Tucked away in a corner of North Kolkata, the anglo-Indian community residing in Bow Barracks, a now-dilapidated building that had originally been built for World War II soldiers, is struggling to survive. The fear of losing their homes looms large over their heads as real-estate agents threaten to pull down this crumbling building which the residents can neither afford to repair, nor are willing to give up and relocate. It is the story of these residents, their individual successes and failures, and their collective spirit of resilience in their helplessness that forms the real plot of this week's new release "Bow Barracks Forever".
This motley group of lower-middle class dwellers includes all flesh-and-blood characters whose stories are instantly relatable. Like the widow who lives in the hope that her older son will one day call and invite her to live with him in London. Or the young wife who's tired of being beaten by her husband everyday, clinging on to the hope that she'll run away with her lover soon. Or the middle-aged woman who's sick of life with her boring husband in her one-bedroom apartment who yearns for a better life. This film peeps into their homes and their lives watching them go about their day, grappling with challenges, but eventually coming together for one another. And that's really the core element of this film - the sense of community, the feeling that we're-all-in-this-together.
Based on what is undeniably an interesting premise, "Bow Barracks Forever" loses much of its appeal because of its amateurish direction. Cliches are strewn around the film generously where there was need for none. Look at how every character speaks with a fake accent, look at how every single line of dialogue ends with the word 'man', reinforcing a stereotype that is so old and so tired. I'm aware that a lot of people do speak that way, but in reality it's out of habit, whereas in the film it just seems forced and fake since it's so repetitive and since every single character speaks the same way.
Also director Anjan Dutt attempts to force a sense of drama into his edit, where once again there is need for none. Cutting alternately between a song and a dramatic scene - and using this device three times in the film - he delivers no sense of climax at the end of each song, thus defeating the entire purpose of this editing pattern.
There's an unwritten rule in filmmaking - that the director must be committed to presenting his actors respectably on screen. But it's evident Anjan Dutt, the director of "Bow Barracks Forever" feels no such obligation towards his actors. In fact, he shoots his actors so unflatteringly, you feel sorry for the poor guys who've probably taken a pay cut to star in this low-budget film.
Moon Moon Sen is filmed from all the wrong angles, and I'm not talking here just about the ample display of her bosom that we're treated to, but just the careless and irresponsible manner in which the director captures her excess weight for all to see. There's a scene in which a schoolgirl in uniform comes bouncing into camera, and it's reprehensible how the director has filmed that scene. But perhaps worst of all is that scene in which a young man gets out of bed after a love-making session, his underwear just barely hanging off his bottom.
Whether mistakenly shot in this manner, or intentionally shot like this for effect, I have to say these scenes are tasteless and they only point to the fact that the film's director has neither shooting skill nor judgement. As for the gratuitous sex scene between Moon Moon Sen and her lover, I suppose it was meant to be filmed in that urgent, impassioned style, but why subject us to that scene in which her middle-aged, over-weight lover roams about her home in his tight blue speedos? Surely that was a sight we could have lived without.
Despite all its shortcomings, "Bow Barracks Forever" is still an engaging film to watch because it's got an old-world charm to it that you don't find in many films today. It holds your interest till the very end because you can sympathise with the protagonists and relate to their pain. I'm not in agreement with the film's marketing, which positions it as a story about people who love their home too much to let it go. That's not what I got from the film. I see it more as the story of these unfortunate people who cling on to their home because they have nowhere else to go.
They're united by the fact that this is the best they can do. It's left pretty much to the actors to make this film work, and barring a few wrong notes, it is the ensemble that is the film's major strength. Debutant Clayton Rodgers plays Bradley the simmering young misunderstood boy, but apart from one good outburst scene in the end, he pretty much leaves you cold and unaffected. As Peter the Cheater, the alcoholic small-time con, Victor Banerjee is in parts delightful, but hams it up occasionally.
Lilette Dubey constructs an endearing character out of Emily Lobo, but at times you cringe at the lines she's been asked to deliver. The finest performance in the film, ironically comes from Rupa Ganguly who appears in only two scenes, but she's just marvelous and spontaneous and she brings tears to your eyes by the way she brings to life her doomed character.
In the end if "Bow Barracks Forever" works for you it's in spite of director Anjan Dutta, not because of him. Dutta botches up too many scenes carelessly, even sets off the subplot of a murder in the film, then doesn't take it anywhere. If the film holds its own, it's because the plot itself has meat to it and because you fall in love with its characters. With a more competent director at the helm, this film could have been so much more. That's two out of five and an average rating for director Anjan Dutta's "Bow Barracks Forever", give it a chance and you just might be pleasantly surprised.
Rajeev Masand
New Delhi: The ninth Osian’s Cinefan Festival, drew to a close on Sunday in the Capital after a week of some good cinema and a tanking celebrity quotient.
