A tremendous success and a lamentable failure!

Sorry for the wacky title. The film festival this year was commendable and it should be after all, our actors, actresses and other stakeholders made valuable contributions to the Bhutanese cinema. Although at its infancy it is a commendable thing to tread the path of an artist. I am delighted by true stories whether be it in any language-subtitles provided. I don’t have any inkling towards the local Bhutanese movies but nevertheless some are worth the praise and some beyond praise. 

MPAB is a body that regulates the whole movie business but of late I have heard that this association is yet to pick out its board members. How far can the movie industry move without a proper guiding association? A working body without a head I presume! The festival was held despite several shortcomings. Hats off to those who made this event a success. 

Also, the festival requires a deluge of sponsors and advertisers. The commercial lifeline of all undertakings requires funding and we cannot compare our capital fund that we accumulate to other nations. In this case size does matter. Thanks to those firms and companies that sponsored the event and their company logos were visible right behind the anchor. What caught my eye is the logo bearing ECB, if you know what I mean! My little brain with its limited comprehension cannot understand why on earth ECB had to sponsor such event although; it’s heartening to hear of such gestures. 

Elections had been conducted and very negligible reporting errors were made. All done! Now what! People must think beyond the elections. Our country faces perennial shortages of fund and in my Dzongkhag I heard the grumbles of those election officials who were underpaid for the deputed work they were assigned as polling officials. Does this match? The underpayment of officials in one and sponsoring a live event, on the other! 

Again coming back to the talk of funds, it’s a nation’s call. Let there be no monetary benefits at all and invite volunteers from the civil service. A good number of officials would pen their names down for such services. If it doesn’t then, this definitely is the pocket’s call. This is an inconvenient truth. Otherwise, pay what has to be paid-Neither over nor under!

Our youth rejoice in Korean movies and soups-this is a biting truth. Fund our movie industry well and then have a board to regulate it properly. Only then, some sense will take shape otherwise we all have to seek inspiration from Aldous Huxley’s (Sorry if I got the name incorrect) Beauty Industry, “Beauty (Movie) industry is both a tremendous success and a lamentable failure”. 

Good day folks!