Maoist drama grips Nepal

The television series shows a human side to the rebels

By Daniel Lak BBC correspondent in Kathmandu

It is almost a year since the army in Nepal joined the battle to crush a rebellion by shadowy Maoist guerrillas in the countryside.

The past 12 months have been bloody - the army says 4,800 people have died, bringing the total death toll to more than 7,000.

The programme shows that war is senseless. It's just Nepalese killing Nepalese, and doesn't get us anywhere

Kunda Dixit, media critic

The rebels remain classic guerrilla fighters and stubbornly resist the efforts to make them surrender.

But the military is now using sophisticated new weapons against them - it has taken the fight to the nation's television screens.

The army's Tuesday evening programme on national TV, complete with jaunty theme tune, gives the latest combat details, including casualty figures.

It's a popular show, especially since a segment called The Present Reality began.

This is a drama series about a brigade of Maoist rebels and the army soldiers they will eventually face on the battlefield.

Bloodless battles

The most unusual element of the show is that the Maoists, regularly referred to as terrorists by the army, are shown to have a human face. Individual fighters are portrayed almost sympathetically.

Captured rebels provided the seed for the TV drama

Writer and actor Santosh Pant met a captured Maoist fighter who gave him the idea for the script.

In one scene, a gun battle between Maoists and the army, the rebel leader is a character based on the captured guerrilla whose wife is still with his former comrades.

Unlike in real life, no one is killed in this televised encounter.

Journalist and media critic Kunda Dixit says the series shows how the army is becoming increasingly sophisticated, after initial media performances which he describes as "crude".

'Progaganda'

Early on in the conflict the military held press conferences and issued statements giving out casualty figures - what he calls "body bag journalism".

The army is using more sophisticated tactics

"But now you see all these new drama programmes on television that are propaganda, definitely, but they also try to show that war is senseless," he says.

"It's just Nepalese killing Nepalese, and doesn't get us anywhere."

Santosh Pant agrees. And he believes that compared to the guns, the media is very powerful and can convince the people against bloodshed.

The rebels do not have access to television but they, too, know the power of music. Cassettes of rebel songs, although illegal, are widely available across Nepal.

Happy ending?

The Present Reality, too, is full of music.

In its final scene, the captured Maoist leader is taken to his wife, Comrade Vandana, to persuade her to abandon her fight and rejoin him in family life.

It's a tough struggle - Vandana at first lashes out and calls him a traitor.

In the end of course, the couple are tearfully reunited on the anti-Maoist side.

This is produced by the army, after all.

Nepalis take this in eagerly, and are fascinated by the portrayal of Maoists.

But this remains a country in the grip of fear and violence and it'll take more than television or songs to change that.