Cast: Hanna Geschewski, Menuka Pradhan, Nikun Shrestha, Shanti Giri, Jyoti Karki, Arun Regmi, Deewakar Piya, Bina Pandey
Director: Pasang Lama

Nepali movie: Zhigrana is about the journey of Christine with her crew and a guide to Ruku, they land in a mysterious place called Zhigrana where strange things start happening. This contemporary thriller is directed by Pasang Lama and stars Hanna Geschewski of German nationality as team leader of an NGO and her Nepali accent was quite lovely. Other important casts are Menuka Pradhan, Nikun Shrestha, Shanti Giri, Jyoti Karki, Arun Regmi, Deewakar Piya and Bina Pandey.

Nepal is a country of some true natural beauties and the movie offers some marvellous scenic beauty of Rukum. There are still many unknown and hidden places in Nepal that has their own myths and mysterious stories. Some of them might be true while others are just told to scare people off. Zhigrana also has a frightening story of Kaal Panchami who used to sacrifice humans to gain power.

“Aba yo kaal panchami ko kura chahi, jasle jati dherai bali diyo, teti chado mukti pauchha bhanne biswas chha.”

Zhigrana is a perfect suspense-thriller and certainly fresh and original. The movie shows some gripping glimpses of ‘Jhakri’ in action. The starting of the movie was very promising. The first half was however little dull with very few absorbing moments but the movie takes a good grip as the second half starts and continues to thrill afterwards. Finally, the finishing was terrific. One final thing about the movie still lingered in my mind. I thought BK was not injured much. So, is he alive after the movie finishes?

It’s very refined and well directed movie. The Cinematography was marvellous. Sometimes they tend to thrill too much with the background sounds in the first half, otherwise it was an excellent background score and pretty much helping the scenes. The music was very bright and rocking. Dialogues in the movie seem to be well-prepared. Further, I was really amazed by the performance of each character. There is nothing ill to say about the performance of any actor. Everything looked clean and likely. When Smriti died and Shreeya goes on to slap Roger looked very clean and natural. Did she slap him in real? Well, he got two slaps from her. I find Hanna Geschewski speaking in Nepal very sweet. She looked very confident.

Plot
Christine has been working for children’s welfare with an NGO in Nepal for the past four years. Her boss assigns her to do a last mission in Ruku to collect information before she leaves for the United States. Ruku is the place where no NGOs or INGOs has reached before to gather information as a social worker. Christine is assigned as the team leader for the mission and other crews for the mission are Maya, Smriti, Rojar, BK Aka kattu and Shreeya. Maya and Rojar are in love with each other while Shreeya is the elder sister of Smriti. The boss assigns mysterious Ram, once jailed for a murder as their travel guide.

Leaving for the mission with her crew and guide, they take shelter in a small village called Zhigrana. Zhigrana has a story of a killer on the loose who sacrifices humans in the name of Kaal Panchami, a mythical ghost.

When they start to turn against each other regarding a death of a friend and with no one to trust, is it the ghost of Kaal Panchami or something else even stranger than that?

Watch or Not?
The movie is well-made suspense/thriller which will definitely amuse you. It’s a must watch movie if you are into suspense movies.

Official Trailer of Zhigrana: