Darpan Chaya ( Nepali: दर्पण छायाँ, English: The Illusory Mirror) is a 2001 Nepalese

romantic drama Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

film, written and directed by

Tulsi Ghimire Tulsi Ghimire is an Indian film director, screenwriter, film editor, cameraman, actor and lyricist known for his works in Nepali films. Regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of Nepali cinema, he is known for his romantic and masala film th ...

. The film is produced by Shrawan Ghimire under the banner of Siddhanta Films. The film features an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

including

Dilip Rayamajhi Dilip Rayamajhi ( ne, दिलीप रायमाझी; born 16 September 1974) is a Nepalese film actor, producer and choreographer. He started his career as a dancer and went on to become an assistant dance director. He got his first mo ...

, Uttam Pradhan, and

Niruta Singh Niruta Singh is an Indian actress known for her work in Nepali cinema. She started her career with the film ''Rahar'' (1993), which was directed by Tulsi Ghimire. She received wide acclaim for her performance in the 2001 film ''Darpan Chhaya,'' ...

in the lead roles, alongside Laxmi Giri, Tika Pahari, and Jeetu Nepal. The film's plot concerns a love triangle between two best friends where one of them is blind, fall in love with the same girl and the whole film follows their journey of friendship, love and sacrifice. The film received extremely positive reviews and response from critics and audience especially for its music, screenplay and performances of the three main leads, The film was a historic success, broke all previous records at the box office and went on to become the highest-grossing Nepali film of all time, breaking the 16-year-old record of

Kusume Rumal ''Kusume Rumal'' ( ne, कुसुमे रुमाल; ) is a 1985 Nepali romantic film written and directed by Tulsi Ghimire. It was produced by Sumitra Paudel under the banner of Sayapatri Films. The film featured Bhuwan K.C, Tripti Nadaka ...

until its record was broken by

Hami Tin Bhai Hami Tin Bhai (also Haami Teen Bhai) ( ne, हामी तीन भाई, en, We Three Brothers) is a Nepali action, comedy film directed by Shiva Regmi. The film features three of biggest superstars of late 90s and 2000s era- Rajesh Hamal ...

in 2004. The film is considered a

cult classic A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

and one of the greatest movies ever made in

Nepali Cinema Nepali or Nepalese may refer to : Concerning Nepal * Anything of, from, or related to Nepal * Nepali people, citizens of Nepal * Nepali language, an Indo-Aryan language found in Nepal, the current official national language and a language spoken ...

. The film songs, especially the song "Lahana Le Jurayo Ki", are still a top choice of Nepalese functions and celebrations.

Plot

The film revolves around best friends and college students, Abhi and Raj. Abhi is blind and Raj takes care of him. Abhi strikes up a friendship with newcomer Smriti but Raj and Smriti get off to a poor start. At a college picnic, the girls play a prank on the boys and hide their clothes. Things go wrong when the boys develop allergies after using leaves to cover themselves. The college principal scolds Smriti for harming their star basketball player, Raj. Smriti apologizes to him and soon Raj and Smriti also become friends. Gradually, both Abhi and Raj start falling for Smriti. Abhi proposes to Smriti who leaves his house in shock and tells him that she loves Raj. When Raj proposes to her, she tells him that she actually loves Abhi. At a dinner where the three friends are together, Abhi discloses that he lost his vision in an accident that Raj was responsible for leading to a rift between the friends. Meanwhile, Abhi's mother discovers what Smriti told both of them and helps Raj and Abhi patch things up. When they reach college to confront Smriti, they come to know that she is in the hospital fighting for her life. They rush to the hospital where her father hands them a letter in which Smriti tells them that she got the news that she has last stage cancer the day before Abhi proposed to her and she did not want to break his heart. She requests for her eyes to be donated to Abhi and for Raj to always be strong and take care of his friend. Smriti passes away. As Raj pleads with her to open her eyes, the scene cuts to Abhi and Raj who are doing a book reading of their story called ''Darpan Chaya''.

Cast

as Raj *

as Smriti *Uttam Pradhan as Abhishek *

as Smriti's father *

Laxmi Giri Laxmi Giri (; born 19 January 1955) is a veteran Nepali actress whose career spans more than 35 years. She worked on stage, television and in feature films of Nepali, Newari, Maithili, Tamang and Bhojpuri languages. She appeared in more than 15 ...

as Abhishek's mother *Tika Pahari as Raj's father *

Jitu Nepal Jeetu Nepal also sometimes called Jitu Nepal ( ne, :ne:जितु नेपाल, जितु नेपाल) is a Nepali Stand-up Comedian, Writer, Actor and Director. He is widely famous and commonly known as Mundre from his hit sitcom J ...

as College friend

Soundtrack

All music was composed by

Ranjit Gazmer Ranjit Gazmer is an Indian film music director and a musician, who is noted for his work in Nepali-language films. He had a long association with music director R.D. Burman as a musician. Early life Ranjit Gazmer is from a gold merchant fa ...

About the movie

''Darpan Chaya'' grossed roughly NRS 1.75 crore+ at the box office, surpassing Tulsi Ghimire's own 1987 classic ''

'' to become the highest grossing Nepali movie of all time. If adjusted for inflation its collection crosses रु 20cr mark making it the biggest grosser ever in Nepal (among all National And International film releases in the country). The soundtrack of the film, with music composed by

, became hugely popular. The song "Lahanale jurayo ki" by

Sadhana Sargam Sadhana Sargam (née Ghanekar, born 7 March 1969) is an Indian singer known for her playback career in Indian cinema predominantly in Hindi, Bengali, Telugu and Tamil language films. She is a recipient of the National Film Award and Filmfare Awa ...

was very popular, as well as the dance of

Sequel

After 15 years of ''Darpan Chaya'', Tulsi Ghimire announced a sequel '' Darpan Chhaya 2'' which was released in 2017. New actors like Pushpal Khadka and Sahara Karki were cast. The film was directed and written by Tulsi Ghimire and released on March 10, 2017. The film received largely negative reviews and was Box Office Disaster.

References

External links

*
Darpan Chaya songs
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222212149/http://www.nepalicollections.com/album.php?id=19 , date=22 February 2012 Nepalese romantic comedy films Nepali-language films 2001 romantic comedy-drama films 2001 films Films shot in Kathmandu Nepalese romance films Films directed by Tulsi Ghimire Films scored by Ranjit Gazmer