Kathaa

Kathaa is a 2013 Nepali-language feature film written and directed by Prashant Rasaily, a filmmaker from Gangtok, Sikkim. The movie stars Saugat Malla as Kanchha, Usha Rajak as Kumari and Timothy Rai as Sonam in the lead roles, with the rest of the cast made up of local residents of Gnathang in East Sikkim, where the film was shot in just fourteen days. The film was produced under the banner of Dreamstream Entertainment and has a runtime of about 110 minutes.

Kathaa tells the love story of Kanchha, a yak herder, and Kumari, a girl who cannot speak. Kanchha heads off to the high mountain pastures with his friend Sonam to rear yaks and earn money so he can marry his beloved. When he returns, however, things have drastically changed. The story addresses the stigma attached to unwed mothers in village society, as Kumari is abandoned by her own mother and cursed and spat upon by the villagers after Kanchha leaves.

The film premiered at the Mumbai International Film Festival on October 21, 2012, under the best Indian films category, and was later screened at the International Film Festival of India in Goa, the Bengaluru International Film Festival and the Arunachal Pradesh NEFF. It was the only Indian film selected for the Goteborg International Film Festival in Sweden, where it screened starting January 25, 2013, making it the first film from Sikkim to be shown at the festival. The low-budget movie was made at a cost of about thirty lakh rupees, and was later released in select theaters in Sikkim and Kathmandu in 2013.

The film was released online on YouTube by Sikkim Tube on January 1, 2018, more than five years after its world premiere, allowing wider audiences to see it. Director Rasaily, who also wrote the acclaimed film Kagbeni and directed Acharya and Soul Sister, spent over five years on the project, including a two-week filmmaking workshop in Gnathang near the Indo-China border where the crew lived among the villagers.

Critics praised Kathaa for its stunning mountain locations and the outstanding performances of its three lead actors, calling it a simple yet wonderful film, although some noted that its slow pace required patience. The movie remains a landmark of Sikkimese and Nepali-language cinema and a deeply moving story of love and friendship.