Phun Anu Thanu: Love it or Really Love it

Phun Anu Thanu: Love it or Really Love it

Walking out of the theatre with smile on my face, one word I can apply to capture the whole movie is ‘Cute’. In my view, the movie is so cute that it makes all the shortcomings of the film forgivable. The touching messages made my hair raised and justify the illogical reasons why there are such irrelevant scenes in the movie. Being the first feature film by Tibetans-in-exile about Tibetans in-exile, Phun Anu Thanu has all it takes to be the foundation of the future Tibetan Film.

Like me, I am certain that many who watch this film understand the circumstances of this low-budget production and will not judge the film by comparing it to any major motion pictures. Keeping this in mind, I enjoy the movie so much and hope that the audience worldwide will support the film (mentally and financially) enough to encourage the directors to create more works in the future.

Like their food, Indian films are expected to have all flavors. Although one aspect might dominate others but the movie must contain all the ingredients; drama, tragedy, action, comedy, and, indispensably, the Singing Scene! Intentional or not, the directors outline the movie with this Indian traditional structure. Phun Anu Thanu might be considered as a romantic comedy movie but it contains all the aspects of life in some way; you will laugh out loud in the many funny scenes, yet, the drama part will touch your heart and make you cry.

Although the English name of the movie is ‘Two Exile Brother’, the main plot of the movie has very little to do with the two being refugee. However, every Tibetan and those who has been living in the Tibetan communities will definitely enjoy the reflection of the life in exile in India that the directors manage to portray in every scene. Particularly, I find the high-context ‘desi’ Indian jokes in the movie exceptionally hilarious.

Beside the entertaining part which is the essence of the movie, the message about the Tibet issue, although unrelated to the story line, will intellectualize many. In the scene where the drunkard let go of his anger when he saw the picture of the Dalai Lama, I was so touched that tear came into my eyes. And I am sure that it will create a sense of patriotism in many Tibetans. Somehow, I think that was the best part of the movie; the music was in place, the rhythm was right, even the acting of a bad actor seemed suddenly natural.

On the downsides, the overall camera angles and editing style is very mediocre. This is disappointing, considering the whole crews are the young and artistic people. Many shots and scenes in the movie are terrible in term of acting, cinematography, and continuity. The depths of the leading characters are low. The director did not make use enough of cinematography techniques to elucidate the characters in an artistic ways. I understand the limited budget of the film but the crews should not compromise their creativity and efforts with this excuse. Many aspects of the film could have been improved considerably without having to spend any more money only if the team were more details oriented and spent more time planning the production.

In general, the editing is very loose; the movie could have been at least 30 minutes shorter. Many lines of the dialogues are redundant and unnecessary. A number of scenes and shots are not at all supposed to be in the movie. Most first time filmmakers make this mistake in their first movie as they want to put everything in it. Nonetheless, consider that this movie is the first of its kind and it is extraordinarily cute, I love the movie and admire the endeavors and originality of the directors and I wish them all the best in their future career.

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