What do you do with your banner?

There was an international IT fair happening for the first time in Bhutan. I am assuming everything went well. What really caught my attention are the big banners they had put up in town and at the venue, which was the Youth Development Fund (YDF) complex.

But I was really disappointed by the way the banner at the YDF was pulled down. They just tore it down. I had assumed they would reuse it or do something useful with it. I remember doing a conference and after debating a lot of whether to have a banner or not the organizers wanted to have one so we had to get one. We firstly bargained on the price. The printers charged us Nu 5000 for a banner but after a lot of discussions back and forth and making them understand the purpose of the conference they gave us a very special prince that was Nu 1400. After the conference was done we didn't just pull it down, we wrapped it and have it in our store, hoping some day we will be able to reuse it or make some other use out of it. 

This made me think about the thousands or millions of banners that go up for different events. I wonder how they meet their fate. It is especially in the government agencies that they have a fetish for banners. Be it a small conference, training or a seminar they have to have a banner. Some times they have more than one. The disease of this is spreading to corporate, private and other agencies as well.

Sorry Wai!

Last week 11 of us including four children went to watch this film at the trowa theater in Thimphu. I was looking forward to watching this movie because my childhood friend Barun Wakley was featured as a first timer.

Like most people say, A Bhutanese film is always a hit among the public with the combination of four things. Tshering Wangyel, Tandin Bidha, Phurba Thinley and Ugyen Panday. Sorry Wai, has all four of them.

As expected from a Tshering Wangyel film, it is full of drama.  I had all kinds of emotion flowing through me through the entire film because the 2 hours 48 minutes film has a mix of everything.The film has eight songs of which one is a comedy which seem to be the most popular.

The film starts in an institute where a girl and boy hates one another so much that they can't stand each other. Yes, it is predictable, they fall in love. The twist here is his younger brother also falls in love with the same girl. They make promises which they keep (unexpectedly) as one brother sacrifices his love for the other. I will not reveal the story line here or the producers will sue me (wink wink).

May be I am getting old but I did not like the way the main protagonist (Quendeen) kept his hair. More than the film, I was amazed by the audience. We Bhutanese seem to be so connected to films because the moment the main protagonist stands up to fight the bad guy in the film, there were people cheering up and clapping from the audience. The hall was not filled, but the response from the audience was unbelievable. There was a little boy behind me and he kept shouting every time he saw Phurba Thinley.

Tandin Bidha as usual looks beautiful and dresses very well, I liked Quendeen's acting although a first timer but I did not like the way he delivered dialogues. Lhakpa is good and so is the little Kesang from one of the singing shows also did a great job. It could be because of the hairstyles but Quendeen and Lhakpa do look like siblings.

Other actors Rapay Khandu, Ugyen Wangmo, Azha Namgay, Gyem Tshering and Karma Tshering have also done great work.

In this film most of the actor have their own tag lines. "Talk to the Hand," is used by the female protagonist and the male uses "Shechey." His brother uses "Chodi Chodi," and there is someone who uses "Control."

Before I forget, Barun has done great in this film. I am not saying this because I am a friend, but because he has been a model and has a great body, it has been used well by the director. His profile and the shots taken make him look good. The woman sitting next to me in the theater was also amazed by him and kept saying, he should have been the hero. Barun is the negative character in the film and he has been a stylish way taking his thumb under his nose.

After the film when we were coming out of the hall, I was looking at everyones eyes and most of the girls had spoiled their eye makeup and some had swollen eyes.

All in a package the film is entertaining and there were some audience who were talking about watching it again :)