The Hindu : New Delhi News : A disaster from the first frame and a monster

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Sunday, Jul 29, 2007
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New Delhi

A disaster from the first frame and a monster

ZIYA US SALAM

ONE FOR SORROW, ONE FOR JOY: While Anjan Dutt’s “Bow Barracks Forever!” disappoints, “The Host” from South Korea appeals to the audience.

BOW BARRACKS FOREVER!

(At Satyam Patel Nagar and other Delhi theatres)

It could well have been a dream summer for Anjan Dutt. Two of his films – “The Bong Connection” and “Bow Barracks Forever!” – had been lying in the cans long enough for dust to accumulate, until there came the Summer of 2007 and the films finally made their way to cinema halls. “The Bong Connection” was released a few weeks ago to a mixed response. Now here comes “Bow Barracks…” There is unlikely to be a mix ed response to this one: it is a disaster from the first frame.

A slanging match among an ensemble cast of seasoned actors, this film is a pathetic spectacle, and does enough to shake your faith in the medium for a while.

For the record, though, it talks of a microscopic minority of Anglo-Indians, the guys who profess Christianity, speak English, live in the barracks of Kolkata and are as much Indian as anybody else. They are faced with threats of eviction as the forces of development threaten to usurp tradition. There are a handful of families, ranging from middle to lower middle class, earning their livelihood selling pastries, wines, antiques and the like. Each family has a problem of space. Each family has a dream to grow yet is unable to let go of the place. Interesting? Yes, as an idea Dutt’s film scores full marks. It is in the implementation that it falls flat.

A film with melancholy as an enduring feeling needed a gentler handling. Muted tones are there all right; what is missing is a soul. No story involves the viewer: almost every sub-plot is a reiteration of age-old stereotypes about the community. And where a word was called for, the director packs in a dozen. Where a whisper would have sufficed, he gives us a scream.

Really, though almost all the cast members scream their lungs out, Lilette Dubey as a woman who wants to shift to London is easily the worst culprit. She shouts and slaps her younger son. She out-shouts the neighbourhood woman, Neha Dubey, accused of using her son. She out-shouts Peter the Cheater: Victor Banerji in a role he did in a moment of amnesia. All this flaring tempers and sharp tongue business is an insult to the community it claims to give a voice to. Everybody here speaks at the top of his voice, leaving you longing for some moments of silence, some stillness, when the gravity of the challenge ahead of them can strike you. Sobriety was the need of the hour. It is not there even for a moment.

Since the film is in English, and talks of Anglo-Indians, Dutt tends to take that as a licence to talk of wine, to use frequent four-letter words — many of which are, thankfully, blipped — and even show nudity when completely uncalled for. If intimate sequences involving Moon Moon Sen are crude, the ones involving Clayton Rogers are absolutely forced.

A little suggestive gesture would have better conveyed the passion than slipped undergarments.

Really, but this story of a woman who wants to go to London to escape the sadness of life in Kolkata, another who is a victim of marital violence, yet another who runs away from her man to find fulfilment elsewhere, is just so much of sameness. No pace in story-telling, no punch in dialogue, and, despite Usha Uthup’s appearance, a forgettable music score.

Though it has been screened at about a dozen film festivals across the world, the film was waiting for a commercial release for more than a couple of years. The reason is there for all to see. Anyone for “Bow Barracks Forever!”? Take my word for it: never!

THE HOST

(At PVR Saket and other Delhi theatres)

The film’s posters declare, “From ‘Jaws’ via ‘Jurassic Park’.” They remind you that the special effects are by the man who gave us “Superman Returns”, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Turns out the film needs all the recommendations possible, and many a reference point.

Reason? Director Bong Joo-ho’s “The Host” is the first South Korean film to have a box office release here. It comes exactly a year after it was released in its home country, going to be an all-time hit. In a world where Hollywood is swamping all, it is refreshing to find an Asian film daring to take on the global juggernaut.

The film is likely to draw parallels with many monster films of the past. But keep those comparisons under wraps. All right, the film is about a monster — and a puky one. He gnaws and gobbles human beings and releases their bones and jaws, but it is the human element that saves the day.

As the film begins, we reconcile ourselves to watching a water monster, each of whose attacks would be deadlier than the preceding one. The monster emerges from the sea, chases and finishes off the human beings, crashes into buildings, drawing screams. Bullets do not hurt him much, great assaults are half-stabs. But just when one is fed up of all the devouring, and an obnoxious feeling threatens to set in, the director saves the day. There is a human angle, a story of a family’s struggle for survival. And the attention shifts to those emotional bonds. Here we have Park Gang-du, a slow-witted man who runs a snack bar with his father. Hyun-seo is Gang-du’s only daughter, a schoolgirl. Nam-joo, an archer of repute, is his sister. As the monster strikes, he runs away from the monster. But his daughter is not so lucky.

After all the problems with the officials who quarantine the family, the director once again takes the track to the girl, who is merely missing, not dead. How the family sets about the rescue operation with all the attendant twists makes this film a rare one: its second half is better than the first.Go for it if you have a stomach for monstrous attacks, even if the monster here is not as fearsome as some of those seen in Hollywood movies.

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