lipulekh, The second is the perception of Indian interference whose most recent example was India’s stalling the making and promulgation  of the new constitution. The third has been the hardships suffered in several economic blockades ( especially the last one of 2015) .  Further , references are made to “unreasonable” provisions in the Indo- Nepal Treaty of 1950 and India’s Big  brotherly attitude  by politicians of many hues.

Finally, the tendency by India - either the Indian state or its films or even the academia- to appropriate origins of everything of the wide religio-cultural Indosphere to present day India ( birthplace of Sita or Gautam Buddha or even the architecture of Hindu temples in South East Asia ) is naturally a source of intense indignation. In  June 2023,  the hugely Kathmandu Mayor and rapper Balendra Shah asked  for a ban on all Indian films because of a controversial dialogue in Adipurush where Sita was referred to as daughter of India,  and even deployed Kathmandu Metropolitan Police to enforce the ban -and soon Pokhara followed suit. 

These get exacerbated due to the China factor which  ( without much detailing of its financial heft and soft power penetration here )  pans out as a ‘ benevolent ‘  neighbour against the image of a ‘selfish’ India, to the extent that more than the annexation of Tibet by China in 1950, it is the incorporation of Sikkim in 1975 that raises more hackles in Nepal.  

To the extent that Indian movies are perceived as the prime motor of India’s cultural influence, they are targeted . Among the 40 demands made by the Maoists before they went underground in February 1996 was a ban on Hindi films. 

Kanak Mani Dixit,  a Nepali publisher, editor and writer and founder of the magazine Himal Southasian, wrote in “Kathmandu and the Reality of Bollywood, ” The radical politicos of Nepal have always carried an ultra-nationalist chip on their shoulder. ….A section of the Kathmandu political class, particularly student leaders on the make, is constantly on the lookout for slights against the Nepali nation made by Bombay actors”. 

The   Nepal based journalist Peter Gill in an article “Bollywood meets Nepali Nationalism”, mentioned how the  SRK Fan Club Nepal, founded by supporters representing  a variety of caste and ethnic groups – Brahmin, Newar, Chhetri, Tamang, Muslim, met with online hostility and trolling. One angry commenter wrote, “I’m a fan of my own Nepali hero Nischal Basnet [a popular director in Nepal], you guys are fans of that dhoti [derogatory term for Indians],” punctuated by several middle-finger emojis.

However, for all the ultra nationalism exhibited within Nepal and all the reservation against India’s big brotherliness, there is, what Dixit calls,  an” elastic nationalism” that informs the attitude of people of Nepal to India. This elastic nationalism derives from a need for differentiation from 'big brother' on the one hand, to the other, the reality of the open border, the simple practicality of a peaceful bilateral relationship with a massive neighbour and  fact that tens of thousands of mid-hill ethnicities are dependent upon the salaries and pensions of the Indian army". Al Jazeera quoted one Shishir Bhattari, 19, a trainee at Salute Gorkha Training Centre , Pokhara, '' I had a dream to join the Indian Army. So many of the Gurkhas [soldiers primarily native to Nepal] have served in India ... I also loved the Bollywood movie Shershaah whose storyline is about the Indian Army and that motivated me even more”.

India continues to be Nepal’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 72% of its 

exports and 63% of its imports. Nepalese were not much behind the Indians to take a dip  in the Kumbh Mela even as the country’s premier airlines, the Buddha Air,  pastes stickers of Varanasi and Kathmandu, the two premier cities of Shiva”s temples, as an exemplar of emotional and cultural  connectivity between  the two countries.

Peter Gill writes “ despite moves to align more with China politically, people-to-people ties remain much stronger with Nepal’s southern neighbor. This is exemplified by the popularity of Indian films — both Bollywood and South Indian — whereas Chinese films are rarely shown in Kathmandu”. The ban on Sholay hardly deterred Nepalis from flocking to Kolkata or towns of Bihar to watch the film and repeating the iconic dialogue” Arre O samba”. Dev Anand and Zeenat Aman remain reigning deities even decades after the movie HRHK was released. 

“It’s not that we don’t like Indian people, it’s the government we don’t like,” said Anoj Adhikari at the SRK rally. “They always interfere in our own matters. But the citizens aren’t bad — they are good.”

During my visit to Kathmandu, I saw the movie  Pushpa 2 in a packed  multiplex in Darbar Mall while the whole town was abuzz with excitement over Sonu Nigam’s Musical Nite during Christmas at Hyatt Ground . When I went to Chandragiri Hills, with the luck of  a sunny day and clear sighting of snow capped mountains around, I stepped on a rotatory with a gyro camera to dance,  to the tune of  the Nepali influenced Hindi song  Keti Ko from Unchai. 

Even as I finish this piece, the welcome news  that appeared on 20th March edition of Hindu

is  that Nepal’s iconic Khukuri Rum, started by three Parsi Nepali businessmen in 1959,  is coming to India, the country of the Old Monk. One wishes that this could be the harbinger of another good news for both the countries- the resumption of recruitment of Nepalis in the Indian Army, stopped in 2020 after the introduction of the Agnipath Scheme. If there is one connection that predates the popularity  of Indian films in Nepal is the chance of employment  in the seven  Gurkha regiments of the Indian army. In this context , the statement of General  Dwivedi highlighting India’s willingness to resume the recruitment process” in a manner respectful of Nepal’s sovereign decisions “ since  resumption of Nepali Gorkha recruitment is not just a matter of military significance but also a question of maintaining a cultural and historical bond, is indeed welcome.