Chandni Bar (2001)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Madhur Bhandarkar

Writers:

Mohan Azaad (dialogue)
Mohan Azaad (screenplay)

Release Date:

28 September 2001 (India)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Mumtaz is a village girl whose family is killed in communal riots. She moves to Mumbai with her uncle...

Plot Keywords:

Gangster | Mother | Rape | Bar Dancer | Female Protagonist

Awards:

7 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

Tabu	...	Mumtaz Ali Ansari / Mumtaz Sawant
Atul Kulkarni	...	Potiya Sawant
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vinay Apte	...	Insp. Gaikwar
Abhay Bhargav	...	Hegde Anna
Ananya Khare	...	Deepa Pandey (bar-girl)
Suhas Palshikar
Rajanna	...	Uma Shankar Pandey
Minakshi Sahani	...	Payal Sawant
Shameem Shaikh	...	Shabnam Sheikh (Shaboo)
Vishal Thakkar	...	Abhay Sawant
Varun Vardhan
Shri Vallabh Vyas	...	Habib
Rajpal Yadav	...	Iqbal Chamdi

Runtime:

Czech Republic:150 min (Karlovy Vary Film Festival)

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color

Certification:

India:A

Good documentation of beer-bar dancers' lives

Thanks to the plethora of movie and music channels, the 'non-commercial' movies of today get enough and sometimes, extra publicity. Hyderabad Blues gave some distributors the confidence to venture out with such movies.

As is obvious from the title of the movie and from the promos on TV channels, the story revolves around the central character, Mumtaz, and her life and times as a "beer-bar" dancer. Rather than just narrating one particular story, the movie tries to document the misery in the lives of such people.

Hats off to Madhur Bhandarkar for boldly doing a movie the way he wanted to do it. The movie hits you on your face even more than Satya (to which it has drawn comparisons), primarily because of the absence of commercial elements (including songs). The movie is raw yet clean.

But the other half of the credit should go to Tabu, who stakes her claim for a second National Award, with a sensitive portrayal. The only problem is that she tends to maintain a kind of laziness in all her roles. The other actors are adequate and play characters which move in and out of Mumtaz's life. Raju Singh's background score is a good supplement to the movie, though it sounds eerie at times.

This movie is strictly not for entertainment. Just go out and get the satisfaction of watching a good movie.