Heaping fiascos

The new film Loafer is a confusing mish-mash of influences, bogged down by unlikeable characters, over-the-top action and a slow place
KATHMANDU, DEC 11 -
It’s hard to slot the newly released Nepali film Loafer into a specific genre or style. Part political satire, part comedy, part thriller and part action flick, the project is a veritable mish-mash of influences, and as so often happens when filmmakers attempt to do far too many things at once, ends up a confused, indistinct mess. Debutant director Aditya

Bikram Lamsal certainly deserves credit for trying to push the envelope and cater to a variety of tastes here, but given the final results of that effort, it appears he would’ve been better off focusing on taking the film in one particular direction—a more somber one, to be exact—rather than heaping the script as he has with one-too-many ‘witty’ one-liners and overdone action sequences.

Loafer tells the story of one Bhanta (Dayahang Rai), a mysterious guy who somehow lands up in a party being thrown by three friends—Raju (Sushil Raj Pandey), Samyog (Anupam Sharma) and Bipin (Kamal Mani Nepal). Samyog has just been granted a US visa and the trio are celebrating his good fortune. Although already having a great time, the three find that the fun is amplified with the addition of Bhanta to their little group, and the night just gets wilder by the minute. Consequences, however, await them, The Hangover-style, the next morning, when they wake up to find a young girl (Rajani KC), the daughter of a minister, in an unconscious state in the trunk of their car! Confused, the three friends decide to follow Bhanta’s lead in deciphering the events of the night before, but it only gets them into one fiasco after another, interspersed by encounters with Inspector Sigdel (Aryan Sigdel) who shows up time and again to indulge in physics-defying fights and some annoying slow-motion preening.

Loafer has long been promoted as representing producer Chhabi Raj Ojha’s shift in interest from ‘single-screen’ audiences to ‘multiplex’ audiences as the target demographic. That change of approach is certainly visible in the style adopted, but hasn’t necessarily extended to the film’s content, bogged down as it is by an exceedingly slow pace and inability to engage audiences.

Part of the trouble with the film has to do with the kind of characters that filmmakers have opted to include, such as that of the inspector, played by Sigdel. Neither the role nor the actor’s performance adds anything to the narrative—if anything, Sigdel’s over-the-top portrayal of the shallow official distracts from the basic plot. Same goes for Rajani KC’s debut...the actress has been given little to do except for alternating between weeping and sleeping. Among the film’s most irksome aspects is also a love song visualised between KC and Pandey, which takes place at an utterly unfathomable moment in the plot. Things are such that even Dayahang Rai and Kamal Mani Nepal—who would otherwise be enough to salvage a film—are unable to pull Loafer out of the rut.

As a commentary on corruption and the nature of evil, the film does fare decently, and there is a slow unlocking of suspense towards the end that does pique one’s interest somewhat belatedly, but these narrow triumphs do not make up for the disappointing rest. Loafer is ultimately an exhausting watch, propped up by jokes that aren’t really funny and outdated Dabangg-reminiscent action.

Labels: Entertainment, Highlight