Saw Bow Barracks Forever! FDFS.Anjan Dutt who was hitherto unknown to most Bollywood movie goers became known after ‘The Bong Connection’.Well,Bow Barracks Forever is his fourth directorial venture and is an extremely alright effort at that.

Story:
Bow Barracks is a 100 year old building housing around 140 Christian families who belong to the fast dwindling race of Angle-Indians.A builder wants to take advantage of the situation that the Government might declare the building as unsafe and make everyone quit,so that he can take up the plot for development.Apart from that many families are moving out of the building and looking for better opportunities on other shores.How they live together fighting,spitting rage at each other but yet nurturing the feeling of belongingness to Bow Barracks is what the entire 2 hour movie is about.

Performances:
I must say this was a sort of a Yashraj film in one respect…..there are just too many people occupying screen space in a meager 2 hours.But nevertheless good actors need less time to shine on screen….Victor Banerjee and Lillete Dubey are easily the best of the lot.Both are superb in all scenes without exception.Neha Dubey was good too.Clayton Rodgers(Bradley),Sohini Pal(Sally) and Sabyasachi Charavarthy(Tom) are just about adequate.

Pros:
1)Good acting from Victor Banerjee and Lillete Dubey.

2)Very good cinematography from Indranil Mukherjee….he makes Calcutta look as a dull,dreary and lost city….which is very vital to the story.

3)The opening credits are done well….a pencil sketch of an urban town is being drawn and the credits are pasted in black and yellow….looks very good.

4)The concept of interspersing a serious scene with songs played by Bradley’s band and Victor’s trumpet playing effort….very different idea. Appealed to me atleast….it takes the boredom out of the otherwise lackluster screenplay.

Cons:
1)The biggest problem with Bow Barracks Forever is the script…it just not hold your attention….the first half is excruciatingly slow….the second half is comparatively better.But on the whole the film fails to grasp the viewer’s attention.

2)The smooch scenes between Neha Dubey and Clayton Rodgers look forced….it looks as if he lusts for her rather than loves her.

Flaws:
In a particular scene Sabyasachi Charavarthy(Tom) is wearing a checked shirt when he leaves home.He takes his leather jacket alongwith him.But when he mounts his bike his jacket is open and we see that he is wearing a black tee-shirt.Whatever happened to that checked shirt?He changed it in the stairs?

My Verdict:
Unless you can appreciate good acting in an extremely mediocre script I suggest you can give Bow Barracks Forever a miss.But if you’re a Lillete Dubey fan(I am one) or a Victor Banerjee film follower do not miss this ordinary film with great performances from both.

~Anu Kamat