Chandni Bar (2001)

One of my all time favorites.

Excellent adaptation.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The acting in this movie is really good.

Madhur Bhandarkar is amazing. Tabu is a glamorous Thespian! Not to mention Atul Agnihotri & Rajpal Yadav! Beautiful performances.The emotion behind the life of a bar dancer in India and all the underlying difficulties - the ups and downs are depicted in this movie. The range (1886 - 2000) is narrated in a very effective manner.The background aalaap, music, songs and all the rendition makes it a perfect movie.The message her is so true that the audience really gets touched by it. With one of the few bold themes in the history of Bollywood, Chandni Bar stands out just like his other movies.Be human, watch this and know how it feels to lead of life filled with utter baloney!Can be watched with a typical Indian family? NO!For more - bit.ly/TEJAS

I have seen lot of movies where one face lingers that made a tremendous impact on the senses-and it happens to be an actress that is not seen often-since the tendency is to concentrate on the name actors. The actress that I am referring to is Anaya Khare who played the part of kumud in "Devdas". She has incredible screen presence like the other character played by Atul Kulkarni. Both have performed well to the extent that they should be worthy of awards or recognition. The movie is stark with all the nakedness of the underground "Bombay" exposed, this is as black and white in contrast to the colorful dancers of "Chandni Bar". The movie is riveting with a great direction by Madhur Bhandarkar of "Satta" Fame-in fact this was one of the reason that I saw the movie. Tabu is a good actress but I think she is overrated. This movie is parallel to a recently released book "Maximum City" written by Suketu Mehta (most engrossing book on Mumbai and India that I have ever read-writtien by an NRI,) which depicts the other world that existed from time immemorial and will continue to exist with the characters that are mere mortals.

Contains Spoilers! When I saw this on late night television as part of a "Bollywood Season", it was certainly not what I was expecting. This certainly isn't the upbeat, rabble rousing fluff of stereotype. But it IS unspeakably beautiful.We follow the life of Mumtaz, beginning with her as a teenage orphan forced to leave her small town for the big city after a devastating riot, and finishing with her as an exhausted looking mother of two. The echoes and pointed repetition -both visual and story wise- between Mumtaz's life as a young girl forced to work in a squalid, seedy Beer Bar, and her life as a struggling widow, are very profound (a subtle example being the different way the Beer Bar girls dance- the "2000" ones are certainly presented differently than those of Mumtaz's era, but ultimately, nothing has changed- nothing changing being perhaps the main theme of the film). The film, covering as it does almost twenty years, is epic in both scope and screen time, but I found myself captivated by every moment.This is an unspeakably bleak film. One of the most obvious themes is that of sexual betrayal. A young Mumtaz is raped by her lazy uncle. Deepa -one of the most sympathetically portrayed and appealing supporting characters, and played by a great actress- Mumtaz's guide in the world of the Beer Bar, is repeatedly forced to have abortions when she becomes pregnant, always told that the next will be the one she can keep. Mumtaz's newly adolescent son is raped by two men barely older than he in the latter part of the film. There is a feeling that no matter what Mumtaz does, fate has something against her. All those she cares about are taken away. Her parents are burned alive, her husband is shot, her best friend is killed by her overbearing husband....when Mumtaz, gazing numbly at Deepa's body, says that she knows she will miss Deepa, but she has suffered so much that she finds it hard to gather real grief anymore, it's perhaps the saddest single moment of the film. And, at the film's closing, when her clearly intelligent son throws away all hope of a bright future -the holy grail of Mumtaz's existence, the only concept keeping her alive- all because of sexual betrayal and the revenge he feels compelled to reap because of it, you despair with Mumtaz, now a broken woman, all she has worked for reduced to nothing, in a worse postion she was in when she first came into the city.However, it's not all doom and gloom. Certainly, in the first portion of the film, when Mumtaz finds herself inducted in the apparently raucous sorority of the Beer Bar girls, the ensemble of cackling, cynical harpies can't help but make you smile along with them. Most notable is Shabbo, a spitfire of a young girl, thrown out by her parents due to shame, sexually predatory and gleefully foul mouthed. Deepa teaching Mumtaz to dance is one of the most purely enjoyable scenes, in almost a Hollywood sense. The apparent joy of these scarlet women is made poignant by one scene that immediately follows Mumtaz being raped. The girls sit around comforting her, but Deepa tells the girl to get a grip on herself. She then reels off a horrid soap opera of every one of the Bar girl's lives, each one a victim with a dark past as they cry and rock themselves. We hear them laugh later in the film, and it's infinitely more poignant, as sad as Mumtaz's howling sounds of grief at the closing.This film hates men. Or at least, the stark, omnipotent power men hold over women in Indian society. Frequently, male characters are spat the insult of "pimp" by the Beer Bar girls. When Mumtaz actually calls one this to his face (when this is clearly an accurate description), he is inutterably offended. Another key theme of the film is that the only power women hold over men is their sexuality. When Mumtaz is "bought" for the night by a man who will later be her husband, he kisses her neck and torso desperately, as she lies there like a shop dummy. He pulls away, frustrated and bewildered, almost unable to look at her. For one of the only moments in the film, Mumtaz has real power over someone. When Mumtaz needs to get her son out of jail -and quick- the only way she can feasibly make the money is to prostitute herself once more. But her age means she doesn't make enough- until her very young daughter (who Mumtaz has constantly told to get a good education and concentrate on her studies, so she doesn't have to live like her mother) out of the blue- presents her with the cash, having prostituted herself for the first time so as to make the money to save her brother. It's an epic moment, and the look on Mumtaz's face, and the face of her pseudo-pimp, says it all. History repeats itself in the most horrid of ways. The only power women have over men, is also one that is frequently used to hold them in a subservient position, the film says. Indeed, it isn't a power at all, as it merely traps and defines them- they can never transcend it. The Beer Bar girls seem happy and liberated on the surface, but scratch only a little bit below, and one always finds a man forcing them to work in a way they hate more than anything.One of the best thing about the film is it's performance from it's star. This is a hard character to pull off- she ages twenty years, but never changes because the system won't let her. She is clearly weak, but also strong in her determination that her children will be different. Two underworld lords, on separate occasions, try and coaxe her into submitting her son to an induction of organised crime, and her daughter into work as a Beer Bar girl, with even a bar named after her. Mumtaz tactfully, but firmly, refuses. The aging process is always hard to pull off, but by focusing on the eye area- the "old" Mumtaz has the same complexion, but is carrying hefty luggage beneath her eyes- the make up emphasises the numbing horror of never being allowed to grow or change or better yourself, an exhausting, harrowing existence for an exhausting, harrowing, brilliant film. Definitely see it if you can. Oh, and can someone put this out on DVD please?!?!

This is one of the movies that allows to peek at the life of the people who have suffered and haven't seen the light at the end of the tunnel. The movie is very effective for it takes us into the life of a beer bar dancing girl (Mumtaz) in the city of Bombay, and shows us the rut that she is in and any attempts made by her to rise are in vain. The movie is both dark in content and in the lighting which is symbolic of the hopelessness and is very effective. Tabu's performance is noteworthy as she depicts the life of Mumtaz with absolute sincerity. Details, such as, her twirling the cord of the phone when she is in a state of hopelessness shows she has really immersed herself into the character. With her performance you never feel that she is putting on a show. The movie neither glamourizes nor demeans the profession of these girls and the director deserves praise for that. The lack of songs is highly appropriate for this movie as this is not a "feel good" movie. As a warning to the faint of heart, this movie is highly disturbing and should be avoided when depressed.