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Chandni Bar
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'Chandni Bar'

By N K Deoshi
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

Written and directed by Madhur Bhandarkar, “Chandni Bar” is a film about the life of a contemporary bar dancer whose self respect (despite her profession) and perseverance makes her go through the rough and tumble of life.

Dusky lass Tabu plays a bar dancer in this R. Mohan production. And despite the absence of any famous Bollywood star opposite Tabu the film has polished (though marginal) performances by the likes of Atul Kulkarni, Suhaas Palsikar and Priti Khare.

Mumtaz

(Tabu), a simple girl raised in a conservative family in the UP comes to Mumbai along with her sole relative Irfaan Mama (Suhaas Palsikar) after her parents are killed in a communal riot in the UP.

In Mumbai Irfan gets Tabu the offer to work as a dancer in the city’s famous beer bar Chandni Bar. Having no other choice to fend for her basic sustenance Mumtaz succumbs to the compulsions of her surroundings and takes to dancing in the bar. Soon she begins to unravel the horrid realities that lie behind the glossy life of an average bar dancer.

Mumtaz is gorgeous and therefore attracts a lot of attention in the bar. Among those who are smitten by her is the underworld henchman Pothya Sawant (Atul Kulkarni). Pothya teaches a lesson or two to Mumtaz’s forever-bickering uncle and marries her. Thus the bar dancer becomes the wife of an underworld don. As time passes Mumtaz settles into a family life with her two children.

The most unexpected moment in Mumtaz’s life comes when Pothya is killed in an encounter with the police (due to the betrayal of his own gang members). Being harassed by her late husband’s foes Mumtaz finds herself on the same crossroads. Once again she has to make the hard choice for the survival of her two children. One choice “Chandni Bar”. But now Mumtaz is a bit too old to dance and therefore takes in as a waitress.

“Chandni Bar” is not a stereotypical high budget Bollywood fare that takes you on a world tour with the stars gamboling around in exotic locales. Rather the film falls under different genre and has a novel storyline. It is a subject that has seldom been touched upon hitherto. Yet there are certain obvious clichés in the plot that the writer could have done away with.

The film rest on Tabu’s acting credentials as she gives another consummate performance slipping under the skin of her character with finesse and subtlety. She plays a bar dancer quite intelligently and brings the element of coquetry in her body language the way she walks, smiles and ogles.

And beneath this mask of forced pretension (as a bar dancer) she convincingly plays a simple and vulnerable woman who at the same time is self-determined and persevering.

And her co-stars Atul Kulkarni, Suhaas and Vinay Apte deliver equally good performances.

Although the film has music by Raju Singh most of the songs in the film (the once that are played in the bar) are the Hindi hits from the Eighties and the Nineties.

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