Chandni Bar

Chandni Bar (2001):
“…log kehte hai ki Hinduon aur Musalmano ka danga hua tha; lekin mere liye toh yeh insaaniyat aur haiwaniyat ka fasaad tha, jaha haar insaaniyat ki hui thi”, soliloquizes a riot-stricken Mumtaz (Tabu).

Chandni Bar is a semi-autobiographical movie, directed and conceptualized by Madhur Bhandarkar. The film gained critical recognition at the time of its release, and has won four National Awards.

The film opens with a scene where the protagonist Mumtaz awaits a train; a train that her uncle thinks is destined to help her dissolve her traumatic bewilderness and agonizing memories of her parents’ death, who were victims of a Hindu-Muslim communal mayhem. Ironically, what awaits her, is a long journey of tragedies, misfortunes and compromises. She and her uncle, compel themselves into a city of diversity and fame, Bombay. Narrowing the alleys of a cluttered hutment, they find temporary settlement with the help of a distant-relative, Iqbal Chamdi (Rajpal Yadav). Iqbal, apparently a pimp by profession, assures them a decent arrangement of livelihood but seeks a compromise. Iqbal and Mumtaz’s uncle insist Mumtaz to dance in a bar, “Chandni Bar”. Here on, Mumtaz hesitantly, shyly and repulsively enters into a world of carnal indulgence; and eventually, involuntarily, into the world of the underground-crime.

In the bar, she gets herself acquainted to her fellow workers, and then vicariously becomes a part of their burrowed lives. Amongst her co-workers are: Deepa Pande (Ananya Khare), very sisterly to Mumtaz, whose alcoholic husband trades her to customers without her consent, exploits her wealth, and one day beats her to death; Meena, whose parents pimp her into skin-trade; and Farida, whose parasitic husband escapes off her with dowry money on the night of her marriage and also sells her for a fast buck. Mumtaz slowly finds herself spontaneously acclimatizied to this world of hers.

Further in her life, she is forced to sleep with an aspiring gangster, Potiya Sawant (Atul Kulkarni) who with a lecherous mind finds interest in her. In a ghastly incident, Mumtaz’s intoxicated uncle rapes her; she unwillingly clues Potiya of this incident, and he in a fit of rage and vengeance kills her uncle. Insecure in the environment she lives in, and turmoiled by tragic events, she sees herself powerless to reject to a marriage-proposal by Potiya.

Married Mumtaz happily bounds herself to her new home, and cuts ties off her bar-life. She bears two children now. Meanwhile, Potiya is on a high with his fast-growing criminal status; such high that his popping anger, bad temper and frightening vengeance make him mess up with his superior goondas; he gets himself killed in a fake police encounter. Mumtaz, financially broke, resumes her life as bar-dancer. Despite her intention to cultivate good habits in her children, she sees them falling prey to shocking and depressing circumstances.

The film is a set of nuances of exploits told from a female perspective, as one can deduce. It has its gritty but realistic looking moments. One can easily fall into empathy with the characters of the film, majorly with the lead character played by Tabu. She weaves such beautiful naturalness with her eyes, that one is invoked in to share moments with her. Her character portrayal, the noteworthy amateurish dances which she does on the dance-floor, very convincing. Atul Kulkarni leaves a notable mark with his short-tempered character. Performances by other supporting-actors are mostly nicely done barring a few oddities that seem a bit pretentious. Special credits to Rajeev Ravi for his fairly good cinematography. His style of filming is gripping; and helps the film give some breath-holding moments.

Madhur Bhandarkar has conceptualised his movie well, but I find a limitation in his execution. The movie lacks coherence and focus when it comes to scripting the events. Some stories, which supposedly should have been incorporated within the main context of the film, seem unsatisfactorily stitched. The film is littered with affected jargons and phrases, which don’t complement the film. Another glitch in the movie is in its narration; it discretely and unevenly sprouts up throughout the film.

The film finds itself in the genre of drama with crime (murder, violence, forced homosexuality, rape) and politics spiced into the main theme. The film definitely has an experimental theme to it, and credits go to the film-maker for trying to achieve the same. It has its underlying faults; but nevertheless is a good package with an entertainment quotient to it. A fairly good watch.

My rating: 3/5