Latest news with #TheMonkandtheGun
Scroll.in
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
Start the week with a film: Bhutan-set ‘The Monk and the Gun' is a charming comedy about modernity
Given everything that is going on in the world (Israel's carnage in Gaza, Russia's never-ending invasion of Ukraine, America's war on itself), the anti-violence message of The Monk and the Gun (2023) seems naive. But better that than cynical. Bhutanese director Pawo Choyning Dorji's film takes place against the backdrop of the Himalayan kingdom's first democratic election. A mock election is taking place to train citizens in democracy. They are instructed to choose between three fictitious parties. Blue symbolises freedom and equality. Red represents industrial development. Yellow preserves the status quo. Government officials earnestly get to work, but the people are sceptical. Look at our neighbour India – they are pulling each other's beards and throwing chairs at each other, one man observes. Meanwhile, an elderly monk asks his disciple to fetch him guns. The country is changing, the monk laments. The younger monk doesn't know even what a gun looks like. But he is bound to serve his master, and so he sets out to look for the weapons. In the third strand, an American turns up in Bhutan to buy an antique rifle. These intersecting stories provide a fascinating glimpse into a sheltered country's tentative steps towards an imported value system. The film is a charmer, folding into a cheeky satire about democracy a philosophical inquiry into the merits of Western modernity. Director Dorji, who has previously made Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, sprinkles wry humour, sly critique and Buddhist wisdom over his story. The observational drama features a mix of professional and non-professional actors. Democracy might promise equality for all, but it's flawed in several ways too. Already, the mock election is turning neighbour against neighbour. It's not right to pit candidates against one other, why are you teaching us rudeness, a granny wants to know. To be democratic is to be modern, one of the electoral officers says. But what is progress if it represents instruments of death, chewing gum and American films on television? The gentle satire is available on MUBI. The Monk and the Gun has lovely performances, a playful tone and a judicious pace that allow viewers to feast on Bhutan's unending beauty. Like Khyentse Norbu's The Cup (1999), The Monk and the Gun seeks a middle ground between East and West, the comforts of tradition with the knowledge that change cannot be put off forever. The extended climax is idealistic but convincing too. The meshing of ancient wisdom with a current understanding of how guns ruin civilisations is exactly the kind of simplistic but basic truth that the world needs at the moment. Play
Indian Express
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
What to watch on OTT: Vir Das: Fool Volume, The Monk and the Gun, Rematch and more
What to watch on OTT: Vir Das is back with a new Netflix special and the final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, here's you watch list for this weekend. Vir Das: Fool Volume Netflix Vir Das's brand-new special, Vir Das: Fool Volume, is filmed across Mumbai, New Delhi and London. With his signature cocktail of wit, wisdom, and total nonsense, he's here to remind us: in a world that takes itself too seriously, maybe being the fool is the smartest move. Reflecting on the journey behind his most personal special yet, Vir shares, 'This is a show rewritten in silence and performed without rehearsal across the world. Turns out the voice in your head is way crazier than the one in your throat.' This marks Vir's fifth Netflix special. The Monk and the Gun Directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji, The Monk and the Gun is a playful ensemble drama that explores the clash between embracing modernity while holding on to the past. Set in 2006, as the Kingdom of Bhutan was at the brink of transition to democracy, the film premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. 'As the Kingdom of Bhutan is to become a democracy, a mock election is held as a training exercise. In the town of Ura, an old lama orders a monk to get a gun to face the imminent change in the kingdom. Meanwhile, an American collector is in search of a valuable gun that falls in the lama's hands,' reads its synopsis on MUBI. Dorji earlier directed the 2019 Academy Award-nominated Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom. Untamed Netflix This limited series is a character-driven mystery thriller that follows Kyle Turner (Eric Bana), a special agent in an elite branch of the National Parks Service who works to enforce human law in nature's vast wilderness. The investigation of a brutal death sends Turner on a collision course with the dark secrets within the park, and in his own past. Created by Mark L. Smith (American Primeval, The Revenant) and Elle Smith (The Marsh King's Daughter), the mystery thriller follows a murder on the grounds of Yosemite. 'Everyone thinks of Yosemite as this beautiful place with all the vistas and all the scenery, but we were trying to touch on the dangers that are just beyond that,' co-showrunner Mark L. Smith tells Tudum. The Summer I Turned Pretty S3 Prime Video It's the end of the junior year of college, and Belly (Lola Tung) is looking forward to another summer in Cousins with her soulmate, Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). Her future seems set, until some core-shaking events bring her first love Conrad (Christopher Briney) back into her life. Now on the brink of adulthood, Belly finds herself at a crossroads and must decide which brother has her heart. Based on the best-selling book trilogy from Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty is a multigenerational drama centered around a love triangle involving one girl and two brothers. The series premiered with the first two episodes on July 16, followed by weekly releases every Thursday until September 17. Rematch Lionsgate Play In 1997, the unthinkable happened: a supercomputer beat the greatest chess mind alive. Rematch recreates the historic showdown between world champion Garry Kasparov and IBM's pioneering supercomputer Deep Blue, in a gripping psychological drama that explores the limits of human intellect in an age of rising machines. This six-episode miniseries is directed by Yan England and stars Christian Cooke as Kasparov.
