Cast: Aryan Sigdel, Keki Adhikari, Gajit Bista, Sushma Shahi, Mithila Sharma, Vijay Lama, Deshbhakta Khanal, Surbir Pandit, Laxmi Giri, Rashmi Bhatta
Director: Sajan Shrestha

Punarjanma is a story of two army officers who were close friends. The movie is directed by Sajan Shrestha and stars Aryan Sigdel and Gajit Bista as army officers. The picture also features Keki Adhikari opposite Gajit Bista and Susmita Shahi opposite Aryan Sigdel.

When a person dies in Nepal, we have a ritual called ‘Shradda’ on 13th day in memory of a dead person. Wikipedia has more information about Shradda here. But what if the person comes alive after ‘Shradda’ is complete? I think that would be the most shocking moment. Yes, it can happen, mostly when the person is in the army or police force. So, when this happens, we have a very interesting ritual called ‘Punarjanma’ that many of us are unaware of. The guy who’s Shradda is completed is not allowed to enter the house. He has to take ‘punarjanma’ or reincarnate again, then complete the rituals ‘nwaran’ and ‘bratabandha’ before he can marry his widowed wife again. That’s pretty remarkable.

The first half of the movie was slow with very less amusement and second half of the movie seemed more like a documentary. Background score was too loud on a few occasions. For instance, when Amar and Aman asked their senior for sickness leave, background music was too loud and made it difficult to hear what their senior said. Another thing I felt that they showed too much of army trainings. It seemed like they were having problem to cross the length of two hours. Also, when the armies were training, the background music was like big war was going on. Besides these, I have nothing to say about the cinema. I was expecting some entertainment, but the picture instead provided information about the possibly extinct ritual of our country, which is not bad either. I loved the conversations between Amar (Aryan Sigdel) and Maya (Susmita Shahi) in their first night of marriage. The script of the movie was average and the screenplay was not better.

Plot:
Amar (Aryan Sidgel) and Aman (Gajit Bista) are two very close friends in an army. Aman first meets Rupa (Keki Adhikari) in front of the Shrepa mall of Kathmandu and falls in love with her. Aman asks his mother (Mithila Sharma) that he loves her. But when Aman and his mom ask Rupa’s father for her hand, he rejects. So Aman and Rupa decides for court marriage. On the other hand, Amar marries with Maya (Susmita Shahi) who was the girl he loved. After marriage, both of them had to fight in a clash with terrorist groups. In this brawl, Amar dies. So, Amar’s family follows all their rituals done after a person died. But after few days Amar returns home. It was not Amar who died, but instead Aman was the one who died. Probably the message was delivered incorrectly. So Aman had to undergo ‘Punarjanma’ rituals before he can marry his own wife again.

Watch or Not?
If you want to gain knowledge about our ancient ritual ‘Punarjanma’, then you should probably watch this movie. Otherwise, there is no reason to watch this movie.