Kagbeni

Kagbeni is a 2008 Nepali supernatural drama that was released in the cinemas of Nepal on 11 January 2008 with a UA certificate from the censor board. The film is the directorial debut of Bhusan Dahal, a popular television journalist, and it is loosely based on the famous 1902 horror short story The Monkey Paw written by W.W. Jacobs. The screenplay of the movie was written by Prashant Rasaily, it was produced by Bhaskar Dhungana, Nakim Uddin and Rajesh Siddhi under the banner of Quest Entertainment, and the name of the movie is taken from the tourist place Kagbeni in the valley of the Kali Gandaki, which is a two hour trek from Muktinath. The film is considered to be the movie which changed the way the people look at the Nepali cinema, and the Nepali critics now often describe the non-commercial movies as the post-Kagbeni era films.

The story of the film follows Krishna, played by the popular singer Nima Rumba, who returns from Malaysia to the village of Kagbeni to meet his childhood friend Ramesh, played by Saugat Malla, who runs a small liquor business. On their way to the neighbouring village Marpha, they stop at a cave for the night, where a mysterious hermit, played by Anup Baral, appears and hands Krishna a monkey paw, which he claims to be magical. The hermit explains that the paw can fulfil the wish of the owner, but it can bring a great disaster if anyone other than its owner uses it. Ramesh wakes up in the middle of the night, takes the paw from Krishna and makes a wish to win the love of Tara, and sometime later, Krishna loses his balance and falls off the hill. Nine years later, Ramesh is married to Tara, played by Deeya Maskey, and they have a son named Bardaan. When a big storm ruins the apple crop, Tara makes a wish on the monkey paw, and the next day their son is run over by a tractor and dies, but they receive a compensation of one hundred fifty thousand rupees. When Tara wishes to return their son, the paw is picked up by the once again alive Bardaan, who disappears with a flash.

The cast of the film included Hanif Mohammed as Bishnu, Pooja Gurung as Pema and Vivek Gurung as Bardaan. The cinematography of the movie was handled by Bidur Pandey, and the music was composed by the band 1974 AD. Kagbeni is the first digital film of Nepal, and it was released simultaneously all over Nepal, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Siliguri, Sikkim, Dehradun, Shimla, Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai and New York. The film premiered at the Hyderabad International Film Festival on 6 January 2008, and it was also an official selection at the Shanghai and Mumbai international film festivals, before it found its place in the history of the Nepali cinema.