The Agent of Happiness: Pursuit of Happiness
What was it like to live through ethnic cleansing? Amber Kumar Gurung, Agent of
Happiness, answers this question by presenting story of Amber’s struggles with what
it means to be happy in his country as a member of Nepali minority, without
citizenship. Amber and his colleague Gunaraj work for Gross National Happiness
(GNH). They are collecting data for the Happiness Survey. The film follows two such
Happiness Agents, Amber and Gunaraj, as they travel the Bhutanese countryside in
search of answers. While Gunaraj is a family man living married life, Amber is a
relentless romantic, who dreams about finding a life partner. His job is to document
the happiness of others’ lives while he searches for his own. The film is a
heartwarming, truth seeking, relentless and complex exploration of what happiness
means to individual, family and to the nation. In the face of adversity, what does it
mean to find joy?
Doing survey in which they ask 148 questions in 9 categories. With the answers they
collected, an individual’s happiness is measured (on scale of 10). The opening scene
starts off on serious note, Ministry of Gross National Happiness building’s classroom
which full of Happiness agents listening to lady’ enthusiastic speech why it matters?
Then transitions to , Amber and Gunaraj , both sitting in front seats, while Gunaraj
driving the car to the countryside, Amber talks about his struggles finding wife with
self-deprecating humor, cheerful, honesty, romantic and endearing charming
personality. The audience get to know Amber throughout his narration of his struggles
and plans for proposing to his girlfriend. Throughout their journey, they encounter
everyday people from different social classes and get to know their personal stories
with no particular order, deliberately have made the impact of the stories less
impactful. As if, they meant the audiences to feel the completely raw and real
emotions of the countryside individuals.
The first interviewee is the 84 years old man, is seen having trouble hearing the
questions. The scene seem impromptu and spontaneous he makes others smile,
boasting he has 30 cows so he is happy and being cheerful and full of joy. However,
his screen time is kept brief similarly with lumberjack middle-age man and two Nepali
roadworker mother. The film suddenly cuts to a dance bar, creates build up as they
show minutes long dance performance of woman, making audience curious.
Introducing the trans-woman named Dechen who works as a bar dancer in different
settings and changing scenes in contrast with congruent interview audio. Of when she
