Vara: A Blessing is a 2013 English-language drama directed by Khyentse Norbu, adapted from a Bengali short story by Sunil Gangopadhyay. Shot in Sri Lanka with a cast led by Shahana Goswami, it is the only feature in the Khyentse Norbu corpus performed primarily outside Bhutan and outside the Dzongkha language.
Vara: A Blessing is a 2013 drama film written and directed by Khyentse Norbu. It was the third feature in his filmography after The Cup (1999) and Travellers and Magicians (2003), and is the only one of his features shot outside Bhutan and the Dzongkha-speaking world.[1]
The film is adapted from Rakta Aar Kanna (Blood and Tears), a short story by the Bengali writer Sunil Gangopadhyay. It was produced through Pawo Choyning Dorji's Dangphu Dingphu in association with Hong Kong, Sri Lankan, French, British and American partners, and was shot on location in Sri Lanka standing in for rural southern India.[2]
Vara opened the 18th Busan International Film Festival in October 2013, the first time the Korean festival had selected a non-Korean and non-Chinese title for its opening-night slot. It was Bhutan's official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 87th Academy Awards.[1]
Plot
Vinata is the last surviving devadasi in her village, a woman dedicated as a child to the temple and trained in the classical Bharatanatyam dance form. She raises her daughter Lila in the same tradition. Lila falls in love with Shyam, a low-caste Muslim apprentice potter who hopes to study art in the city. Their relationship runs against the social order of the village, and the film traces its consequences over a single summer in the 1970s, framed by Lila's increasingly intense religious visions of the deity Krishna.
Production and Choreography
The film was shot on 35mm in Sri Lanka by the Indian cinematographer Bradford Young's contemporary Vincent Ward and his crew, and post-produced in Hong Kong. The cast was led by Shahana Goswami as Lila with Geetanjali Thapa, Devesh Ranjan and the Sri Lankan actor Mohamed Adamaly in supporting roles.[3]
The Bharatanatyam choreography was developed by Geeta Chandran, a Delhi-based exponent of the form, who worked with Goswami and the supporting cast through an extended rehearsal period. Critics writing in Variety and Screen Daily singled out the dance sequences for particular notice, describing them as integrated narrative elements rather than self-contained performance pieces.[2]
Reception
Reviews after the Busan premiere were mixed but generally respectful. Variety's Maggie Lee described the film as "exquisitely composed" while finding its narrative restrained; Screen Daily drew comparisons with classical Indian melodrama filtered through a contemplative Buddhist sensibility. The film travelled to the Toronto International Film Festival, the Dharamshala International Film Festival and a number of European festivals through 2014.[4]
Place in the Khyentse Norbu Filmography
Vara is an outlier within the director's body of work in three ways: it is performed primarily in English with Sanskrit and Tamil elements rather than in Dzongkha; its setting is rural India rather than Bhutan or the Tibetan-Buddhist Himalayas; and it draws on Hindu temple culture rather than on the Vajrayana cosmology that shapes Travellers and Magicians, Hema Hema, Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache and Pig at the Crossing. Khyentse Norbu has described the project as a personal experiment with a Hindu rather than Buddhist devotional frame.[5]
For Bhutanese cinema, the film's significance lies less in its content than in the international platform it secured. As an Academy Award submission and a Busan opener, it consolidated Bhutan's standing on the festival circuit ahead of the later commercial breakthroughs of producer Pawo Choyning Dorji.
References
See also
Durdag Cham (Dance of the Lords of the Charnel Grounds)
Durdag Cham is a cham dance in which performers wearing skeleton costumes and skull masks represent the Lords of the Charnel Grounds. The dance teaches the Buddhist doctrine of impermanence and reminds spectators that death is inescapable, urging them to practice the dharma while they have the opportunity of human life.
culture·6 min readSuja
Suja (Dzongkha: སུ་ཇ) is the traditional butter tea of Bhutan, prepared by churning brewed tea leaves with yak butter and salt. A staple beverage consumed throughout the day, suja plays a central role in Bhutanese hospitality, religious ceremonies, and daily social life.
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Ara (Dzongkha: ཨ་རག) is a traditional alcoholic beverage of Bhutan, produced by fermenting and distilling grains such as rice, wheat, millet, or maize. Ranging from a mild, cloudy fermented drink to a potent clear distilled spirit, ara is deeply embedded in Bhutanese social customs, religious offerings, and rural life.
culture·6 min readGho
The gho is the traditional national dress for men in Bhutan, a knee-length robe tied at the waist by a cloth belt called a kera. Wearing the gho is mandatory in government offices, schools, and formal occasions under the Driglam Namzha dress code, making it one of the most visible symbols of Bhutanese national identity.
culture·5 min readZangto Pelri Temple
Zangto Pelri Lhakhang is a three-storey temple in central Thimphu, built in 1990 by Dasho Aku Tongmi, the composer of Bhutan's national anthem. Its three levels represent Guru Rinpoche's celestial paradise, the Copper-Coloured Mountain (Zangdopelri).
culture·3 min readNatural Dyes of Bhutan
The traditional textiles of Bhutan were historically coloured using natural dyes derived from plants, insects, and minerals. Key dye sources include madder root, lac insect secretion, indigo, walnut husks, and turmeric, each requiring specific mordanting and processing techniques to achieve lasting colour.
culture·8 min read
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