Das Dhunga

Will Das Dhunga Reveal Truth?
Prabalta Rijal

Great leaders don’t only belong to a particular party, they belong to the nation, to the people. Nepal lost two such leaders fifteen years ago in a mysterious road accident at Das Dhunga. The incident know as Das Dhunga left the entire nation flabbergasted but the death of Madan Bhandari and Jeevaraj Aashrit raised a lot of questions.



In an effort to find answers to these questions and lift the curtain from a suspense that had been looming in our minds for fifteen years, two young filmmakers have almost completed a film ‘Das Dhunga’, a semi-fictional film on the mysterious incident.



The lead character has been fictionalised to protect the identity of a journalist who was forced to leave the nation because of his search for the truth. Apart from this all the facts revealed in the film are true according to its director/writer Manoj Pandit, 29, and producer Apil Bista, 27.



"I grew up wondering who killed Madan Bhandari, we debated about it and none of us have actually been able to accept that it was an accident. I just wanted to get to the bottom of it and in a way we have been able to unveil the mystery behind the so-called accident in the film," said Pandit.



The two hour long film presented by Apil Bista Films Production is based on an investigation by a government investigative officer, played by Anup Baral--a renowned theatre actor/director.



The film begins with the car crash at Das Dhunga, which took the lives of the two leaders and revolves around the investigation, interrogation of Amar Lama, Bhandari’s driver who had been suspected and accused of carrying out the tragic master-plan.



"Though the film has focused on the death of political leaders, it’s not a political film—we have just tried to unravel the truth behind the mystery. For this we have tried in a very unique manner, we will not compromise on creativity and we will reveal our findings at any cost," he said adding that they had already started receiving threats for making the film. "We have had people calling to tell us that there is no threat to our lives from inside Nepal, but there are outside forces who can easily harm us," said Bista.



While talking to The Rising Nepal on how they researched for the film, Pandit explained that they met the relatives of the deceased. They also came across an investigative journalist who gave them information he had on the mystery which helped them take their research a step ahead. They also claimed that they received no support from the people they expected it the most from, and found a lot of facts and files related to the case going missing from government offices and other sources.
"There were loopholes and it became very difficult to actually connect them because most of the people we approached weren’t too keen on helping us that surprising yet very disappointing," they said.
They also informed that they received anonymous calls telling them that the film would in no way pass the censors. " Apart from all this, I did not even write the dialogues in the script for fear of their leakage," said Pandit.
"The dialogues like ‘Go and ask Madhav and Oli about who killed Bhandari’ and ‘ Do you work for the CIA’?, have been leaked," they said.



After the documentary ‘Greater Nepal’, which has been banned in Nepal, Pandit seems to have done it again, another controversial topic and another quest for truth. ‘Das Dhunga’ too looks very promising and is currently in its first phase of editing.



Bista who is very enthusiastic about the film informed that a few faces of the culprits will be revealed if those scenes are not censored. "We don’t know what the film will look like after it is censored, but if it comes out uncensored, it will surely cause an uproar," they added.



A fan of the Hollywood Oscar winning actor and director Clint Eastwood, Pandit has been inspired by the filmmaker’s style of cinematography and has tried to use this style in ‘Das Dhunga’. The film seems to have shaped up in a Hollywood style and the makers claim that no other Nepali film has been made in this way.



"Doing the film was very interesting but honestly speaking we have very few actors who can become a ‘director’s actor’, its not difficult to become an actor, but to become a ‘director’s actor’ needs a lot of professionalism which most of our actors lack," Pandit told.



Apart from Anup Baral who’s playing the lead, Dhayang Rai will be playing Amar Lama, Mandan Bhandari will be played by his own brother, Ram Krishna Poudel will play Jivraj Ashrit and Sanchita Luitel will play Baral’s wife in the film. The film’s cinematography which according to it’s producer is exceptionally good has been done by Purshottam Pradhan, The film to be released on the end of May is being edited by Nimesh Shrestha and the music for the film has been composed by Kicha.



Will ‘Das Dhunga’ reveal the killers? Well, we will just have to wait for the release of the film this year, because the makers refused to unveil the suspense.