Entertainment
A Himalayan love story on stage
Kalapatthar Mathi, a love story set in the Himalayas, where families continue to struggle to eke out a living, is currently on stage at the Mandala Theatre in the Capital. Written and directed by Pradeep Kumar Chaudary, Kalapatthar opened to audiences on Friday.Kalapatthar Mathi, a love story set in the Himalayas, where families continue to struggle to eke out a living, is currently on stage at the Mandala Theatre in the Capital. Written and directed by Pradeep Kumar Chaudary, Kalapatthar opened to audiences on Friday.
Kalapatthar Mathi is Chaudhary’s second directorial in the Nepali calendar year, after December’s Masantaar, which revolved around the age-old practices of shamanism in Nepal’s western hills.
Kalapatthar, on the other hand, tells the story of a young man’s quest to earn enough money as a porter to summiteers to be able to afford to get married to his love.
Speaking about his shift from telling a story from the hills to that of the mountains, Chaudhary, who hails from the Tarai, said: “As a student of English literature, I have read a score of stories set in or around the sea. But we don’t have the sea; what we have is the mountains—I take the mountains as the compensation for the lack of sea. So I wondered why we don’t often see stories set in the mountains. So I decided to attempt it myself.”
Kalapatthar Mathi is one of the few Nepali plays of late being set entirely in the Himalayas. The play features a fixed set which serves as a metaphor for the mountains and has included costumes and tonalities of the region.
Kalapatthar features actors Santosh Tamang, Nisha Pakhrin, Patrika Ghimire, Kiran Shrestha, Bikash Lama, Prashna Dangol, Pushkar Karki, Sanjeeb Rai, and Baarat Limbu, among others.
The play is currently being staged everyday at 5 pm (except for Mondays) and will be on till March 4.