By:
Subhash
K.
Jha,
IndiaFM
Tuesday,
July
31,
2007
Cast:
Lilette
Dubey,
Victor
Bannerjee,
Moon
Moon
Sen,
Sabyasachi
Chakbraborty,
Neha
Dubey,
Clayton
Rodgers
Directed
by:
Anjan
Dutt
Trust
Pritish
Nandy's
production
house
to
give
that
crucial
thrust
to
deserving
cinema.
Sure,
Writer-director
Anjan
Dutt's
second
release
in
two
weeks
(after
the
tepidly
-received
Bong
Connection)
is
not
as
powerful
and
poignant
a
portrait
of
the
rapidly-disintegrating
Anglo-Indian
community
in
Kolkata
as
Aparna
Sen's
36
Chowringee
Lane.
The
earlier
film
had
a
hauntingly
intimate
quality
to
its
tragic
theme
of
a
woman's
solitude
and
emotional
exploitation.
Bow
Barracks
Forever
is
more
rumbustious
raunchy
and
scathing.
The
spoken
word
is
constantly
harsh
and
the
songs
(composed
partly
by
the
director)
cheer
up
only
for
a
few
seconds.
Largely
the
narrative
scans
the
dilapidated
tenement
with
ruthless
directness.
A
lack
of
romantic
yearning
is
also
the
presence
of
a
captivating
candour
in
the
narration.
The
more
the
director
looks
into
these
desperate
lives
for
anguished
statements,
the
less
representational
they
seem
in
their
communalized
seclusion.
What
the
saucy
screenplay
lacks
is
a
kind
of
subtlety.
The
characters
are
as
broadly
bravura
as
they
are
uninhibited
in
their
expressions
of
geo-political
indignance.
Perhaps
the
'ideas'
tend
to
swamp
the
emotions
at
times.
The
one
tenement
in
Anjan
Dutt's
plot
seems
to
encompass
characters
of
every
shape
and
size,
from
the
over-sexed
rebellious
housewife(Moon
Moon
Sen,
in
full-blown
form)
to
the
battered
wife(Neha
Dubey,
more
hysterical
than
required)....from
the
footloose
moorless
boy(Clayton
Rodgers)
who
sneaks
into
the
battered
wife's
bed
to
his
strong-and-dignified
mother(Lilette
Dubey)
who
continues
to
believe
that
her
elder
son
will
summon
her
to
Australia
although
he
hasn't
spoken
to
her
for
four
years.
These
are
'real' people
given
that
cinematic
tweak
which
separates
the
mannequins
from
the
flesh-and-blood
types.
The
cinematography
by
Indranil
Mukherjee
invests
these
derelicts
with
a
life
beyond
the
womb
of
the
screenplay.
The
editing,
though,
could
have
been
crisper.
Some
of
the
situations
tend
to
get
aggressively
monotonous.
And
you
wonder,
is
the
monotony
a
symptom
of
the
characters'
lives,
or
is
that
simply
an
imagined
virtue?
And
what
pray
tell,
was
the
planted
pre-interval
murder
in
loo,
if
not
a
ploy
to
get
the
audience
back
in
their
seats
quickly
from
the
loo?
Somewhere
towards
the
end
the
gifted
Roopa
Ganguly
shows
up
as
an
abandoned
wife
seeking
solace
from
the
abandoned
husband.
Such
geometrical
gyrations
do
not
take
away
from
the
distinctly
cutting
edge
in
the
plot.
The
skyline
of
the
screem-play
is
ceaselessly
scattered
with
salacious
tidbits.
Love-making
scenes
come
on
with
energetic
emphasis
to
remind
us
derelict
lives
needn't
be
dull.
The
juices
and
aromas
from
the
kitchen
and
bedroom
hit
your
senses
in
perpetual
motions.
Standing
tall
and
statately
at
the
center
of
this
awry
universe
of
disoriented
fringe-
people
is
Lilette
Dubey.
What
an
actor!
No
Violet
Stonehem
from
36
Chowringhee
Lane,
Lilette
plays
her
character
with
delicious
abandon.
And
yet
there's
a
restrain
and
dignity
in
her
gait
and
language,
quite
like
what
Shabana
Azmi
had
created
in
her
lonely
Anglo-Indian
character
in
Anjan
Dutt's
Bada
Din.
The
other
imposing
performance
comes
from
the
irrepressible
Victor
Banerjee.
After
seeing
him
do
his
ho-hum
two-bit
in
two
Hindi
films
Tara
Rum
Pum
and
Apne
it's
a
joy
to
watch
Victor
emerge
victorious
as
the
twinkle-eyed
sodden
trumpet
player
who
chuckles
loudly
in
the
face
of
adversity
and
asks
the
Lilette
character
for
a
li'l
kiss
("No
real
smooch
or
anything")
just
to
remind
you
that
life
goes
on....come
what
may.
Another
tale
of
inspirational
deprivation?
Not
quite.
Bow
Barracks
Forever
takes
the
marginal
stereotypes
by
the
b...lls
and
turns
them
into
something
distinctly
glorious,
if
not
grand.
A
must-see
for
those
who
love
stories
about
tribulation
and
redemption.
They
don't
make
films
about
such
characters
with
such
ironical
integrity
any
more.