The Paw Goes to Nepal

The harsh beauty of the Himalayas serves as a backdrop to yet another rendition of "The Monkey's Paw" in the 2008 Nepali film Kagbeni. The first film from director Bhusan Dahal, it has problems with pacing and tone, but the lead actors give good performances and the story inherits some real tension from the original story.

The movie begins with an intriguing jump scare. Krishna (Nima Rumba), trudging up a mountain, is suddenly confronted by a madwoman who screams incoherently at him. He rushes past her and meets up with his old friend, Ramesh (Saugat Malla).

Krishna has just returned from Malaysia and decides to tag along with Ramesh who's transporting liquor on mules. At this point, the film starts to meander quite a bit as the filmmakers spend too much time indulging in panoramic shots of the mountains. Accompanied by a blandly cheerful background score and occasional chit-chat from the characters about Malaysia the film starts to feel a lot like a tourism advertisement.

Things finally get interesting again when they encounter an old man who, in gratitude to Krishna for the loan of a blanket for the night, gives the young man the monkey's paw.

In this version, the paw grants infinite wishes with no strings attached for the paw's rightful owner. But if someone other than the rightful owner uses it, then every fulfillment of the wish comes with disastrous consequences. This gives the film a slightly different existential commentary as Ramesh finds himself dealing with the consequences of the paw's magic. Eventually, he uses it to marry the woman of his dreams, Tara (Deeya Maskey), but a shadow of guilt hangs over their marriage pretty effectively. At least, when the film doesn't start to feel like a tourism ad again.

Attaching clear guilt to the bad consequences of the paw diminishes the subtle horror of the original story a bit but it makes for some good drama for pretty, talented actors to chew on.

Kagbeni is available on YouTube.

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